This post will gather some of the ideas I consider important to keep in mind when leading & choosing a team.
About Leadership
To learn how to lead is one of the most challenging and useful soft skills that a person may work towards improving everyday. Although understanding the theory is important, being able to apply it in real world situations allows us to comprehend what works and what doesn’t.
This requires a high level of introspection and emotional intelligence, which is formed by taking a few steps back in the process and recognizing faults and successes. Having introspection allows us to recognize when to lead, when to follow and how to improve our problem solving when dealing with situations and teams. This is why, for leadership, ”learning through failure’ is a motto, and failure is always an option.
I view leadership as the ability to 1. Communicate clearly, 2. Motivate the team and 3. Deliver results.
1. Communicate clearly:
Good communication allows us to find the right balance in quantity, time and assertiveness of words and gestures. Making the effort of communicating well to the client and to the team constantly, clearly and with tact is something that should not be taken for granted and makes a world of difference, in professional and personal life.
Doing assertive communication can be tough. Fortunately, Agile methodologies give us suggestions on when, how often and how to communicate to both the client and the team, by following procedures such as dailies for daily tasks, team retrospectives and sprint reviews.
It is very important to take advantage of team introspection such as 360’s and one on ones. The principal rule is to always praise in public and discipline in private, as it is important not to discourage the “troops”. And it is always good to accompany praise with criticism and thanksgiving, as we all are human and grow from criticism. When facing tough conversations, it is always great to emphasize first, don’t let feelings get into the conversation, dont gossip and keep a good attitude.
One of the leadership models I like to use is Radical Candor’s leadership model, in which in order to succeed, your communication has to challenge directly and care personally.
- Challenging people is a great way to show you care. It means you share your humble opinions directly, without taking them as the absolute truth. Taking advantage of moments of full transparency allows us to deal with the “elephant in the room” and ultimately, gives us a chance to solve issues and to foster team building.
- Caring personally gives an opportunity to bring humanity to the professional that one must be, and allows growth within the team as all of us want to succeed and all of us need help every once in a while.You’re told you have to be professional. Your entire working life you’ve been told to be professional. Too often, that’s code for leaving your humanity at home.
2. Motivate the team .
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
Cory Booker
The second ability that builds from leadership is team motivation. Being able to solve problems together is the whole point of leadership, in which in order to build strong relationships with my team, I have to care personally for each other, and show enough vulnerability to the team to create a safe place where we all work for the best of the team. I believe in creating a culture of feedback, build a cohesive team and achieve great results.
Care personally and challenge directly also allows honesty and transparency to be in the center of all things, but with tact and considering the humans and their motivations, always assuming that the other person might be knowing/feeling something that I don’t know.
To be a leader, you have to handle your own ego. Humans are competitive by nature, but if a leader is conscious about it, s(he) will be able to redirect that competitiveness towards other rivals and maintain camaraderie within the team. We all want to succeed. As a leader I am both a servant to the team needs and an organizer.
It is necessary to manage accountability within each team member without turning into a command-and-control or micomanaging leader. Telling people what to do doesn’t work, so the best to look forward is successful collaboration.
Finally, as a leader and motivator it is important to show trust and develop talent. This can be done by effectively handling tasks and responsibilities to team members. It is also important to have a space available for team members to express their creativity and opinions, and possibly create improvements from the discussion of these suggestions.
3. Deliver results
Create a culture of feedback, build a cohesive team and achieve great results.
With great communication and great team motivation, a team should be able to get the results needed. However, it is important to keep in mind constantly the goals needed to succeed, and to be flexible enough when things don’t come out as planned. This is why agile also helps, as it allows flexibility and goal planning to be always present.
The results of good leadership are fulfilling relationships, improved decision making + collaboration, increased productivity + performance, employee engagement + retention, and a culture of guidance.
Also, a leader should keep the big picture in mind, so that results are delivered according to priority and MVP.
Finally, It is necessary to manage accountability within each team member. Which daily tasks really help on considering having a roadmap and timeline, still considering that rarely never goes as planned, helps deliver the results needed.
In normal times, companies can work with good administrators. However, in difficult times true leaders are needed. They should be inspiring and inspired, visionary, team builders, passionate, inspiring with example, resourceful and with clear goals defined.
“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often..”
Winston Churchill
“To lead means to look forward”
Henry Fayol
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts”
Winston Churchill
Literature Recommended
Daniel Goleman> what makes a leader
