From Geek to Lead: A Techie's Guide to Leadership - Softcover

Molloy, Sandy; Asfour, Yousif

Softcover

ISBN 13: 9798990218512

Publisher: Asfour-Molloy, 2024

Synopsis

If you've ever been promoted for your technical skills and suddenly expected to lead people and not just projects, you're not alone. Moving from expert to manager is one of the toughest transitions in any technology career.

From Geek To Lead is your practical, no-jargon guide to making that leap with confidence. Whether you're a first-time manager, a team lead, a technical expert stepping into leadership, or a non-technical leader managing technical teams, this book gives you the tools to succeed.

Drawing on decades of leadership experience across higher education, government, and global industry, the authors offer clear frameworks, real-world stories, and ready-to-use checklists that help you lead modern technical teams with purpose.

What You'll Learn

• How technical roles evolve, and what people expect from you as a leader
• How to communicate with clarity (up, down, and across the organization)
• How to build trust and lead teams with diverse skills and personalities
• How to set direction and make decisions when the data is incomplete
• How to establish healthy processes without slowing innovation
• How to handle conflict, low performance, resistance, and burnout
• How to build a leadership foundation that grows with you

What's Inside

• Templates and checklists for 1:1s, feedback, role clarity, and decision-making
• Practical frameworks for communication, alignment, and team development
• A capstone case study that ties the leadership journey together
• Illustrations, sidebars, quotes, and stories that make the lessons memorable

Who This Book Is For

• New and first-time managers any field
• Experts evolving into leadership roles
• Team leads and supervisors managing technical teams
• Aspiring CIOs, CTOs, and digital transformation leaders
• Non-technical leaders who need to understand and guide technical staff

About the Authors

Yousif Asfour is Chief Innovation & Transformation Officer at the American University of Beirut and former founding CIO at NYU Abu Dhabi.

Sandra Molloy is a leadership development executive and neuroscience coach who has designed and delivered culture-change programs across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Lead with confidence

This book gives you the practical tools to lead teams with clarity, empathy, and impact.

About this title

About the Authors

Sandy Molloy started her career in education and worked in colleges and universities in Australia, Greece, USA, and the UK teaching communications skills, cultural and behavioural studies. In the early 1990s with an M.A. in HR and Change Management, she joined an American Global IT company. Over the next three decades, she travelled worldwide, working with clients in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Her IT experience includes the Finance, Government, Education, Retail, Public and Private sectors. Sandy's roles of Director for People, Culture and Communications, and Head of Leadership Development UK IT operations allowed her to design and embed processes that made significant cultural changes. Sandy trained at MIT, Boston in the Learning Lab (Organizational Development) and with the Neuro Leadership Institute, New York University. She is a Master of the Chartered Institute for Personnel Development and a psychometric practitioner. She has written and articles on leadership, managing change and transition management, and studied leadership while living with tribes in Kenya and Tanzania. Sandy has a passion for people and an inexhaustible enthusiasm for helping leaders reach their full potential. She is currently a neuroscience coach working with organizations to develop positive and sustainable change with leadership and teams.

Dr. Yousif Asfour is an experienced technology executive with more than 30 years' experience, with more than 20 years as CIO and CTO in the USA and Middle East. He is an experienced and dynamic leader who has successfully built high performing technology teams that lead the transformation of several organizations in various industries including technology, government, and higher education. Yousif currently sits on the boards of several start ups and serves as Chief Innovation and Transformation Officer at the American University of Beirut leading the Office of Information Technology, the Talal and Madiha Zein AUB Innovation Park and AUB Online. Most recently, Yousif was the President of the CIO Lebanon Association, the founding CIO at NYU Abu Dhabi, and played a key leadership role in establishing TechCARE, the Lebanese National Research and Education Network (NREN). Yousif received a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from Northeastern University and a Ph.D. in cognitive and neural systems from Boston University. In addition to several publications in professional journals, Dr. Asfour also holds a patent related to fast data transfer for multi-processor systems.

Edition details

• Publisher: Asfour-Molloy
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798990218512
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256