What are some of the challenges for leaders in 2022?

A theme that I've been hearing from other leaders is that there's a huge premium in terms of hiring, especially for leadership. When the CFO doesn't quite understand that and they're referencing data that is over a year old from Radcliffe or some other firm, it’s hard to convince them that if we want this engineer, we have to pay this much. Sometimes there's a disconnect around that — if you want good talent, you'll have to pay for it. I'm not saying folks should empty the coffers, but the wage gap has steadily increased. When you're trying to argue with the CFO, it is tough sometimes, and I see that coming up a bit more often now.

I'm trying to strike a balance between on-site and remote working. In certain states in the US, there's a push to keep kids in school because that's where they learn best. When you have kids and teachers in the classroom, it's hard to tell the rest of the organization that they get to work remotely, but we're still going to make the teachers come in. So we’re trying to find that balance in the tech space, but having that in person, face-to-face dynamic is important.

One of the things I've missed the most while we've all been remote is being in the orbit of the CEO. He has a traditional leadership style where you’d bump into him at the water cooler, he’d ask you a couple of things and then you’d both move on. I haven't been able to recreate that in the same way remotely and that will be a challenge for me this year as well: How do you recreate a water cooler conversation?

I joined in a completely virtual capacity and I have never worked with the CIO or anyone at this company, which is brand new for me. It's been very challenging to build relationships and get to know all the leaders inside of the organization, whether that’s due to our personalities or otherwise. It's really shining a light on how much in-person interaction and body language both define and help form critical elements of trust. I find myself second guessing the way I'm communicating because I can't see the person behind the curtain; they’re just one-dimensional on the screen rather than three-dimensional. I’m stretching as a result of that and overthinking it to some degree as I'm trying to build a team while also focusing on how I can fill those gaps in a virtual way.

I probably underestimated how hard this was going to be because I’ve worked in a number of global firms where my team was always remote from me, or my leadership was always remote. I went into this role with the assumption that it wouldn’t be a big deal since I'm used to having a global workforce. In those previous roles I’d be lucky if I saw my team or leadership twice a year, but even meeting just twice a year made a significant impact in terms of building and influencing our relationship.