Leadership

Personal integrity and a strong ethical attitude, combined with boundless enthusiasm, great business savvy, a strong understanding of finance, an unyielding respect for people, a love of technology, and a passion for free markets, create the most interesting leaders as CTOs. In my experience at the "C" level of an organization, especially around technology decisions, most decisions to go forward rely on a personal trust situation. Basically, the CEO, the leadership team, and the board need to know that you will stand with them and that you have the integrity to make your recommendation succeed. Once that level of comfort can be established, everything else seems to distribute very naturally in the organization. Leadership is about "gut checks."

I believe one of the key elements around leadership for the CTO is to be able to understand the business, be compassionate about the people, understand the financials of the organization, and understand the company's past and its drivers for the future - then put himself or herself in the same line as an executive partner of the company. CTOs should never be technology geeks. They should always be thinkers on behalf of the business, with a technology bias. If they represent themselves as a technology geek, they will never be allowed to have the gut check with the C level individuals; it's just not permitted. But if they are business partners, and they understand the working and value propositions of the business, then they will be invited to participate at the most senior levels.