Aspect Oriented Leadership and Management in Technology

This is obviously a play on Aspect Oriented Design and Aspect Oriented Programming, but is not a commentary on either of them. For more information on AOD and AOP, check it out here: AOD and AOP. I am a fan of this type of design and development, but the thing that felt applicable to team leadership was the cross cutting concerns.

So then, this presents the question, what are the cross cutting concerns in aspect oriented leadership and management?

I think there are at least six.

• Lead by example
• Hire people smarter than you
• Do not forget the people you hire are smarter than you
• Use common sense leadership
• Manage the teams and the teams will manage themselves
• Do not be a jerk

These little concerns are of course broader titles to specific approaches, so we can cover each individually. As this discussion goes on, remember that organizations comprise of different layers of teams, from the entire organization as a team down to the individual team delivering a solution, product, or getting a sale. Organizations are layered, but the idea of a team is fundamentally the same here as culture. Every company creates a unified culture, but has within it a diverse set of people who make up many different skill sets and subcultures. Every single one of those is a team with a leader or manager.

Lead by example

Leading by example seems like an easy one, but it less so than you might think. In the world of technology, there a lot of egos and some people have a problem respecting a leader they believe incapable of doing the job they do. Leaders who do not do the same things as the people who directly report to them have an unspoken burden of proof. When you lead and manage people, the fact that it is outside of the umbrella of work a leader and manager should be doing complicates the scenario; their job is to lead and manage, not do the other stuff everybody else is doing. So how do we solve this problem?

A leader and manager is also a coach and mentor, a listener who provides guidance when asked, helps to catalyze work to do by providing the tools necessary for them, and to make sure that the teams can rely on each other to succeed. People look up to a person who sets an example of defining leadership, but also can handle tough technical questions as needed, especially in choosing technological direction and possessing a strong understanding of process. Leading by example is more about taking on the smaller things as necessary by request, and taking the time to communicate and convey the bigger direction and needs of an organization to succeed together.

Hire people smarter than you

Hiring people smarter than you is less about being a blanket statement than it is about understanding that everyone has something to contribute. From the most experienced to novice engineer, they all bring different perspectives on problem solving and refreshingly different ways of doing things. The understanding of this concern is that while being good at the job is important, it is equally important to have someone be capable at working with a team if that is part of the job. If someone does not fit with a team, regardless of all the other talents a person might bring the individual may not bring enough to replace the difficulty caused in efficiency and success.

As technology involves many brilliant and talented people, there are plenty of complications with ego and emotional investment in work, as well as with each individual’s ability to compromise. The better the guidance from a leader or manager is towards a specific decision, the easier it is to mitigate solutions without disturbing the integrity of team cohesion.

Do not forget the people you hire are smarter than you

On the same token, it can be easy to forget the reason you hire a person because as a leader or manager you fixed on a particular deficit an individual possesses. We hire and keep people around because of their strengths. When we do reviews with our teams, the flaw of any single team member is the flaw of the team and its leader.

A leader and manager that remembers to use respect, professionalism, composure, and patience, earns the same treatment from team members. Violating those basic concepts of respect, professionalism, composure, and patience even once in the workplace is inexcusable, and anyone subjected to that treatment never forgets it. It is a red flag for people and it diminishes the opinions and causes mistrust of any leaders and managers who cross those lines even once.

Failing downward, when teams have problems and leaders and managers impose the failure on the team, damages morale, and causes people to move to new places. When problems occur, the best leaders and managers direct the failures upwards, accepting the fault and taking on the consequences of those situations. When we hire people to do the job, the best thing about having them be on a team is the fact that they are a team.

The best teams work together very closely when they can look to their leaders and managers for guidance to direct them without worry about failing along the way. Failure to accomplish a goal, whether in technology or any other industry, is a natural step of growth. Failure to learn from that situation is a problem with the leadership and management of an organization.

Use common sense leadership

Common sense leadership is as simple as its gets when it comes to leadership and management in technology. The bottom line is that success comes from a good process and a good process comes from leadership and management. Common sense leadership completely revolves around correctly implementing the process, and that leaders and managers remove problems that detract from that. The difficulty is in identifying the things that cause problems.

One of the most mature ways to do that is using Key Process Indicators, KPIs, or Key Success Indicators, KSIs. They provide the detailed bits and pieces that help identify problems in the greater whole, but individually a KPI is just a measurement of progress and efficiency. KPIs help leaders and managers identify issues earlier as well as predict the potential for problems before they happen. There are a number of tools available for leaders and managers to check the health of various components within an organization, so it is worth taking the time to explore them before deciding on one.

Manage the teams and the teams will manage themselves

Team management is all about focused objectives without granular knowledge of the greater goal, but an understanding of the contribution it makes towards success. This concern is about providing teams with the focus and guidance needed to move forward autonomously, while occasionally doing checks on progress to adjust for challenges or accelerate other components of a process. Team autonomy is fundamental to success, as many great leaders and managers know that micromanagement leads to undesirable oversight, a loss in morale, and significant issues in the confidence people have in the entirety of the organization. By giving a team autonomy within the bounds of the initial focus, guidance, and process, a team will quickly organize to overcome challenges and surpass expectations.

Autonomous teams are accountable for their decisions, design, planning, implementation, and delivery, however, only within the bounds provided by their leaders and managers. When something goes wrong, the place to start is to check that the team really had everything they needed to do the job in the original requirements and specifications, and if not, consider that the problem in the process might be external to that team and look at a way to resolve it. The best thing about teams is that they want to autonomous. Teams foster family and friendship, comradery, and most of all, the desire to accept accountability and responsibility, make improvements, and deliver on goals together. Good teams support one another, and good leaders and managers support their teams to success.

Do not be a jerk

This overlaps really well with many of the other concerns mentioned above, but is a big enough individual concern that it needs addressing. One of the hardest lessons any leader and manager can learn is losing the respect and trust of others. The easiest way around this is just a void being a jerk. Maintain all the concepts of the leader and manager you want to be, be polite, and dealing with people the rest of the time is easy.

When things get complicated for other people, the best leaders and managers look at the situation, talk to the people having the complication, acknowledge the difficulties and challenges, and offer to help overcome them. Leaders and managers that blame or dismiss the challenges of other people quickly discover that people no longer want to discuss things with them. When a leader or manager loses touch with their teams, then the teams go elsewhere or seek alternate leadership, both options are negative.

When a leader or manager feels stressed and compelled to be a jerk, do not do it. Go somewhere else, take a day, circle back around, and come back with the esteem of knowing that you met the challenge of understanding your limits, acknowledged them, and dealt with them like an adult. We are adults most of our natural lives, and being a jerk is learning experience we use when we are younger to impose our personalities and will on other forcibly. It does not work the same way when we are adults, and others do not forget when we falter.

Good luck!

Doing all of the above is complicated. Each person has different challenges to build upon with their experiential learning, and we are the summation of many things. Each thing can make accomplishing the things I discussed easier or more difficult, depending on the person, situation, and course in life.

In case you care about my summarized experience

My experience as a leader and manager of people comes from 40 years as a student, 20 years in technology with 15 years in military service, 10 years as a network engineer and analyst, 10 years as a software engineer, 15 years as supervisor and manager, and 16 years as a parent. I have traveled to over a third of the countries on Earth, worked with diverse people and personalities of whom I respect, and from whom I hope I earned respect. I possess an AS in Electronic Systems, BS in Computer Science, and MS in Software Engineering. I have a wide variety of education, leadership, and management courses under my belt, and love to teach and be taught.