{"id":1234,"date":"2017-03-05T20:29:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-05T19:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/2017\/03\/05\/from-c-to-the-c-suite-how-software-engineering-made-me-a-better-executive\/"},"modified":"2017-03-05T20:29:00","modified_gmt":"2017-03-05T19:29:00","slug":"from-c-to-the-c-suite-how-software-engineering-made-me-a-better-executive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/from-c-to-the-c-suite-how-software-engineering-made-me-a-better-executive\/","title":{"rendered":"From C++ to the C-Suite: How Software Engineering Made Me A Better Executive"},"content":{"rendered":"

First Round Review<\/a> \u2022 From C++ to the C-Suite: How Software Engineering Made Me A Better Executive<\/a><\/p>\n

Decompose in order to direct<\/b>
Products, like teams and companies, are systems that address complex problems. \u2026 To tackle his new set of challenges, he leaned on decomposition or factoring, which breaks complex systems into components that are more manageable to process, tackle and address.
\u201cI fell back on the team based software development approach I used as an engineer: You don\u2019t write a new system in a continuous stream. You break it down as deeply as you can into subproblems and solve each one in a sequence. \u2026
Factoring is most successful not only when systems are broken into parts, but when those parts are modular and can be maintained. In the case of leaders, that means each component \u2014 in this case, team leader \u2014 is competent and can act independently. \u2026 \u201cYour first job is to understand the problem holistically. Then, start the factoring. Dig into each facet of the problem by asking your team open-ended questions, such a \u2018Why did we lose this deal?\u2019 or \u2018Why is this customer unhappy?\u2019 because they encourage and generate full, authentic answers. My favorite question to ask was \u2018How do you know \u2014 what data or insight drove your decision?\u2019\u201d he says. \u201c\u2026why it\u2019s critical to push into areas outside your expertise \u2014 not only to return to a learner\u2019s mind, but to identify just how independent your functional leaders must be. \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Randomly test \u2014 and deliver \u2014 via cold calls<\/b>
\u201c\u2026 One tactic that I still employ to this day is their practice of personally calling individual contributors throughout the company.\u201d
\u2026this habit of cold calling was akin to the random testing in software development. \u201cIt\u2019s a common software testing approach where one generates random and independent inputs to test programs. It helps ensure the integrity of the system and starts to weatherproof it for when it\u2019s \u2018out in the wild \u2026 In fact, just communicating within the C-Suite is akin to only testing your app in San Francisco. It narrows your vision. \u2026 People in the trenches have a different and important perspective.\u201d
\u2026
\u201cSomething about a small group, casual chat not only made me more human \u2014 and not just the CEO the board brought on to make changes \u2014 but also served as a precedent that each person could reference. Throughout my seven years with the company, I\u2019d estimate 30% of the team reached out to me proactively or really opened up when we\u2019d meet. That\u2019s a significant portion of a good-sized company.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

When you get promoted, talk half as much and listen twice as much. You\u2019ll connect faster and further with your ears.<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Invest in languages \u2014 become a polyglot.<\/b>
Engineers can debate how many programming languages are needed to be a proficient developer, but knowing more than one has its immediate benefits. As is true with linguists, being aware of at least two languages can show the strengths and limitations of each of the languages by comparison. Even if you don\u2019t fully achieve comprehension, you obtain a greater appreciation of other languages.
\u201cOn my first day in sales, my manager gave me a challenge: Show you know more about the person, than the software,\u201d \u2026
He told me that I needed to communicate in a way that people would walk away saying: \u2018This guy gets it. I want to work with him.\u2019\u201d
\u201c\u2026 If you can adapt your tone, cadence and diction based on people\u2019s expertise and what excites them, you\u2019re on your way\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Open source your strategic roadmap<\/b>
When most leaders talk about alignment, it remains this mysterious \u2014 nearly mythical state \u2014 where teams are synchronized while scaling. They neglect to mention how much autonomy is necessary to make it work. \u201cIf alignment is a process, you can control the foundation more than you can the long-term outcome. \u2026\u00bb<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u00abFor me, the power of that is the abiding philosophy of developing in a collaborative public way. When startups share their roadmaps, they should share all of it. That\u2019s the foundation for alignment: a habit of convening and exchanging information. \u2026\u00bb<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what Sailthru covers in each of its monthly roadmap meetings:
-review of corporate goals and how we’re tracking
-review of new business closed
-review of key renewals
-ad-hoc presentations, such as internal engagement survey data reviews, updates on go-to-market\u2013campaigns or key product enhancements
-shout-outs where anyone can recognize individual contributors for work that they’ve done that’s above-and-beyond
-open floor, where any topic can be raised and discussed<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Victory for a leader is not being a part of every decision.<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Keep lean and learning<\/b>
Mind your management debt. In the same way engineers revisit and refine their codebase, managers should periodically reassess their management. \u2026 You built your team for last year\u2019s business. This is this year\u2019s business.\u201d
Broaden your benchmarking.
\u2026Currently, Lustig serves on two boards: \u2026 One is an Fortune 500, pubic industrial company generating about $7 billion a year and the other is 20-person startup in San Francisco. That pulls my head \u2014 and how I benchmark success \u2014 in two different directions every month.\u201d
Share jobs not just information.
\u2026They started picking off all these little requests that were meaningful to customers, but just quick fixes from a technical point of view. They just needed to see and hear it firsthand.<\/p>\n

Bringing it all together<\/b>
When software engineers make the jump from owning lines of code to business lines, they should lean on their developer\u2019s skill set to help guide the way. First, organizations, like software systems, are complex \u2014 use decomposition or factoring to break them down into manageable, modular units. Randomly test the integrity and health of your system by cold-calling employees. This will help you calibrate your understanding of progress \u2014 roll up your sleeves to help with specific challenges as thanks. Developers should be proficient in at least one dynamic programming language, but are upleveled when they know more \u2014 the same goes with leaders who are \u201cconversant\u201d in all the functional areas in their organization. Open source your roadmap, clean up management debt and broaden how you benchmark your abilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First Round Review \u2022 From C++ to the C-Suite: How Software Engineering Made Me A Better Executive Decompose in order to directProducts, like teams and companies, are systems that address complex problems. \u2026 To tackle his new set of challenges, he leaned on decomposition or factoring, which breaks complex systems into components that are more manageable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,26,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cosillas-empresariales","category-el-critico-como-artista","category-gestion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}