The learning in Leadership

There are many books on Leadership but there is no substitute for the learning through experience.

Still I thought of sharing a few things among us with expectation that my findings may match to the experiences of some others and may help learn the same thing quickly through relating to their experiences.

Keeping the team above Personal Ego

I learnt this hard way. There is always an input which will be the major triggering point that alone can never be the reason for transformation. It could be the input at a right time when I was already prepared for a change. For example, Lord Buddha didn't transform just by sitting under Bodhi tree. By that time he already experienced a lot  and the summary of findings reached to the conclusion at the time when he rested under this tree. 

Before I deviate to elaborate more about lord Buddha, let me come back to the topic.

When I was young, I used to fight for the team in aggressive manner and in one occasion one of my manager told that he doesn't need a union leader. Instead he wanted a leader who meets the agenda of his manager. With that we finished talking and the cause for which I fought was not met. In fact I moved out of that unit and preferred to work elsewhere. However when I looked back, I see it as my failure because for my ego, I sacrificed the team interests.

The real change happened when I watched a program in a US Channel. I don't remember the name of the program (Something like "You are fired"). It was a reality show where bulk hiring happens for specific requirements. The applicants are formed in to teams and are given tasks. The audience see how the team lead and team members discuss and execute the deliverable. In one episode the Project manager was blaming the team and was claiming that she did everything right but the team didn't support. She was fired. The anchor explained that she was fired because she kept her personal interests above the team. 

Probably that was the perfect timing for me to understand one of the important leadership principles and there was a change.

I was able to follow the principle and it always gave me tremendous happiness on every achievement that helped the team.

There was one instance when reorganization happened in my unit when the unit was dissolved with an intent that individual delivery units will be managing the functions of my erstwhile unit in the way they want. Because of that me along with about 15 leaders were role less and we were given time for 3 months to find roles in the new organization. There were many roles available in the new Organization Model but my first focus was to accommodate my team in safe places.  I worked hard to move my team to various functions like Line HR, Testing and other units. I cleaned up the entire team while the team didnt even know the news of Reorganization as it was not even announced by that time. It took almost 3 months for me to do this exercise and by that time all my colleagues found the roles. But I was still happy about completing my first responsibility. I found my own options in the 11th hour and got the opportunity to work with one of the best leaders I ever had. That new role helped me get the much awaiting visibility in the organization.

There was another incident when in another leadership role, I lost my team due to a very high level leadership decision to lay off many of team members from all units and my unit was also effected. I was a mere spectator when this shocking change happened. But unlike my earlier approach, I tried to negotiate with the leadership to retain some of the members. The missing item was my aggression as I wanted to be more practical and team was above my EGO. There was no immediate success but slowly I was able recall most of the lost members without impacting the organization interest. I worked with no rest to ensure that the entire team is either accommodated elsewhere or is back to my team.

My journey continues but my restraint is helping me in every step. Unfortunately I am still aggressive when it matters just for me. I may need another Bodhi Tree to make the needed transformation in this aspect as well :).

Many compromise to live with them but you question them

One thing I learned from one of my managers is to question when everyone decided to live with them. There are always conditions because of which certain practices or patterns are accepted  But they can be changed by questioning. For instance, I procured  Network Bandwidth and the vendor said 4-6 weeks as the delivery lead time. I see people planning to take the next steps from 6th week by simple acceptance of Vendor's delivery time. When insisted the delivery happened in a week or so. There were many such when we met commitments much earlier than committed but before that we thought the schedules were quite aggressive.

Stick to Basics: Many times this is sufficient to meet the challenges
Whenever we want to do drastic transformations, we look at defining a new process, invent a Best Practice, create a task force, committee, Panel and what not. But we need to realize that many challenges were arising because we dont even look at the fundamentals. For example, to demonstrate our expertise in a technology we may not need great inventions in the technology. Just verify whether we are following the basics. To name a few, we miss following the design and coding standards, naming conventions, a simple practice of aligning to Version Control, Standard testing procedures and Documentation. If we overlook these basics and try to invent something from nowhere it may be another reinvent of the wheel rather than invention.