Visionary and growth-orientated tech leaders are in demand like never before. We know the future (and present, in fact) is tech lead, but those who are leading the technology revolution are a crucial part of the equation.
According to a recent McKinsey survey, the pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital technologies across the globe by at least several years, causing businesses to not only migrate to the cloud but also to adopt distributed work models and digitise their offerings.
The accelerated digitalisation has created a booming market for technology skills, and there’s no denying there’s a selective talent shortage, making tech leaders with the necessary skills increasingly hot property. In fact, a 2022 Digital Talent Insight report from international consultant Korn Ferry estimates a tech talent shortfall of 47 million people in the APAC region by 2030.
Furthermore, a new survey from Gartner, Inc revealed IT executives see the talent shortage as the most significant adoption barrier to 64 per cent of emerging technologies, compared with just 4 per cent in 2020. A lack of talent availability was cited far more often than other barriers this year, such as implementation cost (29 per cent) or security risk (seven per cent).
The Shifting Role of Techies
Up until recently, IT managers were typically responsible for looking after their companies’ technological infrastructures. These days, companies around the world are faced with fierce competition while reckoning with an increased rate of change – and this has fundamentally shifted the role of tech leaders.
Modern tech leaders have now been tasked with ramping up business transformation, combining tech adoption with business strategy, while all the while leading their enterprises through business disruptions and digital transformations. A 2021 study by Genpact found that a whopping 98 per cent of CIOs see their roles changing even further in the next two years, predicting more responsibility thrust upon them than ever before.
So you can see why demand for growth-orientated technology leaders is sizzling. A great tech leader is not only a tech-translator, but also a change-agent, balanced, resilient, future-minded and a visionary – all of which are necessary skills to grow a business in any contemporary industry.
Tech Vanguards Command Top Dollar
There’s more good news for tech vanguards, with The Australian Financial Review recently reporting that the cost of hiring skilled software developers, security specialists and data experts had gone up by about 30 per cent in just 12 months. This is partly due to extended Covid lockdowns over the past two years, which has left even the biggest companies fighting over tech talent. As a result, Australian tech workers are fielding counteroffers of up to 30 per cent, while roles in tech are seeing pay rises of around 15 per cent per cent.
The Top 4 Qualities of a Transformative Tech Leader
Really, there’s never been a better time to get into technology management. Think you have what it takes to be a transformative tech leader who is in serious demand and can command top dollar? Here are the top 4 qualities of a transformative tech leader.
- Be future-focused
In order to be a growth-orientated and transformative tech leader, you need to be future-focused. And, to be future-focused, you need to constantly be curious about the world and keep learning. Constantly upskilling and improving yourself, like studying for a masters for example, is an excellent way to position yourself as a transformative technology leader and also cement yourself as someone who is growth-orientated. The world of tech is constantly evolving, so you need to be evolving with it.
- Master the art of communication
The common trope of a tech-worker is someone who is awkward and severely lacks communication skills. Now, whether this trope is true or not, the reality is to be a transformative tech leader you need to be able to master the art of communication. Being a good communicator is one of the most sought-after soft skills in today’s IT market. With projects becoming more complex, teams becoming more diverse and more people working remotely than ever before, good communication is essential. The development process in any business or industry needs a strong leader that brings up issues, fosters communication between teams and bridges any gaps.
- Take risks
Risk takers are reward reapers. You don’t need to wait until a problem arises to make a change – rather you need to be someone who’s willing to take risks by bringing in new methods, different techniques and divergent tools – ahead of everyone else. To be an innovative and growth-oriented leader, an appetite for risk never goes amiss, especially when it comes to the fast-paced world of tech and digitisation.
- Embrace change
Finally, a transformative tech leader needs to be comfortable with and embrace change. The world is moving at lightning speed and you need the skills to be able to quickly adapt to these changes, and also be able to encourage your team members to do the same. It seems like every day there’s a new development in the business and tech world, and it’s imperative as a tech leader that you can get across these changes and implement them into the company swiftly and with as minimal disruption as possible.
Every day the future of business is drawing closer, and the most successful businesses will have a formidable tech leader at the helm who’s able to harness the collective power of technology, people and performance to optimise and improve processes across the business, leading to sustainable and measurable growth.
