CTO mentor: Engineers’ Expectation vs. Business Reality

When searching for a mentor, engineers with a CTO job title look at the wrong things in a mentor’s background & abilities.

Unfortunately this usually means that they chose the wrong person.

Their mentor doesn’t help them transition to a true CTO mentality.

They sadly become bitter when the business (usually by years 3–5 in the CTO role!) moves them sideways or replaces them, because a CTO mentor is not about teaching you MORE technical skills.

A CTO mentor is about helping you become a business focused, strategic CTO.

What some engineers think a good CTO mentor has:

✓ A GitHub portfolio so they can browse through their technical projects

✓ 10 years experience in some obscure piece of technology

✓ Has had the CTO job title (without looking at their business achievements as CTO.)

The Business Reality of a great CTO mentor:

✓ Has worked with hundreds of CTOs across industries and growth stages, and can help them prevent issues before they happen.

✓ Has the ability and empathy to help an engineer turned CTO shift their mindset: from technical hyper-focus to business acumen.

✓ Goes down in the trenches with the mentee CTO and gives them practical and implementable action plans, helps them solve unknown-unkowns.

#reengineeringleadership #cto #leadership