What Nobody Tells You About Moving Into Tech Leadership | Malcolm Murphy

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

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