This week has been an interesting one for me, and as such,
it has led me to my topic this week. I will be circling back again to some more
info on Agile BI, and specifically on the service-oriented methods. This week
though, we are talking about leading people and inspiring loyalty. Early in the
week, I received a very interesting offer to leave the post-secondary institution
I have been working at for the last year and move into a consulting firm. I
spent the week agonizing and weighing pros and cons of both. Eventually, I
decided to stay where I am and continue building up enterprise BI, following
the structure of a six-year roadmap I have been working from.
The primary motivation for staying where I am: in a word,
loyalty. There are fantastic people I work with who are driven and passionate
about what we are building. But the primary thing that made the decision easier
for me, was not the loyalty I have, but rather the loyalty I was shown. Both of
my colleagues in data management asked me, on a personal level, to stay. Both used
the same words to describe what their reasons were for wanting me to stay, and
that struck a nerve with me. I thought about what I was giving to my team, and
what that looks like to others.
To put this in some perspective, we have a mixed matrix
structure at the office, and I do not sit at the top. I do not hold a position
as a manager, or even a team lead. I am a senior BI analyst and run backup as
DBA for liability coverage. Having such a small team to work with (there are
three of us) though, has given us plenty of opportunity to all work together
and help each other out. I come from a background of leading people, and I
believe it when it was pointed out to me that I have the “no man left behind”
philosophy as a hold over from my military days.
We do not always get to choose the people we work with, but
this has never been an issue for me. I lead naturally from the front, and those
that want to follow, are welcome to join. It does not take a long time for the
people I work with to make the decision to either keep up, or not. This leads me
to the core of this week’s argument. From my experience as a leader, team leader,
manager and executive, I have only two rules about leading people. These two
rules are the only rules you need to affectively lead people and inspire
loyalty in the people you lead. These two things are also the two things I get
from my current manager, and it is more than enough for me to respect him as a
leader, and as a person.
Number One: Challenge your people, constantly.
I do not mean be difficult or push them to constantly feel
overworked. This isn’t about piling on hundreds of hours of menial tasks that
you just don’t want to do. I mean, actually challenging them to do better and
be better at what they do. Push the limits of their comfort zone and introduce
them to new tasks that make them think and become engaged in their work. Find
out what drives them and use it to push them forward. Make them better at what
they do by leading them towards the things they want to do, and task them to
discover more, learn more, and be more than they are, every day.
Challenge yourself as much, or more than those around you.
Find the things that will make you a better leader, a better worker, and a
better person and face them head on. Lead from the front by challenging yourself
and showing results. It will inspire those that want to follow to do the same. My
father has always said of me that to reach for the moon was too easy, Saturn is
out there somewhere. No truer words have ever been said.
Number Two: Support your people, always.
Again, I will start with what I do not mean. I do not mean
hold their hands and guide them through each step. I do not mean to do work for
them. These are your colleagues, and they are adults (In theory). What I mean
is, support them in facing the challenges you present. Send them articles and
links that would interest them, that show them the way forward, and open their
minds. Suggest webinars, seminars, and conferences. Push them to seek out
authors and to read about the things that inspire them. Help them think or
rethink solutions to problems. Play devil’s advocate and continue to challenge
them to think from new perspectives.
Support yourself in the same way. Seek out new ideas, new
perspectives and different ways of solving the problems you are facing at work.
Reach out to the same colleagues and lean on their expertise as well. Engage
with them on things that are difficult. Working together as a team is not a
sign of weakness, and it is not a sign of poor leadership. If you are open about
the issues being faced, and earnest in seeking perspective, you will build a
strong and solid team, and one that will follow you into the very depths of
hell.
That is all there is to it. There is no “magic bullet” here,
just earnest, open, honest hard work as a team. Work together to push and drive
each other, don’t separate yourself from your team, and lead from the front,
constantly challenging and always supporting. I suppose that would fall as the secret
third rule. If you want to lead a team instead of just manage people, do not separate
yourself from them. You don’t necessarily need to sit in the middle of your
team, you earned that office after all, but don’t be absent either. If your
team only hears from you as you assign tasks and collect results, you are not
leading the team. You can be replaced by a Kanban board and an algorithm.
As a final note for those who struggle with the belief that
because you are a manager you are infallible, or otherwise above your team in
some way; you are not either of those. We are all human, and we all crave the
same things: respect, challenge, and support.
I have had four fantastic managers in my lifetime. Four out
of dozens. All four of these people worked very visibly within their teams, challenged
me, supported me in facing those challenges, and solely led from the front.
Currently, the two different managers I work with, follow at least two of the 2
and a half rules above. I am extremely lucky to be surround by people that have
chosen to follow me, and I have chosen to follow, and that is worth more than
dollars in a lot of cases.
Cheers!
SQLDoch