The Challenge of Growth: The idea of transitioning from Technical Expert to People Leader

From Idea to Game-Changing Impact at Dynatrace–with this topic in mind for Season 3, I’ll be bringing you conversations with passionate experts and leaders at Dynatrace who dream big, tackle challenges, and drive impactful change.  

In this episode, I talk with Kristof Randers, who has always sought out new challenges. This led him to transition into his current role as Innovation Services Director after over 12 years of building deep technical expertise across multiple specialist roles. This shift brought its own set of challenges—learning to build trust, delegate effectively, and empower others to innovate.  

Tune in to the conversation as we discuss how Kristof navigated these challenges and how embracing change enabled him to multiply his impact at Dynatrace.  

Where to find us:    

• Connect with Sue Quackenbush on LinkedIn    
• Connect with Kristof Renders on LinkedIn 

Discover the opportunities at Dynatrace and take your career to the next level: careers.dynatrace.com 

Transcript

Kristof

It's not that every day is the same, right? Every day brings a new challenge and a new aspiration to work towards. And that's what keeps me here.

Sue

Hi, my name is Sue Quackenbush, speaking to you from our Linz office. And I am welcoming all of you to our next episode of Real Talks. Today's guest is Kristof Renders. He is the Innovation Services Director based in Belgium. So welcome, Kristof.

Kristof

Awesome to be here, Sue.

Sue

You've been here with Dynatrace for 15 years, so congratulations on that milestone, which is amazing. And when you look at your career from individual contributor to people leader, I'd love for you to discuss what really prompted the idea and the desire to go into a people leader role.

Kristof

Yeah. Thank you, Sue, for the celebrations of my 15 years here. It's been it's been quite a journey, right? Dynatrace is not the same company as it was 15 years ago, and it went through a lot of transformation itself from a technical level through the way that our people and cultural organizations really help drive career growth. It's been amazing, but I really enjoyed, actually loved every single day that I was an individual contributor, , gave me great satisfaction working with customers, solving their problems, making sure that their problems wouldn't reoccur. Right. Driving those long-term relationships with customers was something that bought me an immense amount of, I would say, EQ, over, over the years. And I wanted to actually spread that knowledge to increase the impact that I could have. And for me, that way to do that was to to move into a people leader role.

Sue

And then, how did you really prepare yourself for that transition?

Kristof

I will not actually lie. I didn't prepare for that. At one point, I expressed a desire to my leadership and I said, like, look, I want to try this, all right? So I don't know if it's for me. And, , I had a lot of great support mentoring me along the way. Um, it was actually after the fact that I started to learn through programs like the Elements of Leadership that the dangerous launching or what it actually means, or that's some knowledge behind the actual practice of being of being a people leader that actually grew that aspect of my career even further.

Sue

And I love the honesty of like, hey, I didn't prepare, but I put my hand up and the ability for someone to say, I'm going to go for a different role, which absolutely requires different skill sets. Um, and something you hadn't done before. Just making that initial interest in going for it is a big step forward. But raises another question, though. If you knew the team and you were working with the team, and then all of a sudden you're the leader of that team, that's a hard transition to make as well, because sometimes going from, you know, colleague and peer to then manager, some people don't react very well to that and it's a different way of communicating, you know. So is there anything that really you could give tips on how to make that transition from colleague to manager.

Kristof

Yeah I think it it if you compare it to what I think the military calls a battlefield, , promotion, where you're not supposed to lead a team that you are part of or like, , regiments or something like that. I was a little bit worried about that in the beginning. However, um, I was also certain that that the team had a very high level of maturity. Um, I was very lucky with that. Right. So mistake that I made in the beginning was trying to be really be that leader. Like I had to kind of like make a point where that makes sense of like here or here now. And I think that's where I made a mistake as a leader, , because that wasn't necessary at all. All right. So the the team was, was so good at what they did, they didn't need somebody to tell them what to do. They needed somebody that would tell them where the goals and, and how that would translate into their day to day. That's what they were looking for. As soon as I found that out, and I realized that, , again, through mentorship with my leadership as well, once I was able to articulate that and translate that into what the team needed, it actually was, was, was, you know, a piece of cake from thereon.

Sue

So what else would you say could give some suggestions and guidance for someone who's also thinking about making that change from individual contributor to a people leader role?

