Welcome to Episode 4 of Tech Leaders’ Intel! This week we’re chatting to David Maidment, an experienced start-up CTO and Head of Engineering, with a great track record of spearheading digital transformation. Today, he talks to us about his unconventional route into his role, which began in a humble shoe shop. After touching on routes into technology, we turn to the journey from programming to management, the importance of making your team self-sufficient while giving them the right amount of support and being an effective salesperson for your trade.

What stands out is the need to be able to explain tech in layman’s terms at all stages of the journey and be willing to learn and adapt. Management, says David, is an entirely different ballgame to being an engineer. There should, however, be paths of progression in both fields: not all engineers want to be managers, but everyone needs the opportunity to grow regardless. Most importantly, the key is to focus on your journey so you’re always learning: don’t aim for a title just for the sake of it.

How do you know if you’ve done a good job as a leader? For David it means creating or overseeing processes that can run on their own. A manager should be able to go away for a few weeks and not have to deal with anything greater than answering emails. Ultimately, the route into tech, and subsequently management, is all about curiosity and communication: solving problems with technology to maximise efficiency and learning to convey why you’ve done so to stakeholders.

If you like what you hear, connect with David on LinkedIn or visit his website.