Only a handful of senior managers in the IT industry break through the glass ceiling. They are able to sustain and grow their individual charisma/influence while ensuring they keep climbing the organizational ladder! They are like actors on stage and not like the audience. And amongst these actors, you have stars and among the stars you have the super star! If you are reading this then we bet you’d like to become one!
Do we know what works for them? How do they get to stay on stage whereas most of their peers get relegated to being a part of the audience? Is there a common pattern across these successful leaders? Is there a magic sauce?
Like most “real” things in life, there’s no silver bullet that works for all. However, there are some broad competencies that work for most:
Strategic Orientation: The actors/stars tend to stay ahead of the curve while ensuring that there is alignment with their strategic orientation and their organization’s broad direction. While many senior managers in IT tend to be strategic ( at least in their thinking), the ones on stage take this perspective to spheres beyond business growth and cover other aspects – process, people ( within and outside the company) and life at large!
Sales Mindset: Whether these actors/stars are in delivery or in sales or the corporate functions, they all carry a sales mindset, albeit in varying degrees. Even CFOs of organizations have to sell to a certain extent, even though, they may not agree with the Sales folks!
Operations Mindset: Like the sales mindset, these actors have to exhibit this in varying degrees depending on their current function/role. This is not only delivery’s forte but even Sales/BD folks need to have a good understanding of Operational efficiency and effectiveness. This helps them have a better understanding of execution as well as running their shops better
Team Builders: While most senior managers in IT are good at this, the critical differentiator is that unlike them the actors/stars ensure that they make themselves redundant in their current role. They are not afraid of their direct reports taking up their role/tasks as it gives them bandwidth to work on other aspects that’ll be important for the next role! We all know that in today’s mature IT organizations and at senior levels, you don’t get promoted for potential but only if you have already demonstrated your capability of operating at the next level!
Financial Acumen: Most senior managers in the IT industry have a good understanding of margins. However, their financial acumen tends to stop there. They don’t venture beyond this basic understanding and cover other important areas like understanding the importance of free cash flow, investments, M&As, various levers on the revenue and cost side that can help predictable, sustainable and profitable growth for their portfolios and or their companies.
Content & Thought Leadership: This is an area that is much talked about but is hardly practised. While all managers understand the importance of this competency, they don’t exhibit this trait in their day to day work. Most of the times they blame it on a lack of bandwidth, which may or may not be true. However, at the end of the day, lack of content & thought leadership is one of the big dampeners esp. for the people managers or the pure play hunters/farmers on the sales side and keeps them staring at the glass ceiling.
Entrepreneurial Mindset: Most senior managers in the IT world love status quo. Achieving business as usual ( BAU) for their accounts/projects is something that they aspire for and achieve it most of the time. This is a key barometer of success. While BAU is important, if taken too seriously can kill the spirit of creating new offerings, new solutions or new businesses altogether. And, without this mindset, companies tend to stagnate and run the risk of competition or a start-up pulling the rug from under their feet! The actors/stars understand the criticality of this trait and demonstrate their savviness on this in ample measure, always going out of their comfort zone without fearing failure! Many senior managers who hit the glass ceiling keep contemplating of starting on their own – they’d be better off in testing the waters, first within their companies before jumping into the deep! They get a chance to practise without any/much risks, so one wonders and fails to understand as to why they shy away from this crucial competency.
As senior managers/leaders in the IT industry, you probably are aware of most of these competencies/asks. And, a thought may be running in your mind – “knowing is one thing, but doing is another esp. being able to demonstrate proficiency in all the competencies at once”. However, before we rush into the “How”, it is always good to be clear on the “What” as a miss here can mean lost time and maybe lost opportunities which may not be reversible!