Kristof

Yeah. So this is a very good question. Speaking of my own experience and my own career path, for me, experience is not something that is based out of one data point. So. I see a lot of, a lot of younger people who. Who want to move very quickly. And while I can appreciate that because you want to see things change and thing and you want to. You want to see your career progress, um, getting experience, , a lot of experience, , in no particular aspect to it, whichever field that you're in is valuable lifelong in your entire career because you built EQ on how to deal with certain situations and when to take experiences and apply them in the future, or when to say, hey, this experience is maybe not super valuable, right? So maybe it's something that does not apply to the situation in particular. So going to people who have actually gone through a similar path than me, if they come to me and say, can you give me some advice that the biggest thing that I've learned is that you know more than you think? That was my biggest, I would say, constraints when I when, when I was thinking about moving into this like, well, do I know what to do? How will I deal with all this? But actually, as it turns out, you have a very often, in many cases, a very natural response to things that you have seen in the past, because you have built that experience and you've seen how people react and how situations, , kind of manifest themselves and how people respond to that. , so that, for me is the biggest thing I would say, you know, more than anything.

Sue

And then when you think about, you know, going into this role, what kind of challenges did you experience, making that transition?

Kristof

Yeah, I think that that that's a very, very good question because I'm still dealing with those challenges today. Right? I've only been in this role for for a limited amount of time. I think the biggest thing is, is kind of letting go. Um, right. So I've built a, you know, the first major portion of my career was building expertise, right? Becoming a subject matter expert, being seen as an expert in a certain field. And when you move into a people need a role. Right. Okay. Of course, it's still great to have that back, packing that, to have that baggage to, to kind of support you in your decision making process, that you need to trust the people that you know you are working with. All right. They will also make the right choices. So you focus on on what do you want the end goal to be of something, but let them make their own path. And it's it that is for me is the biggest challenge that I'm still dealing with every day is try to not get too much involved. Because also that doesn't scale well.

Sue

And, you know, I think that not only that is that is definitely a challenge, not only for a new, people leader, but also for many people, leaders who have been in the role for a while. Right. You it's how do you enable how do you build that trust? Um, and really let your team make them, you know, sometimes make the mistakes that they need to learn from, , to continue their path and journey forward and learning. And that is a tough one. And I do think a lot of, people, leaders do, especially with strong expertise and experience, it hard not to step in and say, do it this way or do it that way. So I know you said you're still figuring it out, but any early lessons learned on how to approach that balance?

Kristof

Yeah. So I've I'm very lucky that, um, I managed three amazing teams. , all were wonderful people that are very good at what they do. All right. Um, so building those teams out, you have to realize that if you're hiring and you're bringing in that talent into into your into your team, that they probably know things better than you. Right. And so I, I got caught up with thinking that I knew more in the beginning. And then I got caught out. And so actually they actually know what they're doing. Right. And making that switch at that point I was like, well, actually, why am I trying to change this or shape this in a particular way when they are actually the ones that are doing this work? And for me, that was that was a big aha moment. And now I'm just guiding them in where I think it can go. But I let them make their own roads.

Sue

And you know, and and that is something where that transition really needs to happen. So to be able to be the the coach and mentor, , and enabler versus the and always giving the answers. So I'd love to to hear more about your philosophy on career development and the slow and steady and, and you see this in job Hopper sometimes with regards to the if they're you don't feel like they're growing fast enough within a company, they'll jump to another company. But in the end, I'm also a big believer in experience matters. And in order to gain experience, you have to live with something you know, live with the decisions you've made. And how do you have someone to maybe put the brakes on a little bit and explore further their current role? How do they maximize their current role so that when they get that next level, position, they're successful in it, but they also have the true experience depth to pull.

Kristof

To me experience is not a single data point, and going to the job-hoppers topic, I see that very frequently when somebody says, oh, I've done this. All right, now it's time for the next things like, well, you've seen one particular instance of what this could be, but as we all know, every situation is different and will require a different approach, will require a different set of skills. So in the end, right experience is something that you build over a longer period of time. And long term relationships together with a nice breadth of experience, will mean that you can actually leverage that in your career in the long run.

Sue

I'd love to understand what it come you motivated and really, why do you stay at Dynatrace 15 years within a company is awesome. But like in technology, that is a long time, and I think it's wonderful. And so I'd love to just hear your thoughts about what really keeps you staying at Dynatrace.

Kristof

Well, I've been I've been lucky enough to be part of many revolutions and evolutions within Dynatrace, and it's that relentless pursuit of making us a better company tomorrow that we are today, and seeing the opportunities that that brought along for myself in my career, but also in the way that we work, made it just super exciting. Um, it's not that every day is the same, right? Every, every day brings a new challenge and brings a new aspiration to work towards. And that's what keeping me here. , I don't see a reason to to go and look elsewhere.

Sue

It's wonderful to hear that. You know, every day is a new challenge, a new learning opportunity. Um, and that's what keeps you excited. So, Kristof, thank you so much for your time. It was lovely speaking with you. And, I just really enjoyed all your insights.

Kristof

Thank you, Sue. It's nice to talk to you as well.

Sue

Thank you, everyone, for tuning in to today's podcast. If you'd like to follow us, please do so on Apple and Spotify.