Here is the complete transcript of the podcast
Today’s podcast episode is for you, if you are an individual contributor, you are in tech or in it. But you have a desire to grow and start leading your organization at the highest level. If that’s who you are, and that is what you have in your mind, then today’s podcast episode is for you. Welcome back to Success Srini. Happy Wednesday morning to you. It’s hump day. So I’m looking forward to this weekend. A lot of things happening this weekend. Okay.
Now, there are multiple questions not in a specific question. But there are multiple questions within the space and how do I grow within? Within the corporate structure? How do I send a ladder, and I’ve been in an identical role for a very long time, I want to really grow up, take on more and make myself more relevant. And all that. So there have been questions over time. So I thought it makes sense, to come back and revisit all those questions. So I’m just taking some time out today. And answering this question, kind of makes it more contextual. So that if you are in that situation, you can relate to this. You’re an engineer, you are an individual contributor, and you want to grow up the ladder and go to the highest position that’s available to you. It could be CIO, the CTO, whatever the C-level position is, or the CEO, and on maybe CEO doesn’t matter. So you get to the highest position. So that’s the discussion here. So here’s what I’ve seen. I’ve seen engineers, with whom I’ve worked a lot, and I have been an engineer myself, there are certain business functions that internationals understand or choose not to, or somehow do not give enough time, recording engineering in itself consumes a lot of brainpower takes away a lot of brain space, and tools. And when you’re engaged in designing solutions, or solving problems, at the lowest level, it’s very difficult to take time and space and bring something new when, but unless you don’t bring the new things in, it’s very difficult to grow. So that’s also the truth. So the question here is, how do I grow? So keeping growth in mind? Let’s answer this, again, I’m not saying one is better than the other. I’m just staying with the context of this question. So what are the things that you have to learn or do to get to that highest position? So there are two things that are proven to always take an individual to the highest level, an individual decides that they go inward inside of them, and make themselves bigger. So going inside means really understanding what are the things that you do not have that you need to have as an individual so that you can grow and you can grow big. That’s the first one. The second one is, what can you do to go into the business and see what the business doesn’t have? Or has, what he’s not using, and kind of glued all that together, so that the business can grow.
So there is individual growth, and there is business growth, as an individual, you cannot grow and go up the ladder, without you taking the business along with you. Simple, a business cannot grow, you cannot grow. If you grow businesses and grow, then you will be unhappy. It’s going to be temporary, and short-lived, and it is not much you can do about it. It’s better to take the business with you, but better to qualify for the tool rather than justify yourself for that role. Or demand the rolling, get it. So let’s talk about these two things, business growth and as well as personal growth, let’s start with business growth. So what do you need to do? What do you need to bring in? Well, you got to understand finance, how money works, how to budget, how to expense, how to operate, the numbers, the financial numbers, clearly. And then comes operations. You know, how to get things done, how to plan things, how to understand movable resources, immovable resources, silent resources, active resources, I mean, just the resource management itself is so big, there’s so much to it, that means systems process all that so that and nothing to do with technology yet but these are every organization has its own systems and processes, how they operate, how they interoperate, and how they all add up to the highest level, all that that level of understanding has to come in that involves time and all that.
Then obviously see As marketing, that function is sometimes alien to engineers. But that has to be understood because you’re going up the ladder. And every position on the top is a salesperson anyway. So finance, operations, sales, marketing, all these things have to be understood, learned, ideally learned, but understood, experienced. But within the context of tech, how can technology be used to leverage this because you are going up it CTO CIO ladder? So you got to keep technology as the dominant leader in all these understandings, and you bring them together, and glue them together in your mind. So that you know that anything and everything that you’re doing within the space is helping the business grow. So this is the first track the second practice is again, personal crack, which are you going inward? And finding out what can you do to yourself so that you can become bigger, and grow as an individual. And for that communication? You know, How good can you communicate how well you can articulate how deep can you present in all that? So communication is important. Secondly, team building, hiring and recruiting, and retaining incredible people who can not only support you but support each other. And forward, your agenda is very important. And once you have them there, how do you manage them? So management comes in. So you are communicating the team building you’re managing. But there has to be an element that has to glue all these three things together, which is leadership.
So finance, operations, business, sales, sales, and marketing, all that. Technology is gluing it, communication, team building management, and leadership are gluing it. So one is people’s performance. The other is business performance. When you bring these two things together, then you automatically just, you’ll be pushed up simply. You’ll be given those roles, you’ll be recognized at that highest level. Now, the question becomes how long does it take to do this? And how much do you have to give up? To get this? I don’t know the answer to that question. Sometimes people do it very, very quickly, sometimes. Depending on which path you take some people to take the educational path to get all these three things, all these things in, they want to go take go to a training and learn business growth, want to go to a training and learn leadership? Yes, you can. But again, you got to apply what you learn takes time. The key is that you know, you’re running a marathon and you know that you have to run 26 Odd miles. Question is, will you run it in three hours? Or will you take 30 hours to run this? Totally up to you, but you know, the path is there, you know, which, you know which way you have to go? Simple. So, do you need to do more than this? And then I have an overly simplified this. There could be that I have oversimplified this. And there could be more to that. This obviously can add a lot of things to this. But the point is, these are the things and you get the idea.
That’s the point. Okay, so I want to stop here. I think I got everything that I had on my mind. Across you go have a wonderful Wednesday. I’ll catch up with you. Tomorrow, right here. Keep listening.