10 tips to help you excel in a new leadership role

8. Future-proof your team and technology

When you land in a new leadership role, you should perform a quick assessment of your team and the technology the company is using to make sure it serves the current customer needs but is also future-proof, suggests Prem Balasubramanian, CTO at Hitachi Digital Services.

The biggest challenge right now, he says, is moving data and tools to the cloud. “How does the team manage and run a cloud infrastructure?” he asks. “Your teams have to understand that cloud is code and, hence, the level to which automation is possible on the cloud. How do they harvest that automation to make it optimal for other teams to use? Which applications should go to the cloud? Which should not go to the cloud?”

Evaluate how prepared your people are for the future, whether it’s the cloud, AI, machine learning, or anything else that’s on the horizon. Do you have the technology you need? Does your team have the skills you need to manage this complexity? Do you need to upskill or hire?