A Perceived Lack of Leadership and the Tools to Fix it
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The document discusses the importance of effective leadership characterized by transformational and transactional influence, particularly in addressing team perception issues. It underscores the need for a clear leadership narrative, individual goal-setting, and the flexibility to experiment with new approaches to foster team growth and engagement. It emphasizes that leaders should focus on creating a motivating work environment and mitigating the reliance on authority to enhance team performance.
A Perceived Lack of Leadership and the Tools to Fix it
- 1. A PERCEIVED LACK OF LEADERSHIP …and the tools to fix it!
- 2. HOW TO AVOID THIS PERCEPTION? “ Everyone sees shitheads below them, and assholes above them.”
- 3. Leadership • Influence Not Authority. # • Transformational influence Achieving the desired goal is the reward. Requires aligning org’s goals and individual’s goals. • Transactional influence Reward in exchange for achieving the desired goal. Requires influence elsewhere to help achieve individual’s goals. NOTE: Proper understanding of an individual’s goals, is required in both the approaches. # Think of how an ideal tech-lead is forced to rely on their influence to get things done. Contrast this to a poor reporting manager who wields authority and relies solely on that crutch, and hence may never develop effective influence.
- 4. A Clear Leadership Narrative Your Story. Your Vision. Jobs' vision of the iPhone as 3 devices in one! I will build a motor car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one – and enjoy with his family the pleasure in God's great open spaces. - Henry Ford (on Model T) What's your Vision ?
- 6. (!) (!) (!) (!) Perception (within the team) = insufficient focus on these aspects nowadays ? Team loses faith in the leadership!
- 7. Potential Fixes (to avoid the false perceptions) False Perception (about the leader) A Clear Leadership Narrative Bottom-up experiments Doesn’t have the flexibility to change opinions “What we are trying is NOT a solved problem. We do NOT know how we will get there from here” Maybe approach-A, possibly approach-B. - What do YOU think? - Are there any better ideas? - If you think of any in future, do share immediately. No outdated hard-and-fast rules. Team can discover and switch to ways to work more efficiently by eliminating throwaway/redundant work. Isn’t open to new ideas and approaches Isn’t committed to my ongoing training After publishing the narrative within the team, follow-up with individual discussions with each IC, to identify/define short-term (3month, 6month, 1yr) objective goals. Help individuals experiment to enable them to figure out what works best for them. Ensure individual’s growth, avoid stagnation / boredom / sense of being stuck in a dead-end job. Isn’t helping me grow into a next-generation leader What is the leader’s long-term vision, for the current ICs, say 5years from now? Also, make it evident to each individual what the leader is doing to ensure/help them achieve their respective short-term goals identified above. How can this address the false perceptions…
- 8. How could a Leader apply the tools at their disposal to address this situation? 1. Transformational Influence 2. Transactional Influence 3. A Clear Leadership Narrative 4. Bottom-up Experiments A Case Study The team is unhappy with the current work / workflow This manifests as consistently missing sprint deadlines.
- 9. A POTENTIAL SOLUTION A Case Study The team is unhappy with the current work / workflow • Write down your Leadership Narrative / Vision and share it with your team. • Subsequently, during a sprint planning meeting, kick-start a discussion along these lines… “OK. I see that you have estimated and planned nearly 10days of effort for the upcoming sprint. Now, here’s an idea I have. I know it sounds totally weird, but it is something i would really like us to try… If we manage to wrap-up the above 10days of tasks within say 9days, you can spend 1day as you please. We could spend the day doing what you want, or <insert an activity discussed earlier to help achieve individual’s short-term goals>, or <insert low-priority activity of interest currently being ignored>, or you could even take the day off without officially applying for leave. Don’t get me wrong, I am NOT questioning the current effort estimate. I agree, it is 10 days of work. However, we have been running these sprints for last several months and I think it has become a bit boring. I think if you can come-up with creative ways to avoid any duplicate/wasted effort, it might be possible to save some time in these repeated activities. In the past I have sometimes spent an additional hour each day for a few days and then managed to have a day to relax. Or we could automate some of the current manual steps. Maybe you can think of something else too? Again, this is just a thought. No harm in trying, right? Any time saved is yours to spend how you like. What do you think?” Transformational Influence Transactional Influence Transformational Influence Goals identified earlier by : Clear Leadership Narrative + Individual goal-setting Bottom-Up experiments and ideas
- 10. A Case Study The team is unhappy with the current work / workflow BTW, how did we get into this situation though? • Insufficient top-down narrative? • Insufficient bottom-up experiments? • Too much reliance on Authority? (instead of working towards developing influence) • Something else?... SIDEBAR DISCUSSION
- 11. References / Recommended Reading • The Most Important Leadership Competencies hbr.org/2016/03/the-most-important-leadership-competencies-according-to-leaders-around-the-world • The Power of a Clear Leadership Narrative sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-power-of-a-clear-leadership-narrative • You think you have authority? Think again! hbr.org/2009/07/leadership-in-a-permanent-crisis