Welcome to the GitHub organization for Strategy Coach. This organization is designed to help CTOs—whether full-time or fractional—embrace the role of a coach for their engineering teams. This concept is explored deeply in Shahid Shah's book The Code Takes Care of Itself: Leadership Lessons for Full-time and Fractional CTOs, which draws inspiration from legendary NFL coach Bill Walsh.

The role of a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is one of the most dynamic and complex in any organization. Whether in a startup, a business unit within a large enterprise, or a growing tech company, the essence of being a CTO goes beyond technical decisions and managing people. It’s about recognizing potential, aligning goals, and extracting the best performance out of every individual on your team.

The Code Takes Care of Itself draws upon Shahid Shah's idea of the CTO as a head coach of his or her engineering team, an approach that moves away from traditional executive roles and emphasizes team development, leadership, and system thinking. This approach isn’t about being the smartest person in the room or micromanaging details—it’s about building a culture where your team can execute at the highest level.

• CTO as Coach: Much like a head coach in sports, a CTO’s success comes from empowering and developing their team. The focus shifts from individual achievement to creating a system where the team thrives collectively.

• Standard of Performance: Just as Bill Walsh's "Standard of Performance" transformed his team, setting clear expectations for code quality, collaboration, and ownership can transform engineering teams. The book details how to define and uphold this standard in your organization.

• The Playbook: Coaches rely on a playbook—a set of strategies and processes that guide the team in any situation. For CTOs, this means developing engineering processes, cultural norms, and technical standards that align with your organization's goals and values. Strategy Coach’s GitHub will house shared templates and playbooks that can be customized to fit your team’s needs.

• Customer-First Leadership: Great CTOs prioritize the customer’s needs over internal politics. This means making hard decisions that benefit customers in the long run, even if it creates friction internally. The book emphasizes how customer-first leadership drives lasting success.

• Empowerment through Details: While a CTO shouldn’t micromanage, they must have a deep understanding of each team member’s role to coach them effectively. This attention to detail allows the CTO to give precise feedback and align the team's efforts toward shared goals.

In this organization, you will find:

• Templates for building and maintaining your engineering playbook
• Best practices for version control, code reviews, and CI/CD pipelines
• Tools for defining standards for code quality, team collaboration, and technical debt management
• Resources on customer-first leadership and how to align technical strategy with business needs

We encourage you to explore the repositories, contribute to discussions, and adopt the coaching mindset in your leadership approach.

For more insights, check out The Code Takes Care of Itself: Leadership Lessons for Full-time and Fractional CTOs for a detailed roadmap to becoming a coaching-oriented CTO who builds a resilient, high-performing team.