Culture and Leadership: Managing your way out of a job should be your goal.

I thought to write this article as a way for young leaders to learn and remind veteran leaders of what is important.

I went to a conference and we had a great discussions on Agility, Leadership and Culture. The topic of conversation was more around effective leadership and how it drives culture and how it allows you to be more Agile. I want to explain what leadership tenets I try to incorporate into my teams. They are:

1. Being a good leader, you should be managing your way out of a job.
2. Cultivate a great team by looking for the hunger and what drives and motivates people.
3. You need to coach your people up or out.
4. Constantly be growing your team.

Also understand that keeping people happy is a very straight forward recipe:

1. Pay them what they are worth.
2. Excite them with great technology (Fill in blank for your field)
3. Challenge them
4. Celebrate their victories / Coach them and allow them to fail
5. Communicate, what you can (Don't keep them in the dark)

Leaders should be managing their way out of a job:

I know, I know. You are probably thinking "What is the guy talking about?" "That is just idiocy" But it's true, being an effective leader means you will one day manage yourself out of a job. Or at least that should be your goal and here is why.

Your job is to A. Build a team and B. Make it grow. I do not mean grow in size but in talent and experience. But I will get to that in a minute. You as an effective leader are there to guide, build and challenge those people that are on your team. At the end of the day you look good because your team makes you look good. You look bad if you have failed them and are ineffective as a leader. That is the curse, heavy is the head that wears the crown.

These tenets are things I have learned in the time I have been in corporate America. There are several tenets I learned about leadership that came from the military. Both have come into play in my career and in building the teams I have been lucky enough to be with.

Look for the Drive and Hunger:

You remember the time that you dedicated yourself heart and soul to your craft? You were ravenous and wanted to learn everything you could about what you do and how you do it? I know I've spent endless nights studying, testing, trying, failing and succeeding at new aspects of my job. It would consume my every waking thought. If I had something that stumped me, I would run headlong into the problem until I found a solution.

THAT is what you are looking for in your team. That thirst for knowledge, that hunger for more and more..... that drive. You can't teach that! It is in their DNA and it is instilled in that person so deeply that you can't teach it... It just is. I look for that in people and I will be the first to admit, with some team members it took people knocking me over the head with the obvious stick to see it. I remember a young guy that was on the Helpdesk. He was a happy go lucky and really jolly sort of person. When I had a position come up, I was approached from someone on my team and she recommended him. My first thought was, "That Guy?" he just doesn't seem like he has what we need. Then it was explained to me that he had taught himself a very useful skill in the infosec world and one that is not easy to learn. I heard about how he would work days and study nights, doing labs and learning. He took it upon himself to reach out to my team to see if we needed any help with our technology. He was given a simple project and what came out of him was nothing short of genius. We hired him and haven't looked back since. He is a top performer and continues to make monumental advances not only in his learning but in his day to day performance. Looking for things to fix, and better not only himself, but the company.

Coaching Up or Coaching Out:

This concept is very simple. It works well when you have a team you have adopted or when you have a new hire or team member that may be struggling. Coach them up to their potential and if there is no room for growth you have coached them so they can move out to grow. I have never faulted any one for doing better and bettering themselves in their career. That includes if they have to leave my department or the company to continue their growth. I may joke around with them but I will never stop them from leaving for a better opportunity I could not provide them.

However, if a person does not have the potential for growth or that drive to excel.... It is my job as a leader to coach them out to make room for growth. I know this sounds very cold and calculated, but believe me there is a method to this madness. Headcount is something that most managers struggle for in life. When you are set in your headcount and there is someone that is not pulling their weight, you need to look to why this is happening? There may be several factors to the why:

1. They need training
2. They have personal issues that is stunting their performance
3. They are doing something that they are not grasping or is too complex
4. They are burned out
5. They just are going through the motions and don't care

I highlighted "going through the motions" because most the others we can coach up. We can look at all the individual strengths and weaknesses and determine how they can best help the team and how we can motivate people. But for folks that are there to do their bare minimum, not grow, and collect a paycheck.... Well we have to coach them out. Because in the end it has a negative affect on the team. It is like a cancer, because it can GROW and usually does...... unless you excise it.

I'll give an example, early on in my career I had an employee that was CONSTANTLY late for work. I had the butts in seat attitude and I had defined times for work... (I Know, I know) After talking to them, I found out that they had some personal issues that forced them to now drive their kids to school and they were NEVER going to be able to meet the times I dictated. I didn't know what to do, my Executive Director at the time coached me up. He said stop being so rigid. If they are getting their work done and they are good at what they do, Why do you care when they do it? It took me a second to understand that he was RIGHT. The problem wasn't that they were late. The problem wasn't their work. The problem was ME. Adjusting the work time by 1 hour and allowing for a flex schedule solved everything. It allowed them to not stress over getting to work on time and it taught me a valuable growth lesson. But, I have also dealt with people that did not have drive and would go through the motions of looking like they were working. Or people that were so abrasive that it dragged down the team and caused daily strife. As much as I like to retain good talent sometimes their contribution is nullified by the issues they cause the team and the culture. In most of these cases it may be necessary to have the person leave for the betterment of the team and the culture.

Grow Baby Grow

Now comes the part where you manage yourself out of a job. Your entire job as a leader is to lead, direct and grow your team. That means spotting the talent on the team.... or on other teams, and growing that talent. Education and training is one aspect, but coaching and creating an environment where they are safe to experiment and fail will pay dividends for not only you, but them. At the end of the day if you have talent on your team they should have clear path for growth. Because if you don't provide them the next challenge, the next steps, or promotional growth, SOMEONE ELSE WILL. Even if the company does not have a formalized review process, make sure you talk with you people and give them regular feedback. I always look for talent from the inside first. Because whatever company I work for has spent a lot of time an effort training people and cultivating talent. For me to toss all that out because I want to look external is CRAZY. I should be looking inside first, EVERY time. Even if it is not an exact fit... refer to my first point (Drive and Hunger). The parts that are not exact can be taught.

As these folks grow there needs to be room for them to grow. When that time comes, you will know it. You will have to decide whether they take your spot or are you going to let them leave? I know which one I will do.

Thanks for listening.

Daniel Sergile, CISSP, Deputy CISO, CIOX Health