19: Tech Leaders Need Empathy, Not Just Code with Gareth Thomas

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Gareth Thomas is a seasoned CTO with over 25 years of experience building and leading tech teams.

In this episode, you're going to learn why Gareth decided to step away from coding to focus on leadership, his strategies for creating high-performing teams without burning out engineers, the biggest mistake tech leaders make when managing people, how empathy plays a crucial role in leading tech teams and why promoting from within can be a game-changer for scaling your business.

Gareth Thomas is a creative technology executive with deep expertise in both product strategy and engineering leadership, backed by extensive CIO/CTO and board-level experience. He has proven to have the ability to lead large, cross-functional teams and harness AI to drive innovation, accelerate product development, and scale businesses in high-growth sectors such as pharma, insurance, digital health, and financial services.

Timestamps:

[03:10] Gareth’s journey from software engineer to CTO  

[04:23] Why he moved from coding to leadership  

[05:54] How burnout shaped his approach to managing teams  

[07:06] Creating high-performing tech teams without burnout  

[08:31] The power of empathy in leading tech teams  

[09:45] Why managing people is not taught to new leaders  

[10:53] How to avoid common leadership pitfalls  

[12:04] Navigating the loneliness of the CTO role  

[13:20] Balancing the needs of the C-suite with engineering  

[14:58] The “us vs. them” mindset in leadership  

[16:15] Promoting from within to build strong teams  

[17:34] Identifying key players early on  

[18:45] Gareth’s method for assessing team satisfaction  

[20:09] Spotting early signs of employee dissatisfaction  

[21:35] Building trust with one-on-one conversations  

[22:57] The importance of “fire jumpers” in tech teams  

[24:10] How senior engineers solve complex problems  

[25:33] The challenge of managing remote teams  

[26:58] Bridging the gap between tech and business teams  

[28:12] The value of experienced individual contributors  

[29:44] Justifying high salaries for top engineers  

[30:59] Why coding experience is critical for CTOs  

[32:16] Problems with non-technical CTOs  

[33:35] The intuition that comes with deep coding experience  

[34:51] Building a company culture around mentorship  

[36:05] Improving the interview process for better hires  

[37:29] Reducing bias in hiring decisions  

[38:47] Scaling teams while keeping a flat structure  

[39:58] Using empathy to retain top talent  

[41:22] Rethinking hiring strategies in tech  

[42:38] Advice for new CTOs facing leadership challenges  

[43:55] The rise of the individual contributor role  

[45:10] Creating clear career progression paths  

[46:28] Empowering engineers with ownership  

[47:40] Leveraging internal promotions for growth  

[48:59] Gareth’s thoughts on leadership training  

[50:15] Aligning tech goals with business strategy  

Want to hear more from Gareth? Check out the Tech-Captains Podcast.

Find more from Adam on LinkedIn and YouTube and check out Adam's CTO coaching company Synova Tech.