Much is written on general leadership and management skills – but very little is available or has been documented on the additional partnership and communication skills that technologists need to help businesses invest in appropriate technical solutions. Business leaders complain that their IT team “can’t seem to understand the business challenges,” and the IT team in return complains that “the business can’t seem to tell me what they need.” It is the classic communication conflict – both need the other to be clearer, yet in many cases it is as if they're speaking different languages.

There are great CIO’s and CTO’s that have helped close this gap, but very little has been documented about the skills and competencies that helped them do that. Additionally, many technical leaders are promoted into management because of their technical skills and receive little or no training on basic management skills, causing a further gap that must be addressed. While technologists are often seen as not liking or needing “soft skills,” most senior technology leaders have had to develop them through expensive trial and error through their career.

empoweringLEADERS LLC is conducting research to determine the skills and competencies that have lead to success for technology leaders. Your participation will help us gather wisdom from both business and technical leaders on the gaps they have worked through, lessons they have learned, and suggestions for the next generation.

We will also be conducting interviews of the Millennial generation. Demographically, this generation is one of the largest in recent history. And it is a generation that will demand more of its leaders than ever before. is also “blessed” with a much smaller Gen X leadership demographic . That means these Millenials will want to (and we will need to) step up much faster into leadership roles.

The results of our surveys will be compiled into a series of papers that will outline:

• Characteristics of Successful Technical Leadership.
• Skills Gaps and Competencies that need focus.
• Learning approaches and methods for Millennial’s to close the gaps quickest.

Your participation will entitle you to receive copies of the outputs from approximately 50 senior executive and 50 Millennial interviews. Your input will be kept confidential, but we would like the possibility to quote you with name and title as it will help ground the research for the readers. Selected quotes will be taken from the interview transcripts and returned to you for approval. If you are interested in supporting this initiative please email us email us with your name, title, the size of your organization, and your point of view on technology leadership.