8.2.22 Today’s Insights from Harvard Business Review: Coding Isn’t a Necessary Leadership Skill, but Digital Literacy Is
Dear Students,
While you may hear a lot about the increasing role of technology in business, some of you may be considering a non-technical career direction within HR, Marketing, Operations or another non-business focused function. As a result, you may be concerned that you’ll “fall behind” when seeking a leadership role in a major global corporation.
The article below, however, argues differently: “Most leaders don’t need to learn to code. Instead, they need to learn how to work with people who code. This means becoming a digital collaborator and learning how to work with developers, data scientists, user experience designers, and product managers.” (Underlining mine)
What this means for “non-techies” is that, once again, “power skills” are key to your success. Learning how to communicate effectively and collaborate with technical professionals are more important than mastering Python, SQL and R, if these are not your strength.
The author of this article, the founder of Tech for Non-Techies (https://wearetechwomen.com/inspirational-woman-sophia-matveeva-founder-tech-for-non-techies/#:~:text=Sophia%20Matveeva%20is%20the%20founder,Tech%20for%20Non%2DTechies%20podcast.) , maintains that: “The best and most efficient use of a leader’s time is to become a digital collaborator by learning how to get a holistic view of how a software product gets made and who does what on a tech team.”
We encourage those of you seeking non-technical careers to let go of any doubt surrounding your coding skills and to instead focus on digital literacy and digital collaboration. You will be more effective in your non-technical role as a result.