Five Hats - The Leader

A few months ago, I suggested there were "five hats" that a Software Development Manager wore in their day to day job. These hats are -

1. The Leader
2. The Manager
3. The Troubleshooter
4. The Ambassador
5. The Coach

It's finally time to look at these in more detail, and so today I want to talk about Hat #1 - The Leader. There has been so much written about leadership that you might wonder if I have anything new to add. The straight answer is "no" - however, I'll be looking to apply some ideas that are already out there to our context.

One of the worlds great authorities on Leadership is John Kotter from Harvard. He states that leaders "...don't make plans; they don't solve problems; they don't even organize people. What leaders really do is prepare organizations for change and help them cope as they struggle through it." (HBR, 1990) When you have your Leader hat on you are changing things - your team first, and later on the whole organisation.

Leadership involves creating and managing change - that's the what. Ok, how do we about it? I've read many different ideas on this, but they all boil down to one thing; setting a new direction for the organisation, and then aligning people to that direction.

What sort of "new directions" will you be setting as a Software Development Manager? There a lots of possibilities, ranging from the small to the large. But they will generally fall in the area of new projects, new technologies and new methodologies. Here are some examples -

1. This year, we will release our first mobile application
2. By years end, we will be writing all new software in NewTech(TM)
3. Starting next project, we will review all code before release

You'll notice that most of these had dates attached to them, which seems appropriate to me for direction setting at the departmental level. But that can be disputed.

So you've chosen your new direction - how do you go about aligning people to it? This is really where the "art" comes in, as there is no formula. It seems to me there are two essential elements, though - trust and communication. If you have built up trust with your team over time, they are far more likely to buy into your new direction. Building trust takes time and effort. In my experience, you earn it by being scrupulously honest and fair over a long period of time.

Communication is the other element. You need to be talking about your new direction with your department, both individually and as a group. You need to help them understand why you think this is important. You need to understand their own priorities and needs as well, so you can find common ground with your direction. When you are talking about new projects, technologies and methodologies, there is an obvious advantage to the developer, as such things tend to increase their market value. I'm never embarrassed to point that out.

Much more could be said on this topic, and I doubtless will do so later. In the mean time, there are plenty of books an articles on this topic - you won't lack for reading.

How to Sidestep the Excellence Trap

Some controversial ideas here. But I think they are sound - if you say "failure is not an option", then people will not try new things or learn. Worse, they will try and cover up mistakes and begin to develop dishonest habits.

12 Most Appealing Boss Behaviors

We really like lists, don't we? Especially in business articles. The five steps to success. The three things you need to start doing now. The seven things you need to stop doing. And so on.

Having said that, I did like this list of "appealing boss behaviours" -

1. Wants you to succeed
2. Always has time to talk
3. Turns mistakes into teaching opportunities
4. Keeps you on your toes
5. Doesn’t micromanage
6. Has consistent expectations
7. Has high expectations
8. Conducts formal performance reviews
9. Communicates clearly and directly
10. Is decisive
11. Takes responsibility
12. Will fire you without hesitation

The 5 Things You Must Embrace to Become a More Self-Aware Leader

Some good thoughts in this article. The five behaviours identified are -

1. Purpose
2. Wisdom
3. Self-awareness
4. Love
5. Renewal

Here's the puzzling thing. I've read dozens, perhaps hundreds, of articles about being a successful leader, and most of them emphasise such "soft" skills. Yet I only occasionally see these put in practice. Why the gap? Are such articles "aspirational" pap, or is there another reason that people have not "made the leap"?

43,577

That's how many hits this little blog has received over the last couple of years, even though I haven't updated it for 12 months. I'd like to start posting again, though it will be irregular. Stay tuned.

The Dueling Myths of Business

I've never read anything like this before... a fascinating and helpful way to look at the business world

Bad Bosses, Picking Your Fights and Saying 'I Don't Know'

Celebrity CEO Carol Bartz shares some good thoughts

The Five Hats of a Software Development Manager

I've been recently trying to distill what it is a Software Development Manager should be spending their time on. I've come up with "five hats" that we should be wearing -

1. The Leader
2. The Manager
3. The Troubleshooter
4. The Ambassador
5. The Coach

I'm sure these roles are already evoking ideas in your mind. I will go through them one at a time over the coming months, and provide a little more detail.

