Grumpy CIO - CEOs in Tech Management

CEOs managing tech staff?

Bloomin' important in a startup.

Most think they are but aren't/ think they can't and don't.

But all can.

Consistency of vision, continuous clear communication...

... let your tech staff know where you're all going.

And then let them solve all the problems in getting there.

Transcript

Hi, I'm Alistair, the grumpy CIO or what am I grumpy about this week? This week, I'm grumpy about CEOs in tech management. Well, actually not all of them, because some of them are completely bloody amazing. And let's talk about some of the good traits about our CEO can help manage tech, which in a startup company, many of us software related is very important, and not be a complete, which many are. So what's one of the points I centrally think is that it's all one, there's all the normal CEO stuff that you think is really hard. So setting the strategy, the vision, the business, the product, and service, where are we going? What's it? What are we going to be delivering on? Storytelling, very important if you're in startup community for like your customers, but also for your investors? What do we do, there's a very important part of being a personal presence for SEO for more than any other online company, like increasingly on social media. But also in person, there's still a time in place for people to impress people as a CEO with the way they speak at events, not like me. But there's also tech leadership and tech management. And the whole one of the first things of being a good CEO for managing tech reserve resources is that all one, you don't go and do your CEO job, and then go and manage your techies. You know, the dirty people in the corner, there are a cost centre don't know quite know what they do. Most of being a good CEO and tech management is just being a good CEO. But actually communicating that with everybody all the time and continuously, because it's part of what you do not communicating it in a one off meeting where you're going to meet the techies. And then you go back and do other things. So in stand ups every day, share what you're doing. Tell them a little bit about leadership versus management. So what am I talking about so many different things, leadership, very simple, where we're going for me, so like, standing on the bridge, Captain Jack, Sparrow, management is how we get there, Captain Jack Sparrow, not necessarily the best person about that. And I think there are many CEOs that go into this category. So they therefore think I can't manage techiques. But actually, they can, because there's some co awesomeness in tech management. First of all consistency. Most See, this is really the most vital point. Most people who work in it, most people who work in it, like solving problems. So let them just don't get in the way be consistent about the problems that need to be solved. And they'll do it for you. Listen to them, when they come and say, Actually, I'm not sure about this very low level feature, or the overall business strategy for the business. They usually quite bright people have thought about it. So listen and find out why. Slower, steady, steady as fast. This is a phrase, we use it shipshape, it's not ours, we have very much adopted it from other people, the fastest way to get something done is to do it properly the first time steadily and make sure you got it right. Be cool under pressure, there'll be so many times as a CEO, where you're getting flack the rest of your staff done, but you've just got to keep your calm and don't make any ridiculous demands. The vast number of people in IT departments suffer from being hit with ridiculous demands, changing demands inconsistency. And it's just incredibly demotivating. And they don't know what problems they're supposed to be solving. And they certainly don't know, they certainly think they can't be solved in the time that's allocated. So don't do that. Set the strategy and get out of the way. There is a lack of excuse in small businesses for this in a large business, you get someone who's a division head, who has a CEO above them, who has a board above them, and they have been told that this major programme of work will be delivered on X date in April next year. And there is no manoeuvring around that. And a startup. We, for some reason, we're almost even worse. It's like because we're a startup, we must cut all corners. Do everything pivot between Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We must just ignore quality and just get delivery done. No, just No, no, just be consistent. Become it's scary. Set the strategy. Get out of the way. Your staff, your IT staff love solving problems. Let them thank you very much. I'm Alistair. I'm the CIO of shipshape.vc. We are the venture capital search engine come to us for free to find investors that get you thank you