Success, Leadership and Teams

You must have the ability to avoid getting stuck in time. You have to be able to envision the possibility of the way things could be. The key to success is a willingness to change; otherwise, you are just reinventing the old wheel. On the other hand, you must have grounding in the principles of your organization - you have to know what makes your business successful, and you have to reinforce those things. You have the freedom to do things differently, but know that what you do differently should be aligned with the organization's values. If you can't align with the organization, either you will tear it down, or it will resist the change.

To be a leader, you have to make the right analysis and fight for the right thing. Leaders in technology understand how something could be different; then they work to make it so. Sometimes it just takes persistence to get things done. In the end, it is the ability to say, "Let's make this place better," that creates the change. Then, if your track record is good, people will believe you the next time around.

I think I am successful because successful people surround me. I have the opportunity to represent thousands of developers at PeopleSoft. It's all about us working together.

To be successful, you need good communication skills, so you can articulate your ideas. You have to be a sharp listener to pick up the nuggets of information you get from the people around you.

It is also important how you relate to and seek out diverse opinions. Dysfunctional organizations often have a running feud between the sales and product staff. As CTO, you have to bridge these groups by putting yourself in sales' shoes to understand what they are trying to do and how they hope to overcome obstacles. You have to ask yourself what the salespeople are complaining about. Is it a product deficiency, or is it that they do not understand how to position the value of what you are offering? What does the sales force see on the front lines that your developers do not see? You have to have the ability to transcend your own job role to understand someone else's point of view. You have to break down these barriers to be effective.

I think you need to understand enough technology to appreciate the different pieces and how they all work together, and then synthesize them to the essence of what this new technology can give you. You have to understand what it has now and what it had before. Then you have to have the ability to apply that toward your business. That leads then to convincing and working with other people to affect change. When you combine all of those things, I think you will be successful.