TMSD - Leadership Foundations
TMSD is the coaching readiness gate we use to answer one core question: are you truly ready to carry the responsibility and pressure of leadership? We look at your Time, Money, Skills, and Data—personally and in the business—because if you can't manage these for yourself, you can't manage them for others.
What TMSD proves
Master yourself → lead others
If someone can't manage their own time, money, skills, and data, they won't manage those for a team. TMSD checks the foundations so leadership growth compounds rather than collapses under pressure.
How it connects to LIT
TMSD = Leadership Foundations. LIT = Leadership Development. TMSD validates readiness, the LIT Framework (Leader • Innovator • Technologist) then builds capability step by step.
- Leader: accountability, communication, decision quality
- Innovator: change, value creation, transformation
- Technologist: judgment, architecture, platform choices
Time • Money • Skills • Data
Each pillar is assessed at two levels: Personal (self-management) and Business (leading others and the system).
TIME
- Do you have time capacity, and family support, to lead?
- Do your systems (buckets, blocks, boxes) actually work?
- Can you prioritise, sequence, and protect focus for teams?
- Can you set tempo, cadences, and say "no" with authority?
MONEY
- Are your finances stable so money stress doesn't drive decisions?
- Do you budget and plan for variability?
- Do you understand how money flows and where value is created?
- Can you find and interpret financial information you need?
SKILLS
- Do you have a system to keep your skills current and competitive?
- Are you building leadership behaviours, not just technical depth?
- Can you identify, hire, and develop talent in others?
- Do you design roles, ladders, and feedback that lift capability?
DATA
- Do you use data to make decisions in your own life?
- Do you track personal commitments and outcomes reliably?
- Can you get the data you need, or create systems to get it?
- Do you separate signal from noise and act with confidence?
Why TMSD first
Readiness, not perfection
TMSD doesn't demand perfect scores, it asks whether you're ready to shoulder leadership pressure. The reality, brilliant technologists fail in leadership when foundations are weak.
Clarity to move faster
TMSD pinpoints exactly where to shore up first, so your next step into LIT, Embedded, Governance, or Community is confident and compounding.
How to use TMSD
For readiness and diagnosis. Use it with a promising technologist, a struggling leader, or on yourself.
Readiness check (promote with confidence)
- Assess Personal + Business for each pillar.
- Look for pressure leaks (time chaos, money stress, skill gaps, data fog).
- If foundations are present, you're ready for Technology Leadership.
Diagnosis (fix what's blocking progress)
- Map symptoms to pillars, eg, missed deadlines → Time.
- Identify one correction per pillar, eg, weekly cadence, budget view, skill plan, KPI pack.
- Pick the smallest change that removes the biggest constraint.
Ready to move from foundations to growth
If TMSD is strong, step into development with the LIT Framework via the path that fits today.
