Tech Exec Growth Curves
Continuing on the thread of local maxima in careers, I realized that people don’t consider their growth in relation to the organization around them. Growth is relative. You might be constantly growing and learning, but if you’re falling behind and not adapting as fast as the company needs you to—you’re not doing well enough. Are you drowning, cruising, outgrown, or doing just right?
Often the easiest scenario to realize for everyone except the leader in question. People can tell that the VPE is no longer on top of things like before. Perhaps they even see that you’re slowing things down instead of acting as a catalyst. Unfortunately, this is also the harshest type of feedback which means you’re unlikely to hear about it from those reporting to you or your peers. If you have a capable boss, you might hear the truth during reviews or one-on-one meetings. That’s great, but admittedly rarer than I’d like to admit.
I’ve lost count of the number of times CEOs realized this was the case and approached me for coaching without having the guts or decency to tell their CTO what was going on. Even worse, sometimes they just decide it’s a lost cause and start working toward replacing their tech leader, without ever having given any feedback (and, along with it, an actual chance of improving).
