9 December 2025
The role of tech leaders are undergoing a transformation. Historically, when asked to recruit these positions, they were defined by deep technical expertise – understanding infrastructure, managing systems, and ensuring operational continuity – but today, technology alone is not enough.
As digital transformation accelerates, and artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes service delivery, leaders must bring a broader set of skills to the table. If you’re a tech leader thinking about your development plans for 2026, or if you’re an organisation looking to shape a JD for your next tech leader, Grace Tattersall shares insight from conversations with tech leaders on areas you should consider.
People-Centric Leadership
Technology projects succeed or fail based on people. As those working in digital roles become more ambitious, and eager to learn as technology develops at a fast pace, tech leaders need to have the ability to guide and support individuals with their personal and career development paths. Digital leaders need strong interpersonal skills to communicate with often diverse teams of individuals, as well as nurture a collaborative effort to deliver project. Interpersonal skills are definitely a key skill needed for all tech leaders to ensure a productive and happy team!
Strategic Communication Skills
Organisations are operating in ever more complex ecosystems with more varied stakeholders, customers, clients and communities to support – resilience and adaptability to work with each is crucial, blending technical fluency with a deep commercial focus.
Leaders need strategic communication skills; they must be able to translate and explain technical digital language in plain English to non-technical decision makers, and then retranslate this back to their team to implement projects successfully. The ability to flip between technical and non-technical language is not a skill to be frowned up, as it is a difficult skill to master.
They must also work across all departments in an organisation, all of whom will have varying digital skills levels; fostering and empowering a culture of digital literacy and confidence across an organisation takes time, the ability to listen, and diplomatic skills to navigate resistance to change.
Navigation the AI Landscape
AI offers unprecedented opportunities – from predictive analytics to automated case management – but it also introduces risks, complexity, and hype. Tech leaders need to be aware of both the positives, negatives, and bias prevalent in AI, and be able translate these to key stakeholders, identifying the right opportunities for their organisation that deliver ROI.
They must understand, research, and navigate implementation carefully around developing laws and regulations, as ultimately they are accountable. Whilst at the same time, they must navigate challenges from stakeholders to ensure they aren’t pulled into implementing AI for AI’s sake.
Data Fluency, Policy Insight and Risk Management
While coding skills are no longer mandatory, CIOs must be fluent in data concepts. Data Governance, and ensuring integrity, security, and ethical use of data throughout the organisation must be managed by the tech leaders.
As both technology and organisation change at a quicker pace, and often complex transformational changes, preparing for the unknown and future issues such as cyber threats and operational disruptions is also key.
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It is clear that tomorrow’s tech leader is not just a technologist – they are a communicator, a strategist, and an ethical guardian, and everything in-between; it is safe to say more and more is demanded from our tech leaders, but which of these is most important will depend on your organisations strategy, and where they are on their digital journey. If you’d like to discuss your skills development plan, or what skills your organisation may need in their next tech leader, drop Grace a line at grace.tattersall@andersonquigley.com or connect with her on LinkedIn.
