Many professionals rise to leadership roles on the strength of their technical expertise, qualifications, and problem-solving skills. These leaders are often the backbone of their organisations, known for their:
- Deep technical capability
- Strong problem-solving skills
- Objective decision-making
- Focused execution
- Attention to risk management
- Mentoring and talent development
Their ability to analyse issues from a technical perspective and drive effective solutions is invaluable. However, this same focus can become a limitation when they step into broader organisational leadership roles.
The Challenge: From Technical Expert to Enterprise Leader
Technical leaders often view their business through the lens of their own domain.
While this ensures rigour in their area, it can limit their ability to see the bigger picture, collaborate across disciplines, and make strategic decisions that benefit the entire organisation.
In our coaching practice, we frequently meet technical leaders who recognise this gap. They excel in their field but struggle to contribute fully as members of a leadership team. The transition from technical expert to enterprise leader is rarely straightforward.
Sam and Ali
Sam was a highly skilled marketing expert promoted to the leadership team. While their marketing insights were always valued, they often stayed silent in discussions outside their expertise. In coaching, they admitted feeling unqualified to speak on topics they didn’t fully understand and feared being seen as incapable. Sam was used to having the answers but hadn’t yet developed the confidence to navigate ambiguity or the curiosity to explore unfamiliar territory.
Ali, a talented engineer, knew that they needed to broaden their skillset as a new leader. Yet they clung to their engineering specialism, contributing little outside their domain. Coaching revealed their reluctance stemmed from fear – if they let go of their technical identity, they worried they’d lose their value to the organisation.
Both Sam and Ali illustrate a common theme: technical leaders often need to shift their mindset. The skills that earned them their roles are not the same as those required to succeed as organisational leaders.
What Holds Technical Leaders Back?
When we review our experiences of working with technical leaders struggling to effectively make the transition to enterprise leaders, we typically see one or more of the following:
- Over-reliance on technical expertise: Many technical leaders feel most comfortable contributing within their domain, which can limit their impact on broader team goals
- Fear of vulnerability: Admitting gaps in knowledge or asking questions outside their expertise can feel risky, but it’s essential for growth
- Difficulty with ambiguity: Technical roles often provide clear problems and solutions, while organisational leadership requires navigating uncertainty and complexity.
- Reluctance to let go: Holding tightly to a technical identity can prevent leaders from embracing new ways to add value
- Valuing their expertise above others: All members of the leadership team have expertise and capability that we need to respect and integrate with our own to build greater insights and capability
- Expectation of immediate results: When practicing new mindsets and behaviours it is important to understand that success often takes practice and time
Each of these limits the ability of the technical leader to make an effective transition to enterprise leader and therefore inhibits their ability to add full value in their new role.
Making the transition requires focused effort and a clear understanding of the role of enterprise leadership, which has the following core capabilities:
- Strategic, Systemic Thinking: Sees the big picture and understands how decisions in one area impact the whole
- Balancing Performance and Transformation: Delivers results now while building for the future
- Navigating Complexity and Ambiguity: Makes decisions confidently, even when information is incomplete
- Building Cross-Functional Alignment: Breaks down silos and fosters collaboration across teams
- Leading with Empathy and Influence: Inspires trust, models values, and leads through relationships
This description of enterprise leadership illustrates a very different mindset and focus from that of a technical leader thus underlining the need to purposefully and intentionally manage a transition process.
Final Thoughts
In my experience, coaching leaders – those who make the leap from technical or functional expert to enterprise leader – often describe it as both challenging and deeply rewarding. It requires letting go of old habits, embracing new perspectives, and learning to lead through influence rather than authority.
Ready to Step Up?
If you’re aspiring to enterprise leadership, here are some steps to accelerate your journey:
- Broaden Your Perspective: Seek out cross-functional projects and learn about other parts of the business
- Practice Active Listening: Value diverse viewpoints and build strong relationships
- Embrace Ambiguity: Get comfortable making decisions without all the answers
- Leverage Your Technical Skills Differently: Use your expertise to ask insightful questions, challenge assumptions, and help define effective strategies at the organisational level
- Invest in Your Growth: Find mentors, pursue leadership development, and ask for feedback
Our Live Webinar in January 2026
We are running a live webinar in January covering this topic and would love to hear your experiences of this transition from technical leader to enterprise leader.
If you would like to be interviewed as part of the webinar research process, please let us know. If you would like to sign up for the webinar, please fill in your details below and we will be in touch shortly.
