It’s not only technology that’s being shaken up by Silicon Valley. The skill set of a traditional executive comes from decades on the corporate ladder. Aspiring execs gain their chops through experience, watching how (and how not to) lead, through good times and bad.

Tech billionaires are a different story. The skills that made a start-up into a tech unicorn are more likely to be based on innovative engineering than business administration.

“Is it fair to expect the leader of a tech company that just built some cool app that suddenly grew into a ubiquitous platform all over the world — that many, many types of people are using for good and bad — to suddenly be responsible?” asked Jeff Frick, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during The Churchills in Santa Clara, California, an event that recognizes those advancing innovation, leadership, collaboration, and social benefit.

Regardless of fairness, dozens of newly minted chief executive officers are facing the challenge of leading rapidly growing companies with little or no training. And the fall-out is casting a dark cloud over the golden age of high tech.

The thought leadership forum Churchill Club honors leaders in the technology world. At this year’s event, theCUBE invited some prominent industry experts to share their thoughts on leadership and what makes a leader great, including John W. Thompson (pictured), venture partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners and chairman of the board at Microsoft Corp.; Rich Karlgaard, publisher of Forbes magazine and co-founder of the Churchill Club; Carl Guardino, president and chief executive officer of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.; and R “Ray” Wang, principal analyst, founder and chairman of Constellation Research Inc. and Churchill Club Board Member.

Leaders need integrity, focus and follow-through

“Leadership is as much about your personality and the business that you chose to go run as anything else,” Thompson stated. “That being said, leadership has some core principles that are critical independent of the size of the company or organization you’re on.”

The first core principle of leadership is integrity, according to Thompson. This is followed by focus, then follow-through and execution. “It’s one thing to have a strategy, but if you can’t execute the strategy, of what value is it?” Thompson asked.

Personal experience working with Microsoft chief executive officers has given Thompson an insider’s view into leadership strategy. Company founder Bill Gates, successor Steve Ballmer, and current CEO Satya Nadella “each brought something fundamentally different to the table,” Thompson explained.

“[Gates was] clearly was a visionary. He defined a point of view about the technology industry,” Thompson added. Yet Gates’ visionary guidance didn’t stop Microsoft from hitting a regulatory road-bump.

Next in the CEO hot seat was Ballmer. “He was very much focused on execute, execute, execute,” Thompson said. This paid off, with the company’s revenue growing almost eight-fold under Ballmer’s watch.

Bringing Microsoft into the 21^st century was Nadella’s task. “He had a very fundamental view about of what he thought the company needed to do,” Thompson said. “On the day of his announcement, he announced [that] mobile first, cloud first are the strategies of Microsoft. And then he quickly made it clear that the number two issue for the company was about its culture.”

“Openness and honesty and candor” are the leadership characteristics that Nadella used to successfully shift Microsoft’s culture, Thompson added.

Here’s the complete video interview with Thompson:

Know when to call it quits

“Sometimes you have to hand the baton,” Karlgaard stated. “Bill Gates was a fabulous leader of Microsoft, but they ran too fast; they ran too hard.”

Oracle Corp. is another example of a founder who made the smart decision to share the power, according to Karlgaard.

“Larry Ellison led the brilliant early days of Oracle. But when he got in trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he had to really make way for a strong number two, Ray Lane,” Karlgaard stated. “That turned out to be the perfect complement. You had Ellison’s vision and drive, but you had Lane’s ability to run really good operations.”

Here’s the complete interview with Karlgaard:

Leadership is a balancing act

Fast-moving leaders who forget “to do the right things for customers, for employees, and for their community at large” are responsible for the current poor image of Silicon Valley, according to Karlgaard.

Addressing this imbalance is the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, a diverse association of companies who aim to guide the innovation economy of the Valley.

“What we try to do is impact those issues that are as important to families in their living rooms as they are to CEOs in their boardrooms,” Guardino said.

Positive news “always starts with leadership rather than luck,” Guardino added, citing San Jose major Sam Liccardo as an example of a leader who is “pro-innovation economy while also caring deeply about his citizens.”

Here’s the complete interview with Guardino:

Custom strategies for specific situations

Flexibility is important for leaders, who “have to perform in different ways in different situations,” according to Wang.

Sometimes strong and forceful command is required, while at others times an empathic stance makes the difference.

“There’s a balance between those types of traits that have to happen,” Wang stated.

Here’s the complete video interview with Wang below, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of The Churchills event:

Photo: SiliconANGLE