There is always a post about leadership, innovation, and personnel development around agile project management. Having applied one of the early agile development programs (eXtreme Programming) in a mission-critical IT organization, I was part of an approach that is known to work for building leadership and teams, described in Making the Impossible Possible: Leading Extraordinary Performance - The Rocky Flats Story
. The process leading high performance programs focuses on the team and accomplishing the mission of the team. Where team members self-organize for a common goal. As well as leading and managing guided by Shackleton
, our approach was from?Katzenbach's
?definition of a team, which is a ...
A small group of qualified individuals who hold each other mutually accountable for the shared outcome
In today's touchy-feely school of self-actualized management, this approach may sound harsh to some. But good teams always hold each other?accountable, as well as good families and good friends.?Qualified?individuals are a critical attribute, and a?Shared Outcome?is the purpose of any project, family, marriage, business, sports team, or any business team, be it private profit, non-profit, or government. [?]
Using Shackleton's example, here's an approach that has documented success.
Developing Leadership Skills
- Cultivate a sense of compassion and responsibility for others. You have a bigger impact on the lives of those under you than you can imagine.
- Once you make a career decision, commit to sticking through the tough learning period.
- Do your part to help create an upbeat environment at work. A positive and cheerful workplace is important to productivity.
- Broaden your cultural and social horizons beyond your usual experiences. Learning to see things from different perspectives will give you greater flexibility in problem-solving at work.
- In a rapidly changing world, be willing to venture in new directions to seize new opportunities and learn new skills.
- Find a way to turn setbacks and failures to your advantage. This would be a good time to step forward on your own.
- Be bold in vision and careful in planning. Dare to try something new, but be meticulous enough in your proposal to give your ideas a good chance of succeeding.
- Learn from past mistakes – yours and those made by others. Sometimes the best teachers are the bad bosses and the negative experiences.
- Never insist on reaching a goal at any cost. It must be achieved at a reasonable expense, without undue hardship for your staff.
- Don’t be drawn into public disputes with rivals. Rather, engage in respectful competition. You may need their cooperation someday.
Selecting and Organizing a Crew
- Start with a solid core of workers you know from past jobs or who come recommended by trusted colleagues.
- Your Number 2 is your most important hire. Pick one who complements your management style, shows loyalty without being a yes–man (or woman), and has a talent for working with others.
- Hire those who share your vision. Someone who clashes with your personality or the corporate culture will hinder your work.
- Be a creative, unconventional interviewer if you seek creative, unconventional people. Go deeper than job experience and expertise. Ask questions that reveal a candidate’s personality, values, and perspective on work and life.
- Surround yourself with cheerful, optimistic people. They will reward you with the loyalty and camaraderie vital for success.
- Applicants who are hungriest for the job are apt to work hardest to keep it.
- To weed out the potential slackers, choose workers willing to tackle any job and take a turn at the unpopular tasks.
- Hire those with the talents and expertise you need to gain. Don’t feel threatened by them. They will help you stay on the cutting edge and bring distinction to your organization.
- Spell out clearly to new employees the exact duties and requirements of their jobs and how they will be compensated. Many failed work relationships start with a need for more communication.
- To help your staff do top–notch work, give them the best equipment you can afford. Working with outdated, unreliable tools creates an unnecessary burden.
Forging a United Team
- Take the time to observe before acting, especially if you are new to the scene. All changes should be aimed at improvements. Don’t make changes just for the sake of leaving your mark.
- Always keep the door open to your staff members, and be generous with information that affects them. Well–informed employees are more eager and better prepared to participate.
- Establish order and routine on the job so all workers know where they stand and what is expected of them. The discipline makes the staff feel they’re in capable hands.
- Break down traditional hierarchies and cliques by training workers to do several jobs, from the menial to the challenging.
- Where possible, have employees work together on certain tasks. It builds trust and respect, and even friendship.
- Be fair and impartial in meting out compensation, workloads, and punishments. Imbalances make everyone feel uncomfortable, even the favored.
- Lead by example. Chip in to help with the work you’re having others do. It allows you to set a high standard and show respect for the job.
- Have regular gatherings to build esprit de corps. These could be informal lunches that allow workers to speak freely outside the office. Or they could be special holidays or anniversary celebrations that let employees relate to each other as people rather than only as colleagues.
Developing Individual Talent
- Create a comfortable work environment to entice professionals to spend most of their waking hours there. Allow for some personal preferences.
- Be generous with programs that promote the well–being of your staff. Healthy bodies and minds are more productive.
- Make sure each employee has challenging and important work. Even the lowest–ranking workers must feel they are making a valuable and appreciated contribution to the company.
- Match the person to the position. Be observant of the types of people working for you and what jobs might best suit their personalities and their experience.
- Give consistent feedback on performance. Most workers feel they don’t get nearly enough words of praise and encouragement.
- Strive for work relationships that have a human and professional element. No matter how large your company is, get to know as many employees as possible. Memorize their interests as you can chat about something other than work.
