How Valuable Are Tech Leaders in the Market?

The Impossible Question

I had the opportunity to work with many companies in my 15 + years of management consultancy experience in IT, ranging from startups to Fortune 500 industry giants.

Despite being unique in every other way, they all had this profile in each one of them, without fail: Let’s call him Jon. Jon is a brilliant manager/executive/senior engineer with all the right abilities. Excellent knowledge, kind and enthusiastic soul, sharing yet authoritative. If he were to be followed by an automated HR Grading Bot it would tell Jon “You know everything”

Yet he’d been stuck where he was for years. When someone was to be promoted, he was invisible to his managers. He only received his periodic raise of 3-5 percent.

His efforts were not noticed by his peers or his boss. His technical skills were not questioned at all, but they also did not help him to become more influential. He felt there was a secret successful club where he could not come in.

I’m sure you know Jon well. He ought to have been a director or made already loads of cash in a perfect world. Surprise: He’s not. So why is that?

I have my thoughts but for once I have chosen to skip judging and start understanding. I embarked on a quest to shed a light on this mystery.

Why do brilliant IT executives, managers and engineers get stuck in their career?

Almost all those recruiters and HR people with zero experience in IT are the loudest when you search for the answers. Yet, none of their advice worked on Jon.

Hereby I’ve researched a group of Tech Pros. I asked professionals in the middle of their careers critical questions to elicit data in 3 problem domains: