4 traits of top leaders in tech

The role of technology leaders has evolved as organizations continue to embrace the competitive advantages tech initiatives can bring to their organizations.

While innovation and problem solving are vitally important skills, there are other traits that consistently appear in top tech leaders that are worth adopting. Here are four attributes I think every successful tech leader should possess:

1. They’re decisive. The speed of business is moving at an incredible rate. While some decisions must be evaluated and assessed carefully, the ability to make decisions quickly is critical to the success of any leader. An example of this might be identifying and hiring top talent for technology initiatives. The best IT leaders are decisive and hire quickly once they identify the right candidate. The key to building a successful team is not missing out on a great candidate because you took too long to make an offer.

2. They empower others. Top technology leaders create an environment of innovation where their teams are empowered to work both independently and within teams to solve critical business problems. While it’s important for leaders to remain current on project deliverables, top leaders seek ways to remove barriers to staff autonomy in order to fuel creativity, accelerate the pace of project implementations and realize the return on investment quickly.

3. They’re highly collaborative. Top tech leaders demonstrate collaboration in action and encourage it within their teams. Tech leaders understand the power in working together to solve critical business problems with technology solutions. They lead by example in working with leaders of other business units to create seamless strategies and expect the same from the members of their team.

4. They recognize team efforts. The most effective tech leaders highlight the good work or extraordinary efforts of their tech teams. They understand their team’s performance is only as good as the people they have on that team, and recognizing those efforts is key to employee engagement and retention over time.

While there’s a broad spectrum of unique qualities in technology leaders today, the above four traits are consistently visible in the most innovative leaders that organizations covet.

As you assess your own management approach, it’s worth exploring how you can adopt these qualities to increase your effectiveness in the role and within your organization and team.