Technical acumen is an integral part of what makes a coder a good leader. People with technical acumen are developers, entrepreneurs, and leaders who make lifelong learning a priority. They’re never satisfied with the status quo and have a strong desire to collaborate and make knowledge sharing a priority.
Described by David Letterman as the “Queen of Software”, Rear Admiral Dr. Grace Murray Hopper pioneered the development of accessible computer programming languages written in English. Established wisdom was that computers didn’t understand English and it was a hard-fought battle to get her ideas accepted. Through her perseverance, she developed COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language), an English-like computer programming language that is the standard in business and finance systems. She is memorialized every year at Grace Hopper Conference, connecting women in computing and technology.
After learning her first programming language at an early age, Wolfe was interested in democratizing the way people communicate and learn. She wanted to find a way to make publishing and writing accessible to everyone. She cofounded Ghost, an open-source publishing platform that now boasts thousands of blogs. Wolfe describe that Ghost’s vision isn’t, “to make a million dollars, we’re not here to implement an exit strategy. We’re here to build something and give it to the world.”
Prior to joining Cisco as an engineering executive, Wee started out as a researcher for Hewlett-Packard. At Cisco, she runs an online community for developers and network engineers with 80,000 active members, providing support as well as maintaining a high-standard of acumen. In an interview, Wee emphasized, “As Cisco shifts to a software and services company, we realize that developers give Cisco the ability to scale and help create value that our customers consume.”
Technical acumen is about being user and product-obsessed. These leaders innovate more because they share and iterate based on their learnings. They may contribute to open-source projects, start side projects, and share learnings with their peers
Developers with technical acumen are always curious and learning to grow their skill sets. They adapt to the economy because of this trait. Continuing education, personal development, and self-sustainability are all sought after by lifelong learners.
With technical acumen, a leader is able to scale their work to suit their project, growing a business to meet the needs of the community and customer base.
Arrogance has no place in technical acumen. They understand that software engineering is part development and part people.
Those with technical acumen are always sharing their knowledge. They don’t view their skills and knowledge as a protected commodity with which they can exert authority, power, or control.
Leaders with technical acumen never stop learning or rest on their laurels. They seek continuing education, sucking the marrow out of life, and never resting when there are more skills to be gained.
There are a countless number of resources available to help you build your technical skills including podcasts, technical books and online tutorials. Many of these resources are free too. The great thing about these resources is that you can choose based on your current skill level.
The open source community provides a great opportunity for aspiring programmers to distinguish themselves. By contributing to an open source project, developers can improve their skills and get support from like-minded people.
Good programmers know how to wrap their heads around a complex problem and produce efficient code to solve it. Each programming language has its own strengths and weaknesses. The more languages you learn, the bigger the knowledge base you will have, and the more likely you will be able to solve problems faster and more efficiently.
Pair programming enables engineers to leverage shared knowledge of the codebase and have better discipline, communication, and performance. Pair programming can be an excellent way for programmers to learn rapidly from more senior developers. Pair programming provides you with a full immersion through actively participating in the process.
Learning something new is important, but sharing that knowledge makes what you’ve learned actionable and meaningful. Make it a habit to always share new things that you learn. This will help you retain knowledge and hear people’s ideas on the same topic.
Some of the most popular products and companies we know, including Twitter, Gmail and Trello, started as a side project. There are numerous benefits to starting a side project including the opportunity to learn new skills, boost mental health by providing an escape from work, and can boost work performance by increasing creativity and productivity.