A good boss can make all the difference

We all know that's true - but how *much* difference, exactly? A study of 23,000 workers in a technology based company has given the answer. The average boss adds 1.75 times as much output as the average worker. And replacing a bad boss with a good boss will increase output by at least 10% (in a 10 man team, that's like having a whole extra headcount!)

What is the most important task a boss should be doing? You might be surprised, but it is teaching/coaching! There are skills you have that your employees need - or if you don't have them yet, you have the time and ability to acquire them and pass them on.

The whole idea of coaching freaks out some Software Development Managers, because their technical skills are necessarily less current than their staff. You shouldn't worry about that - you can buy books or videos for your staff, or send them on training courses.

You have lots of stuff to teach them besides technical specifics. For a start, there's the 20 years of software tips and tricks you've picked up during your software development career. Many of the same problems you were facing back in your COBOL days ;-) are the same sorts of things derailing software projects today. Poor estimation, users who don't know their mind, senior management who won't commit - there really is nothing new under the Sun.

Even outside of project stuff there are things you can teach them, about time management, about dealing with people, about developing their careers, about problem solving, about dealing with difficult clients, about written and verbal communication etc. etc. You can probably add a few more to the list.

Have a look at your calendar tomorrow. How many hours per week do you spend training, coaching and mentoring your staff. One study suggests a good manager spends 20-40% of their time on coaching. That might seem out of reach, but why not start with 5%, and work your way up?

Why honesty is the best policy

Barry Schwartz talks about his new book, "Practical Wisdom".

You Don't Need A Thick Skin

I wish Phil Haack posted a bit more often, as he always has good things to say. His latest post is called You Don't Need A Thick Skin. His main point is that we usually respond to criticism in one of two ways - either we get defensive, or we ignore it (the titular "thick skin"). Sounds about right!

Phil suggest we need to go a third way, and "embrace" the criticism. If someone says your software sucks, try and put yourself in their shoes. And perhaps you will say, "You are right, that does suck. It's not good enough."

As a leader, I'm sure you relate to this. We've all had difficult staff who we've given constructive criticism too, and either they get aggressive or the criticism slides right off. We long for them to take ownership.

But forget your staff - what about you? Do you always have excuses when you fail (and if you never fail, you are not trying hard enough!) Do you grit your teeth when you are criticised, then forget it all once you walk out the door? When was the last time you said to someone, "You are right, this is not good enough. We will fix this and do better."

A world without managers?

Phil Haack feels good - very good - after a year at GitHub. He loves the fact that there are no managers, and wonders if this is the way of the future. He points to the super successful Steam as another IT example of no-managers, and also to Gore & Associates as an example of a large and established company doing the same.

Well, what are us manager types to think of this? Do our careers have a use-by date? Are our days numbered? Well, I wouldn't worry too much. For a start, these ideas are not new. Gore has been running things that way for over 30 years, and it hasn't really caught on. Why? Because it is really, really hard to do!

What about GitHub and Steam? How have they pulled it off? They are both high-margin, high-profile businesses. That is, they attract absolutely top-tier talent, and have the cash to compensate them. Obviously a group of super-smart, super-motivated, super-skilled people are able to get by with loose structures, and still achieve success.

But there is more to the story. Gore may not have "managers", but they still have leadership. Project teams form around "sponsors", who seem to combine project management with product management, though not traditional line management. Gore have also been forced to put in more structure at the upper levels as the company has expanded.

My point is not that GitHub/Steam/Gore are doing something wrong. On the contrary, I think it is very right - for their contexts. I also note that, though they may have abolished managers, they have not abolished leadership. Leadership has good currency, and is always in demand.

