Why CTOs Must Educate Their Executives

What this episode covers

In this solo episode of Gaining the Technology Leadership Edge, Mike speaks directly to CTOs and technology leaders about one of the most overlooked parts of the role: educating non-technical executives. Most executive teams control budgets and priorities—but they often lack the technical context needed to properly evaluate technology requests. Mike shares real stories from his career to show how this gap leads to frustration, stalled projects, and missed opportunities. From fixing a broken fax server that was sending orders to the wrong restaurants, to explaining why voice-enabled websites weren’t feasible in the early 2000s, to breaking down the true cost of building an Amazon-style recommendation engine, each example highlights the same problem: executives can’t approve what they don’t understand. Rather than blaming leadership, Mike explains why it’s the CTO’s responsibility to bridge this gap. He outlines practical ways to do that, including sharing relevant articles, adding short educational segments to executive meetings, involving leaders as product testers, and building small prototypes to visually demonstrate impact—like a $1,000 proof-of-concept that unlocked approval for a $500,000 system rewrite. If you’ve ever felt like your ideas were dismissed, misunderstood, or blocked, this episode will help you rethink how you communicate—and how you earn trust at the executive table.

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