The most tiresome challenges for Tech Leaders

Finding real professionals on the market

If you develop your own business or are responsible for a product, you want to surround yourself with professionals. You need people who are highly skilled in what they do and, ideally, experienced. However, finding them is not a simple task, given the current market realities.

I will give you a simple example. If you've ever been looking for developers, you certainly know how time-consuming and difficult this process is. At Codest, one of our main programming languages is Ruby and finding a specialist may take many weeks. In Poland (where we are headquartered), this problem is not as big as in other countries. For example, Lithuanian or Spanish companies outsource software development processes because finding an effective Ruby developer on their markets is almost impossible.

In the era of dynamic technological development, if you want to be better than your competitors, you must have a good team of professionals. Only then will your work as a Tech Leader become much simpler and more effective. However, as you can see, it is still not an easy job...

A multitasking manager

Many Tech Leaders must function like androids, literally! Involvement in many projects, cooperation with various departments, constant flow of new information, changing visions and strategies - these are very common circumstances for a modern Tech Leader to quickly adapt to. The person must face new challenges and - most importantly - manage them with agility.

Given the above, it is not enough to have specialized knowledge as soft skills are equally important. Thanks to them, multitasking becomes less onerous. If you master the skill of dealing with an excessive number of duties and divided attention, you will quickly notice that your work is simply more effective and generates better results.

Delivering goals within pre-established limits

Targets and KPIs are sets of numbers that can haunt any Tech Leader. It happens especially when reaching those goals depends on other factors that may disturb the whole process (e.g., product development). It may be hard to achieve goals when the Tech Leader does not have enough resources or knowledgeable employees. It is a difficult topic directly related to risk management skills. The product must be delivered on time, so you must both stick to the imposed limitations and work under pressure.

Maintaining agility while growing rapidly

Building and developing technology-based products work great when you apply the Agile approach. If your company is growing dynamically and your team is expanding, there is a risk of disrupting processes in the entire Agile-based organization. This, consequently, may lead to losses in efficiency, gaps in communications as well as failure in achieving the set goals.

Finding the synergy between business needs and product capabilities

The role of a Tech Leader is often associated with balancing between a technical team (for example, composed of developers) and a highly focused business team responsible for the company's development. Being able to find your feet in this situation becomes a serious challenge. Why? Most importantly, those responsible for the company's development and business scaling often overlook the possibilities of technological product development in the whole process. So, an important role is played by the Tech Leader, who balances the expectations of both parties, understands their needs and helps in implementing a strategy that will benefit them both.

Motivation, efficient management, increased team productivity

The role of a Tech Leader also entails stimulating the development of your team with regard to factors such as efficient management, tasks delegation, motivation, appreciation or increased productivity. A Tech Leader must find common ground with his team and become a real leader, not in name only. You must be a leader on a daily basis to be sure that you are able to achieve even better results with your team.

Summary

Being a Tech Leader generates a lot of challenges every day. There are more of them than just those described in this article. It may be impossible to find a recipe for making all your challenges and problems disappear in an instant. That is why I have just one final piece of advice for you - draw conclusions, analyze, observe, constantly develop your competencies (including soft skills). If you stick to this path, I am sure that you will become a more effective manager from day 1.

Read more:

- The ugly truth about software development process

- How to improve Vue.js apps? Some practical tips

- 10 reasons why cooperating with a software house can be profitable