After a long time, going back to one of my hobby to start writing down
blog. This time almost after a decade, I will be putting some words on my past
10 years’ experience as an engineer/lead/manager/delivery head and many more
hats to wear in nearby future. Hope you will spare few minutes to share your
views as well to adapt & develop strong leadership skills.
To me, Leadership involves a complicated juggling act. You're expected to be
the strategist and visionary, the coach and motivator, the subject matter
expert, the ambassador of company, which means you've got a wide range of
people and tasks competing for your attention every day, and time spent on one
role often comes at the expense of time spent on another. Unless you can
maintain some sense of balance between those roles, you'll being to experience
stress, exhaustion, and burnout. That not only take a hit on your productivity,
but the domino effect from the imbalance impacts your team and organization.
One thing I've learned our past few years is: Deliverable and deadlines
are managerial tasks, while vision and innovation are LEADERSHIP ones.
Defining Diverse Roles of Leadership:
Leader as a Manager: should be methodical,
organized, strategic
- Embracing the manager role:
·
Set the Agenda & Provide Context [bigger picture to team]
·
Make success measurable [quantifiable, deliveries to track weekly,
monthly & quarterly]
·
Monitor the process [approaches taken by team to reach the project goals
& guidelines]
·
Hold them accountable - to reach project goals, quality of artifacts
with timelines & budget
·
Leader as a Subject Matter Expert: Should be able to
provide detailed information be it technical/non-technical, serve as a
trouble-shooter and lead training platforms to build expertise within the organization.
o
Embracing other Roles:
§ Sometimes let go the
need to know everything. Should be open to learn new functional skills
[budgeting, resourcing]
§ Develop intangible skills
[inter-personal, communication, listening, resolving, conflict management,
coaching, etc.]
o
In a nutshell, SMEs provide great value to organization and are strongest
technical pillars.
·
Leader as a Coach: Creates greatest impact
on performance of individuals & teams. Managers focus on facts, sales, expenses,
and results; however, coach always should focus :
o
How can I help each person produce better results?
o
Great coach has a trans formative effect to generate results
o
Some of my suggestions/observations while acting as a Coach are:
§ Get to know your team
members [strength, weakness, long term goals & interests]
§ Guide them in
creating targeted development plans [one-on-one meetings(probably
bi-weekly/monthly), schedule commitments]
§ Provide timely &
supportive feedback [real time feedback observed during project execution in
addition to annual performance review]
§ Ask open ended
questions
§ Avoid providing all
answers to have a fruitful discussion to know their thought process
§ Provide career
guidance for long term success for an organization
·
Leader as a Change Agent: I feel, change agent
can be a differentiator between success and failure of an organization.
o
Few ways an individual can excel in role as Change agent:
§ Know your & your
teams change style preferences
§ Provide explanation
[explain – clarify – reinforce]
§ Think from their perspective
§ Build engagement
& commitment
§ Generate positive environment
& enthusiasm
·
Leader as a
Motivator: Great leaders needs both – substance vs style. Leaders needs very
solid connection with team members.
o
Few Motivation strategies as leader could be:
- o
To establish an inspiring environment [workplace – encouraging]
- o
To bring goals & objectives to life
- o
Tailor your communication
- o
Always maintain forward progress despite challenges
·
Note: Do not
let negativity derail your efforts.
·
Leaders as Visionary: Some of the worlds
greatest leaders are considered as visionary for e.g.: apple, amazon, Facebook,
etc. They developed few strategies as a visionary and below are my few observations:
o
Be insatiably curious [read various subjects, broaden technical knowledge,
and focus on creativity that adds value to organization and customers]
o
Translate your vision into actionable goals
o
Communicate the vision [in short – sell the vision]
o
Continue evolving [keep feedback loop]
Finally, would like to conclude based on my experience, learning & adaption of few strategies/mantras for
leadership success.
Best way to juggle each
roles & how much time should you devote to each role? It all depends on
state of the career, roles, and responsibilities
- ·
Review closely the key list of roles & related activities
- ·
Track your time
- ·
Create a plan for greater balance
- ·
Remain flexible [flexibility is essential will taking up multiple roles]
Great leaders must constantly adapt the changes. Some roles will
instantly take a priority because of the crisis or new opportunities. Make sure
your team is benefiting from every facet of your diverse leadership skills.
I hope this blog will help you in certain extent by applying strategies
at your workplace and achieve success.
Cheers,
Umesh
