Leda Writes for Fintech Futures: CTOs in shining armour

Every Thursday, Leda Glyptis, CEO of 11:FS Foundry creates #LedaWrites. This week she reflects on CTOs and why the best ones are like knights in shining armour.

I was in a mentoring session a few weeks ago and one of my mentees asked the million dollar question.

What makes for a good bank CTO. At first the question felt unanswerable. Ineffable.

But then I blurted out my own truth. For what else is there?

We are in the transformation business.

It’s about humans.

It’s about culture.

It’s about process.

But it has to start with systems.

And it sort of has to stay with systems because, if it doesn’t get delivered through systems it won’t go far. So in our world a good CTO is everything.

We are talking knight in shining armour, redeemer, protector, visionary, poet, dreamer, defender, fairytale sage. All at the same time, but not all the time, because sometimes all the magic boils down to is sitting back and letting you do, poised to save you if you don’t.

Corporate troublemakers, dreamers and challengers rely on this CTO

When setting about to change an organisation, the way people think and work and the way entire societies organise money, what does the person who sits at the front of the effort need to have and do?

Vision. Gumption. And humility.

Because the combination of the three makes one thoughtful, ambitious and effective. But how many bank CTOs can you say that about? Heck. How many folks can you say that about?

And yet. They exist.

Corporate troublemakers, dreamers and challengers rely on this CTO. I know this for a fact. I used to rely on this CTO in my banking days. I still do.

The corporate troublemaker is a certain personality type or they wouldn’t be involved with change work. But I don’t think our personalities determine success or failure. I think they determine if we are drawn to this work or not.

Once in, the things that make a difference are a leader that is engaged, willing and determined to be involved when needed, a shield when required, and a benevolent absence when things go well.

Without that you flail and falter. Without that, the blow will come that will kill you, without a doubt. The hard day you can’t cope with will come, without that leader.

Read the whole story at Fintech Futures.