Leadership, Technology, and Innovation

In the high-technology world, organizations innovate or die. Standing still is not an option. Too often, team leaders are selected for their technical expertise; the best contributor gets selected to lead. Unfortunately, this often leads to disaster. Leadership requires a particular set of soft skills, and, too often, companies promote individuals to leadership positions without providing them the opportunity to acquire leadership skills. Recent research indicates that while technical expertise is necessary, it is not sufficient. Leading for success and innovation requires skills not often included within STEM curricula. Here we will define what leadership is; why it is needed; the connection to innovation; and how leadership is developed and applied. In particular, we will discuss the special challenges, inevitable in the tech leader’s career, that arise when he or she is called upon to lead teams comprised of high-performance individuals whose technical skills exceed one’s own.

Speaker: Gene Hudson, consultant