Kate Matsudaira, founder and CTO at popforms, discussed the upcoming Cultivate conference, leadership trends in the tech space, and her keynote on that particular topic with theCUBE host John Furrier, live at the recently concluded O’Reilly Velocity conference in Santa Clara.

O’Reilly’s Cultivate event aims to “create a conference for software and tech leaders or aspiring leaders,”  discussing technology and cultural trends. “There’s this big trend to flatter organizations,” by empowering leaders, Matsudaira said, but there still is an issue of how to harness that, because ideas come from all levels in a company.

First time there’s 3 concurrent generations in the workplace

Right now it’s “the first time there are three concurrent generations in the workplace.” Matsudaira said. “We’re trying to create a really great forum for people to talk about it,” targeting higher level executives, CEOs, CIOS, and CTOs. Asked what defines success for CTOs, Matsudaira said the component is “always human, it’s always people. Technology is always a people problem.” The major issues to tackle are collaboration, being able to understand yourself, or having hired the wrong people.

Talking about what’s required from IT professional in the current environment, Matsudaira said “you really need to be a lot more well rounded. It’s not enough to be a great technologist anymore.”

• Influencing without authority

Asked about her keynote at Velocity, Matsudaira said it was about “influencing without authority,” focusing on helping people be more influential, more helpful, regardless of their role.

Some of the key aspects professionals should work on included “really understanding what your strengths and weaknesses are,” Matsudaira said, and “being aware of your blind spots” as a company. “You can be really great at your job, but your job is also making sure everyone knows what you’re doing.”

See Matsudaira’s entire segment below.