That's a very good point. A "CTO" can mean any mix of managerial, leadership and technical responsibilities.
It is my assumption that a CTO is usually coming with technical background already except when he/she is a cofounder and they got technical domain as a result of division of responsibilities. But I am suspicious of startups where none of the cofounders come from technical background.
That leaves managerial and leadership. IMO, if you are a CTO, managerial is something you can hire other people to do for you as your technical organisation grows and leadership is something you should really be focusing on.
You can have flourishing technical organisations with the CTO being a poor manager but a good leader but very unlikely with a CTO with good management but poor leadership skills.
It is my assumption that a CTO is usually coming with technical background already except when he/she is a cofounder and they got technical domain as a result of division of responsibilities. But I am suspicious of startups where none of the cofounders come from technical background.
That leaves managerial and leadership. IMO, if you are a CTO, managerial is something you can hire other people to do for you as your technical organisation grows and leadership is something you should really be focusing on.
You can have flourishing technical organisations with the CTO being a poor manager but a good leader but very unlikely with a CTO with good management but poor leadership skills.