The Turning Point

Most of us can point to a moment when we realized the Director role isn’t just a bigger version of management. The focus shifts from execution, getting tasks done, staying on budget, and meeting delivery plans to shaping direction across teams and functions. Those operational metrics don’t go away, but your expanded scope means you now influence how they’re achieved and what story they tell about business impact. Your leader’s expectations have changed, and so have your own. Success at this level depends less on managing execution and more on defining where the organization is headed.

Taking that 30,000-foot view, seeing the landscape, spotting challenges, and envisioning what’s next can be tough for new Directors. It’s easy to retreat to what’s familiar: managing the details. That’s when many fall into micromanagement instead of leading strategically. The harder but more valuable skill is learning to build enterprise influence by using storytelling, alignment, and relationships to move the organization forward.

In this article, we’ll look at the key differences between a Manager’s and Director’s mindset, how to build your own style of enterprise influence, and a few common pitfalls to avoid along the way.

The Manager’s Mindset

Facing challenges that individual contributors rarely experience in the same way, managers bring a mix of skills and habits that set the stage for everything that follows in their careers. The work they do and the experience they gain become the foundation for future leadership roles.

Managers are accountable for the “how.” They take broad strategies and turn them into clear, actionable steps. They help their teams understand the requirements and break the work into pieces that can be planned, tracked, and delivered.

They lead from the trenches, guiding the team, supporting people, and staying close to day-to-day execution. When the team hits a roadblock, managers are the ones who remove obstacles and work through tactical problems. When they do this well, they build credibility with their team and with senior leaders, which becomes a key part of their path to the next level.

With that experience in place, the next step is learning to move from managing execution to becoming an influential leader.

The Director’s Mindset

If managers focus on the how, directors own the why and the what. Instead of driving how teams get work done, directors define what matters and set the vision, strategy, and guardrails. Their scope broadens as they become accountable for multiple departments or functions, which pushes them to operate across a wider set of responsibilities.

Directors cannot stay involved in day-to-day delivery. Their focus shifts to making sure teams are working on the right priorities. While managers think in terms of projects and near-term deliveries, directors think in terms of business needs and outcomes, portfolios, sequencing, longer time horizons, and how their part of the organization needs to evolve over the next one to five years to support future business needs.

Directors also need to adjust how they communicate. At this level, the job is less about providing updates and more about telling a clear story. They need to influence peers, senior leaders, and cross-functional partners. That means choosing language that connects to business outcomes and learning how to navigate the goals and agendas of others. Influence becomes essential in gaining alignment on vision, strategy, and priorities.

Expanding Scope: From Team Success to Organizational Impact

Directors must be skilled at identifying business needs, understanding priorities, and defining the outcomes required. They translate these priorities into a clear technology direction, developing the vision and strategies their organization will use to deliver results.

At this level, focus shifts from individual projects to entire portfolios. Directors balance multiple initiatives, weighing long-term architecture against short-term execution, and make trade-offs to optimize for overall organizational impact. Success depends on trusting teams to execute against the vision while providing guidance and alignment.

As my portfolio grew, I learned that I could not be in every meeting or involved in every decision. I needed strong leaders who could represent the organization’s strategy and make decisions that supported the desired outcomes. Recently, I faced a choice between what was best for one team and what was best for the organization. After a few quick conversations with my team leads, I chose the latter. While the decision was uncomfortable for the team in the short term, it ultimately proved better for both the organization and the individuals on that team.

Building Enterprise Influence

There are many books and frameworks on influence, but building influence at the enterprise level comes down to a few key practices.

Build relationships beyond your leadership chain. Networking may feel uncomfortable, but it is essential. As a technical director, you need a deep understanding of business drivers and challenges. Connect with business leaders to learn what they’re trying to achieve and the pain points they face. This insight allows you to shape technology strategies that truly support the business.

Think and communicate in business terms. Avoid buzzwords or technical jargon. Clear, business-focused language helps leaders understand your ideas and increases the likelihood of gaining their support.

Prioritize across the organization. Managers often prioritize for a single project or product. Directors must balance priorities across teams and portfolios, focusing on initiatives that deliver real value. Not every urgent request drives meaningful outcomes, and learning to distinguish between them is critical.

Model calm and decisive leadership. Challenges and uncertainty are inevitable. Demonstrating steady decision-making, even without perfect information, and staying aligned with business priorities sets an example for others and builds trust across the organization.

Common Pitfalls and Lessons Learned

Looking back at my own transitions, one of the earliest struggles I faced was staying too involved in execution. I trusted my teams, but I didn’t yet know how to empower them. I kept dipping back into day-to-day work instead of giving them the room to own it. Over time I learned that trusting teams to deliver on the strategy isn’t optional at the director level. It’s the job.

I also underestimated the importance of internal relationships and the role of organizational dynamics. Networking didn’t come naturally to me, and I didn’t grasp how much those connections mattered until I found myself in my first leadership team meeting. It felt like information was flying at me from every direction, and I had no sense of the existing alliances in the room. Eager to prove myself, I suggested rolling out a full product suite because we already owned the licenses. What I didn’t realize was that the group had already considered it, dismissed it, and moved on. The idea didn’t support the business outcomes they were focused on, and I didn’t yet understand the challenges they were trying to solve.

That moment taught me to read the room, understand the context, and have side conversations before bringing ideas forward. Influence isn’t just about having a good idea. It’s about knowing when and how to introduce it.

Success as a Director is measured not by what you personally deliver, but by how effectively you create the conditions for others—and the organization—to succeed.

How have you made similar shifts? I’d love to hear about the challenges you’re facing stepping into broader leadership roles and the approaches that are working. Connect with me on LinkedIn or Substack to continue the conversation.