Leadership in the wild

'Great leaders aren’t those who make great decisions, but those who create environments where great decisions are made’. I’ve paraphrased that a little from a leadership model I encountered recently.? It’s stuck with me as a personal mantra, because it succinctly summarises a great deal of what I have strived for over the last 2 years.

My Leadership Learning Environment:

A few years back, I landed a dream role. Having worked with Agile models for a while, consulting on transformations and leading chapters, I was offered the chance to lead an end-to-end tribe. It was a fantastic opportunity, especially since it had solid foundations laid out by my predecessor.

This was a chance to really test myself and accelerate my understanding and expertise around effectively leading cross-functional teams.? You see some 10 years ago I was coached that agile teams are ‘self-leading’ and my job as a leader was to step back.? This grotesque misinterpretation of the ‘self-managing’ nature of agile teams, and the resulting failure to lead, was the catalyst for me to transform my own understanding of what authentic and empowering leadership actually is.?

I was coached that agile teams are ‘self-leading’ and my job as a leader was to step back

So take two, and I deliberately set out to effectively lead an empowered team who had the tools and knowledge to effectively self-manage, whilst remaining aligned to the business unit and organisation. Could I actually set an environment up where this model worked like it was supposed to?

The approach I took was to focus on 3 things: Clarity of what was important; Accountability for understanding and delivering; and Reinforcement through key moments of truth.

1)????? Clarity:

That dusty strategy, vision, purpose, mission, value thing in your folder, that you saved to the team's confluence page.? Does it deliver clarity? ?If the teams aren’t using it as a daily guidebook, then it’s wallpaper:

• Make it meaningful for your teams – Often a corporate version will be too lofty. If needed, don’t be afraid to write down your own aligned version.? Use storytelling to imbue meaning, especially from a customer's perspective.
• Make it directional – Test it. If there is a choice/priority to be made, does it help? If not it's garbage.

If there is a choice/priority to be made, does it help? If not, it's garbage.

• Keep communicating and reinforcing it, sliding it into conversations, celebrating successes through the lenses.? Tell the story time and again. This also goes for your stakeholders, they must align with you on what is important, and share your vision of success. If you feel like people must be sick of hearing you talk about it, you're probably only just starting to cut through.
• Coach out deviants – If teams progress work outside the direction, use these to robustly test the strategy.? Adjust the strategy (hopefully not) or use deviant work to question your leaders about their decisions, and why they are backing that work.?
• Measure – down to a team level.? What are the measures that each team can actually move to get us closer to where we want to be.

If your team are making poor decisions, look at yourself first.? Have you given them the decision frameworks they need to be successful?? These issues are coaching opportunities, not because the coachee is poor at what they are doing, but because you need to focus more leadership time with them and align their understanding.

2) Accountability:

Who cares enough? This is crucial; it involves designing and motivating your teams so that everyone understands what they need to focus on.

• Structured accountabilities – Implement a consistent framework for setting accountabilities. We utilised the 'value chain' to model how customer value is generated, delineating how each team's responsibilities contribute to the next, culminating in customer satisfaction. This clarified who needed to be involved and at which stage.
• Outcomes, not outputs – Focus on the desired outcomes, not just a checklist of tasks. If a team lacks accountability or ownership but continues to find work, consider this an opportunity for cost savings.
• Right people, right job – Align people’s natural tendencies and interests with their responsibilities. Embrace self-selection to harness individuals' best qualities.

Align people’s natural tendencies and interests with their responsibilities.

• Product management vs. Product ownership – Understanding the distinction between these roles and the value they add is vital when assigning accountabilities, particularly for leaders in traditional businesses. For further insights, refer to this link .
• Leadership accountabilities – When decisions affect multiple teams with conflicting priorities, leaders must intervene. These moments allow you to provide guidance and set precedents rather than making isolated decisions.
• Measure – Without measurable success, accountability is difficult to establish. Clear metrics also signal when to celebrate achievements.

I often observe teams that possess tasks (work items) but lack accountability. Such 'flow-to-work' teams tend to be 'bad tourists', picking and choosing without a clear mandate.

3)????? Reinforcement

Your teams will set themselves up based on the design you put in place, but it is your actions that create the culture and the buy-in to your model.? The conversations that happen when you are not in the room are the most important, and they reflect how you turn up at key times.? Here are a few moments of truth that you need to leverage to nurture your model.

• Challenges – Responding to barriers and challenges is crucial. If your team is accountable and requires your assistance, it's essential to demonstrate that you share their priorities. Your top priority should be to support them through these challenges, reinforcing that their concerns are equally important to you.
• Success – When goals are achieved, it's important to acknowledge the success. Celebrate and share the victory, connect it to the overall strategy, and emphasize its significance with your stakeholders. Positive reinforcement at this moment can strengthen your resolve and energise your team for future challenges.
• Change – As priorities shift, the decision-making framework must also evolve. Delays in updating this framework within your teams can lead to misalignment and tension. Swiftly providing clarity enables teams to adapt and align more readily. In times of uncertainty, acknowledge the ambiguity and encourage teams to understand that these are areas requiring additional dialogue and consensus as the direction is being established.

Empowerment should not be confused with passive leadership. That is simply negligence.

This isn't rocket science, yet time and again leaders who experiment with empowering teams fail to actually lead them through it. Empowerment should not be confused with passive leadership, as that is simply negligence.

My experience of concentrating on these things was fascinating, and hugely accelerated my development as a leader. I certainly don't profess to being ultra-proficient at all this, and will admit to several failures, and self-intervention moments, when I failed to live up to my own standards. I also made sure that the team were aware of my intent, and opened up a space for feedback so that I knew what wasn't working.

All in all, I can proudly say that with the right environment the model works. We tried and failed together, but iteration was easy because we were aligned on what success looked like. Our team was really humming and delivering at pace. The leaders brought their natural brilliance to their roles and made faster and more effective decisions where they needed to. I can honestly say that it was one of the most rewarding leadership experiences that I have ever had. I will be quick to reiterate though, how much effort it took to get there and the significant support I needed to lead, both from my leaders, my partners and my team.