Bravery and Leadership

If you have landed here and are interested in Leadership then I am going to guess that you and I have the same goals for our teams. Let me define what some of those are so that we can assure that we are on the same page.

Team Goals

You want a team full of high performers.

You want a growth pipeline of talent.

You want a team of self-driven, decision makers.

I have spent years running highly successful and bought-in teams. I have been so fortunate with the people on my team that I have often questioned if this is dumb luck or is something that I am doing to consistently run high performing teams.

I have decided after 15 years it can’t be luck so I should share some of my thoughts on leadership.

Bravery

The first topic that came to mind was Bravery. Not necessarily because I believe it is the most important trait for a leader (I’ll post something else on The Best Leadership Advice I was Given) but because it was the most topical.

This week I had another set of decisions to make that follow a consistent pattern:

The Brave path or the One driven by Fear

aka

The Right Thing or the Easy Thing

Fostering Movement

A situation was developing through organizational changes that lead me to the conclusion that perhaps my team should be split in two. I realized that I need to be brave and not take the easy path. Even though my right-hand man, trusted colleague and friend would leave my team. Even though with him would go the more stable (easier) part of my department.

How could I give up half of my responsibility? How could I lose my successor? How could I give up this well run, high-profile team?

Because — It’s simply the right thing to do.

I need to focus on the struggling (due to organizational and strategic shifts) portion of my team.

No one wants to be on the receiving end of a bad transfer. Don’t be that leader and your reputation will proceed you with peers.

Be willing to give up your best people.

But doesn’t this hurt your team? In the short term — yes. You need to be brave enough to weather this short term pain and see the long term vision.

I have realized that one reason I have attracted and retained top talent, despite being willing to lose them, is that they know I’m not going to hold them back. Most managers are not willing to do this and they know this (maybe not even consciously).

It’s also ok to give yourself PR on this. I tell perspective hires, other leaders, and the team itself about my desire to help people grow, learn, get ready for the next step — and then take that next step. That’s our most fundamental job as managers. The message generally resonates well and it makes sense. Soon you’ll be the leader that everyone wants to work for.

Also more than once people have moved on to a promotion, only to have them return via another promotion back to the team. Part of the point of letting people go is they’ll get new, varied experience that will make them more well rounded and bring new thoughts back to the team.

Leadership is a long term play.

Decision Making

The following form of bravery is applicable to any team leader or really anyone teaching another in a practical learning-by-doing scenario.

This may seem obvious in the simplicity of the statement but I assure you it is not and I see people run afoul of this rule all the time.

If you want people to be able to make good decisions in the future, let them make decisions now.

After about the fifth time you overrule someone and tell them, “That’s almost right but why don’t we do this instead.” they will stop trying to even make a decision. They will have learned that you will want the last say, that you don’t trust them, and they need to consult with you on everything.

Obviously there are degrees to this. If you’re deciding a critical piece of infrastructure that will have ramifications for years to come — hold that one back. If something smaller needs a decision let them have it and also let them see what happens good or bad.

Too often I see very, very smart technologists essentially holding back their own teams. With the best intentions, they are essentially keeping training wheels on everyone. Sure no one will fall over, but no one will truly learn to ride either.

Next

These are just a couple of examples where Bravery ties into Leadership. I’m sure you could think of several more and feel free to comment here. I plan to continue to share my experiences and hope to get touch on more examples and other topics over the coming months.