At my previous firm I used to hang out a lot with the 20 something techie kids. Our firm had made its name by providing e-solutions for the agricultural sector. These kids were the miracle workers. However the king of the jungle was their boss, the CTO. Now in his 40s he was the ‘go to man’ for every problem. The surprising fact was that the CTO did not have a degree in computer science. What he did have was an acute understanding of the business and an in-depth knowledge of the scope of information technology. What made him so successful as a leader was his business acumen.

Business acumen is the understanding of the business situation/client needs and dealing with it in such a manner that it provides the best possible results. It is especially important for leaders to possess ‘business acumen’ in the business of technology. Understanding the requirements of the clients helps leaders focus on meeting it with speed and accuracy and with the available resources. Business acumen comes through years of experience and by constantly updating your knowledge and seeing the whole picture.

There is no doubt anymore that there is a strong co-relation between learning and sustained employment. According to the 2012 Learning Survey by Niace, staff who undertake learning activities are more able to adapt to the changing requirements of an organization and gain a competitive edge in the job market. In the rapidly progressing field of computer technology the question of what should one learn to stay relevant is a very complex one.

Another interesting pattern that I observed while hanging out with these tech kids was that all programmers who had been on the job for more than 2 years had updated their coding skills at least once. Web developers who used JavaScript or PHP in 2013 were now using HTML5 with CSS. App developers who worked with iOS were now using SWIFT instead of Objective C. While every developer had updated his/her skills in the 2 years, the learning pattern had mostly been lateral in nature.

The future of jobs in computer technology lies in creating a niche for yourself and super specializing in it. Having understood this it becomes necessary to choose the learning form most appropriate to you.

However to become a leader at your workplace you must be able to see how your technical expertise fit into the bigger picture. Marrying business understanding with technical expertise is what makes a leader in the ever-growing field of technology.

Author: Ela Bodas