The First 100 Days of a New CIO

McKinsey Quarterly set out a plan for the first 100 days of a new CIO (free registration required). The key points are -

1. Start the first 100 days before your first day
2. Clarify and strengthen your mandate
3. Build relationships with business unit executives and agree upon priorities
4. Understand the upside and downside
5. Develop the plan
6. Build your team
7. Rally the IT organization
8. Demonstrate leadership through visible results and actions
9. Continue your personal journey

Leadership 101: Throw People in Over Their Heads and See What Happens

This is pretty straightforward, but true. Note, though - they must be *good* people for this to work. B players will struggle.

Strategy+Business - Best Books of 2012

Strategy+Business magazine have released a list of the Best Business Books of 2012. You need to register to see the reviews (it's free, and well worthwhile), but here is the list itself -

Biography

Eisenhower in War and Peace (Jean Edward Smith)
Steve Jobs (Walter Isaacson)
Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man (Mark Kurlansk)

Innovation

The Wide Lens: A New Strategy for Innovation (Rod Adner)
 Reverse Innovation: Create Far from Home, Win Everywhere (Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble)
Cloud Surfing: A New Way to Think about Risk, Innovation, Scale, and Success (Thomas M. Koulopoulos)

Organisational Culture

Productive Workplaces: Dignity, Meaning, and Community in the 21st Century: 25th Anniversary Edition (Marvin R. Weisbord)
Kill the Company: End the Status Quo, Start an Innovation Revolution (Lisa Bodell)
 Talk, Inc.: How Trusted Leaders Use Conversation to Power Their Organizations (Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind)

Strategy

The New Emerging Market Multinationals: Four Strategies for Disrupting Markets and Building Brands (Amitava Chattopadhyay and Rajeev Batra, with Aysegul Ozsomer)
Pragmatic Strategy: Eastern Wisdom, Global Success (Ikujiro Nonaka and Zhichang Zhu)
Competitive Strategy: Options and Games (Benoit Chevalier-Roignant and Lenos Trigeorgis)

Marketing

Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies (Jim Stengel)
Brand Real: How Smart Companies Live Their Brand Promise and Inspire Fierce Customer Loyalty (Laurence Vincent)
The Intention Economy: When Customers Take Charge (Doc Searls)

Why You’re Not Innovating and What To Do About It

This article from GK Strategic is definitely on to something. Unfortunately, the suggested remedy is not something that fits in easily with established corporates.

The Netflix Culture

This set of internal slides about the Netflix culture was recently leaked onto the net. It's very impressive...

What to do with the performance review?

It's no secret that many people think the Performance Review is sick. After 23 years in industry, I've heard these reviews criticised far more often than they have been praised. Most people treat them like a bit of necessary, but useless, administrative overhead. This is a great shame, as most people crave feedback. What an ironic situation!

Atlassian have bumped up against this situation, and have overhauled their performance reviews. This involves two main things -

1. Abolish an overall rating, and replace it with a two dimensional graph that focuses on the frequencey of "outstanding performance" and "stretching yourself".
2. Abolish individual staff bonuses. People are top market dollar, and then share in a company-wide bonus if targets are met

Regarding point 1, they have really replaced one rating system with another. The crucial difference, to my mind, is that the new rating system focuses on "frequency" of the desired behaviours, rather than just a blank score. It is much easier for someone to agree that they "didn't stretch themselves often enough", than to agree that they are a "below average" performer. So this might feed into more honest discussions.

Regarding their new approach to remuneration, I also agree. Tying bonuses to company performance gives people a real stake in the bottom line. Of course, this is not really innovative, but I think they are moving toward best practice here. I suspect you will find that people get different bonus shares as well, so perhaps it's not quite as progressive as it sounds!

Atlassian admit they are flying a bit blind with these changes. They put these changes in place nearly two years ago - I wonder if they have posted up a retrospective?

Art and Philosophy of Software Engineering

There are some helpful ideas in this...

Top Tech Trends for 2013

Gartner have just released their list. It includes -

1. Mobile devices
2. A long-term shift from native apps to Web apps as HTML5 becomes more capable
3. The personal cloud replaces the notion of personal computer
4. The Internet of Things
5. Cloud computing
6. Strategic Big Data
7. Actionable Analytics
8. In-memory Computing
9. Virtual appliances integrated ecosystems
10. Enterprise App Stores