Leadership Adaptations

 Aspiring managers often go to business school to learn valuable leadership methodologies. They then go into industry to apply those methods with varying levels of success. The theories that are learned in school generally have to be adapted to specific situations, and shouldn’t be assumed to be a “one size fits all”. Methods that worked wonderfully in one situation may completely fail in another.

Before asking a new team to do something, a leader must learn the landscape. They should generally focus on evolution as opposed to revolution. A small change can often make a huge difference, whereas a huge change can throw the entire group into chaos. As a software engineer, I often reviewed code and could not understand why something was coded in a specific manner, that looked like a foolish way to do it. It was only after changing it to what looked normal, did I find out that the standard method didn’t work for whatever reason, and in order to implement the feature, a weird workaround was needed. This is true across industries. Whenever a new leader sees a workflow that doesn’t look like it makes sense, the first thing to do is to assume that there is a good reason for it. Assume the team is not a bunch of bumbling idiots and that they tried to do it the more normal way first. Sometimes they’ll be mistaken and will find that there was no reason for it, but most of the time they’ll learn that the situation on the ground is more complex than they initially thought.

Culture makes a big difference in the way that a team is led. Each team has their own culture, which should fit into the department’s and organization’s. A new leader should first understand the culture and how the team operates before asking them to do something that conflicts with their existing system. This culture may include: 

• how assignments are given out and to whom
• how decisions are made
• specific language used
• systems of accountability and responsibility
• method of doing retrospectives

Decisions should always be heavily influenced by the people in the trenches, the ones doing the actual work. When a leader makes a demand that doesn’t meet reality, it will cause undue stress to them and will most likely fail. If a leader doesn’t ask for and incorporate feedback from his team, they will most likely make a minor protest, at best, and then try to implement the decision, which they already know isn’t going to work.  Unfortunately, a lot of workers have learned to work with their heads down and follow directions. If they do what the boss says and it doesn’t work, they certainly can’t be blamed.  The goal is to empower the workers and add accountability and responsibility to their work. When people feel that what they say and do actually makes a difference, they will start looking at the big picture and provide the real value that they have to offer. This does not mean that the leader shouldn’t make unpopular decisions. If they understand the situation on the ground as well as the challenges and decide that from a strategic perspective it is worth the risk, they should explain their decision and what they hope to gain, and charge forward.

Not everyone on the team has the same skillset, even if they are qualified for the same job. A leader needs to learn the personalities and qualities of the team members. There is a mixture of soft-skills and technical skills that are not specifically required for the job. Examples of these are: 

• External communications
• Graphics and layout capabilities
• Process diagramming
• Consensus building
• Public speaking/Presenting

Make sure you are using the right people for the right tasks. Speak to each person and find out if there are other areas that they are interested in. Using your team properly and investing in growing their skills professionally in the direction that they want to take will pay dividends. As Sir Richard Branson said, “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don't want to”.

By adapting your business acumen to the specific situation at hand, you will be able to take advantage of all that your team has to offer while avoiding the pitfalls often seen among newer leaders.