Engineering Leaders Share Thoughts on Leadership in Disrupted Times in a New Survey

For engineering teams, disruption to the business can have a significant impact on the ability to deliver and meet goals. These disruptions are often a result of reprioritization and budget changes on an organizational level, and are amplified during times of transition or economic instability. 

In a survey led by CTO Craft in partnership with Code Climate, engineering leaders were asked to name the main cause for disruption to their businesses in 2022, and to offer their predictions for productivity challenges in 2023. The survey also included questions about engineering leadership in particular, including how leaders intend to keep engineering teams motivated in the coming year, and how their leadership has been impacted by disruptive times. 

In total there were 114 respondents, comprised mainly of CTOs, followed by Engineering Managers, then heads of technology, development, and engineering. 

Read on for the key takeaways, and see the full survey results on CTO Craft. 

Hiring challenges ranked as the #1 cause for disruption

Attracting and retaining talented software engineers is top of mind for many engineering leaders, and with developers in short supply but high demand, this remains a challenge for organizations. Over half of survey respondents said hiring challenges were the leading cause of business disruption in 2022. 

Many survey respondents said that recruiting top talent will continue to be a challenge in 2023. 

Other common responses were reprioritization of business objectives, followed by a drop in revenue. Over half of respondents (54%), predict that issues with budgets will be a threat to productivity in 2023. 

Leaders aim to assign more engaging work in 2023

Nearly half (forty-five percent) of respondents said that they plan to motivate engineers in 2023 with more engaging work, followed by twenty percent of respondents who said they would focus on developers’ career paths. The remaining eight percent said they will use compensation as a motivator next year. 

Teams are still getting work done

Despite these challenges, 70% of survey participants said that they almost always deliver on business commitments. 

In terms of identifying root causes of going off track and not delivering on commitments, 60% of respondents said they can assess the problem with relative ease, while 25% said it’s difficult for them to do so. 

Learn more about CTO Craft on their website.