
What Nobody Tells You About Moving Into Tech Leadership | Malcolm Murphy
From Tech World Human Skills by Ben Pearce
April 1, 2026 · 51 min
About this episode
Malcolm Murphy discusses the challenges of transitioning into tech leadership and the skills necessary for success.
Most technical people get promoted because they're the best at the job. Then they spend the next 18 months quietly struggling. Nobody told them it is a completely different job. Malcolm Murphy has spent his career in technical pre-sales, leading solutions consultant teams across major vendor organisations. His view is blunt: the skills that got you promoted will actively hold you back as a manager. What you'll learn: Identify the three distinct buckets every new tech leader must manage from day one Build a proactive hiring bench before you even have a role to fill Set clear performance expectations without fearing the conversation Delegate outcomes instead of activities to unlock your team's performance Develop your people in a way that drives retention more than any salary increase About Malcolm Murphy: Malcolm Murphy has spent the majority of his career in technical pre-sales, moving from UNIX engineer to leading solutions consultant teams across major vendor organisations. He currently specialises in insider risk and human risk management at Mimecast and runs the Pre-Sales Leaders Forum community in the UK. Episode highlights: [approx. 5 min mark] Malcolm breaks down the three…
People in this episode
Host: Ben Pearce
Guest: Malcolm Murphy
Topics covered
- tech leadership
- management skills
- hiring strategies
- team performance
- employee retention
Keywords
- tech leadership
- management
- hiring
- performance
- employee development
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Mimecast, Pre-Sales Leaders Forum
More episodes of Tech World Human Skills
- How To Structure a Technical Presentation People Will Remember · June 10, 2026 · 36 min
- How To Earn More And Move Up In Technology | Jeremy Burns · May 27, 2026 · 43 min
- Three Human Skills Every Sales Engineer Needs | Ron Whitson · May 13, 2026 · 38 min
- Business Storytelling For Sales Engineers | Tim Chinchen · April 29, 2026 · 39 min
- How to Get Better Results From Your Technical Team | Ben Caird · April 15, 2026 · 42 min
- EP76: Five Human Competencies Every Modern Leader Needs with Panos Malakoudis · March 18, 2026 · 45 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Tech World Human Skills podcast page.