In this episode of Gaining the Technology Leadership Edge, Mike sits down with Mark Hirschberg, CTO of Vodx, MIT educator, and author of The Career Toolkit, to explore why communication is one of the most underestimated skills in technology leadership.
Mark explains why technical leaders often struggle to get buy-in—not because their ideas are wrong, but because they’re communicated in the wrong language. Engineers, executives, sales leaders, and frontline staff all process information differently, and asking people to mentally “translate” technical thinking reduces attention, trust, and alignment.
The conversation covers practical examples, from training users by job function instead of one-size-fits-all sessions, to explaining agile tradeoffs to CEOs who expect certainty in timelines. Mark also shares a candid leadership story about managing a highly capable but perfection-driven engineer, where optimizing from 99% to 99.5% created tension between technical excellence and business reality.
They also discuss the difference between positional authority and real leadership, why saying “because I’m the boss” often signals a breakdown earlier in communication, and how leaders can develop influence at every level of the organization.
Key takeaways include:
How to adapt your message to different audiences
Why communication failures are often framing failures
When consensus ends, and leadership decisions begin
How better communication reduces friction, rework, and burnout