- Reward the individual as well as the group. Public acknowledgment of a job well done – a birthday or a work anniversary – will make an employee feel appreciated.
- Be tolerant. Know each employee’s strengths and weaknesses, and set reasonable expectations. Occasionally indulging individuals, even if you think they’re being too needy, can have a powerful effect, especially in high–stress situations.
Getting the Group Through a Crisis
- When crisis strikes, immediately address your staff. Take charge of the situation, offer a plan of action, ask for support, and show absolute confidence in a positive outcome.
- Get rid of unnecessary middle layers of authority, direct leadership is more effective in emergency situations.
- Plan several options in detail. Get a grasp of the possible consequences of each, always keeping your eye on the big picture.
- Streamline supplies and operations so they won’t slow you down.
- Give your staff an?occasional reality check to keep them on course. After a time, people will start treating a crisis situation as business as usual and lose focus.
- Keep your malcontents close to you. Resist your instinct to avoid them and instead try to win them over and gain their support.
- Defuse tension. In high–stress situations, use humor to put people at ease and keep your staff busy.
- Let go of the past. Don’t waste time or energy regretting past mistakes or fretting over what you can’t change.
- Ask for advice and information from various sources, but ultimately make decisions based on your best judgment.
- Let all people involved in the crisis participate in the solution, even if that means doling out some less vital work.
- Be patient. Sometimes the best course of action is to do nothing but watch and wait.
- Give your staff plenty of time to get used to the idea of an unpopular decision by leaking early details.
Forming Groups for the Toughest Tasks
- The best way to handle the biggest tasks is often to divide the staff into teams. Create units that are self–sufficient, but understand they won’t all be equal. When considering the big picture, it is more important that the teams are balanced.
- Make sure you have some crackerjack groups that can handle the toughest challenges. They can also help others to ensure team members stay caught up.
- Give the tedious assignment to the workhorses who don’t complain. Let them know you know you are giving them an outsized task and that you count on their goodwill and exceptional fortitude to get the job done.
- Empower the team leaders so they have the authority to handle their worn group, but keep an eye on the details. Never let yourself be surprised by problems down the road.
- Don’t be afraid to change your mind when you see your plan isn’t working. You won’t look indecisive if you show the logic of your changes.
- Be self–sacrificing. Give whatever perks it is in your power to dispense.
- Give a show of confidence in those acting in your stead. Your support staff must maintain the same level of competency you set in your absence.
- Never point out the weaknesses of the individual in front of others. Often, it’s better to let everyone share in a remedy aimed at a few. Chances are, even the strongest will benefit from it.
Finding the Determination to Move Forward
- Go–for–broke risks become more acceptable as options narrow. Sometimes the potential rewards at the end of a daring venture justify the risk of suffering a spectacular failure.
- Seek inspiration in enduring wisdom that has comforted or motivated you or others in times of crisis. It will get you through the most physically and emotionally draining times and help you to keep your perspective.
- Congratulate yourself and others for a job well done. A pat on the back or a sincere handshake is an expression of personal thanks and gratitude that has never gone out of fashion.
- Motivate your staff to be independent. You will be determined to succeed independently if you have been a good leader.
- Let your staff inspire you. An overwhelming workload may sometimes force you to consider lowering your standards. Remember that the final product must represent the best efforts of the entire group.
- Even in the most stressful situations, don’t forget that you are part of a larger world that might benefit from your expertise. Participating in community and family activities can give skills useful on the job.
- Make sure the whole job is done. Your staff may be able to call it quits after the heavy lifting is over, but you are responsible for seeing the work through to its successful completion.
Thoughts on Leadership
- “There are many good things in the world, but I’m not sure that comradeship is not the best of them all – to know that you can do something big for another chap.”
- “Optimism is true moral courage.”
- “Leadership is a fine thing, but it has its penalties. And the greatest penalty is loneliness.”
- “A man must shape himself to a new mark directly. The old one goes to ground.”
- “The loyalty of your men is a sacred trust you carry. It is something, which must never be betrayed, something you must live up to.”
- “I have often marveled at the thin line which separates success from failure.”
- “You often have to hide from them not only the truth but your feelings about it. You may know that the facts are dead against you, but you mustn’t say so.”
- “If you’re a leader, a fellow?that other fellows look to, you’ve got to keep going.”
? I try to attend our Agile meetups here in Boulder. Several have been on the topic of teaming, teams, and coaching. I find it troubling sometimes that the notion of a Team does not reflect how any team I've ever worked on, been a member of, or led works. I played competitive sports in college (Volleyball), coached women's Volleyball for our daughter, and managed teams for developers and project managers.?We came to Katzenbach's approach at Rocky Flats, where?teaming?was a critical success factor.?Making the Impossible Possible: Leading Extraordinary Performance, Rocky Flats
?is the book about the program. There and on other programs after RFETS (here's a summary of that program
), the notion of a team was crystal clear.?
Some More References
