Category Archives: Leadership

Play To Your Team Strengths

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This past weekend I went to a training course for an event that I’m participating in next year. One of the quotes that came up during the course was about picking the team that will help you during the event. The quote sounded something like this:

Get the right people on the right bus in the right seats and figure out where you want to go.

Sounds simple, right? Right people, right bus, right seats. Not everyone is going to be a good fit for your team and even if they are they may not be in the right position to do their best work. But how do you know what they’re good at?

Not-So-Well Rounded

Last night, I listened to this excellent Art of Network Engineering episode. The guest was a friend of mine in the industry, Mike Bushong (@MBushong). He’s a very talented person and he knows how to lead people. He’s one of the people that would love to work for given the opportunity. He’s also very astute and he has learned a lot of lessons about enabling people on a team.

One of the things he discussed in the episode was about people’s strengths. Not just things you’re good at but qualities you would say are your strongest assets. Aspects of you that you say are core to what you do. Maybe you’re good at writing emails but is that a strength? Or is concise communication your real strength? Are you good at seeing patterns? Or are you analytical? Every task you excel at isn’t a strength until you can see the underlying pieces that you really are good at doing.

One of the things that Mike brought up in the episode that really resonated with me was the idea that our performance evaluation system is really built around pointing out weaknesses and encouraging (or forcing) people to work on them. I can understand having people work on some core skills that are necessary in a business environment, such as time management or communications. You have to be good at those in order to succeed in your career.

However, having people pick up new skills or focus on aspects of what they do almost in a vacuum doesn’t really help as much as managers might think it does. Could you imagine telling someone like Steph Curry he needs to work on his dunking skills? Or perhaps telling someone like Steven Tyler that, while his singing is great, he really should spend more time playing the drums to be a more well-rounded band member?

The idea of telling professionals to concentrate on something other than their strength is ludicrous. Albert Pujols isn’t going to be the base stealing king for a baseball team. His strength is hitting home runs. Why try to make him into someone that runs instead of someone that hits? Yet when you ask a manager about reviewing someone’s performance they’ll tell you they need that team member to be well-rounded or they need to pick up this other skill that isn’t necessarily their strength but is needed.

I’m a decent writer. I’ve found over the past fifteen years that one of my strengths is in written communications. I can distill information and convey it to others through written words. I’ve managed to adapt that skill into being good at public speaking and giving presentations. What I would not be good at doing is being a full-time project manager with responsibilities for managing timelines for multiple teams. It’s because I realize that I need to be good enough at time management to get my work done but it is by no means a strength for me. For my manager to tell me to spend more time focusing on my weakness and less on my strength is doing me and the team a disservice.

Strong Bus

When you’re putting together your team, you need the right people on the bus. That part is pretty easy, right? But if you don’t know what they’re good at you don’t know if they’re the right people for your bus. If you have a team of people that are very detail oriented do you need to add another detail oriented person to do design work? Or would it be better to have someone with a strength in creativity? If you already have a group introverts that work best in isolation do you want to add another? Or do you need an outgoing personality in a role that interfaces with other teams or customers?

When you’re putting the right people in the right seats on the bus, make sure you’re looking at playing to their strengths instead of forcing them into a role to help them grow. Most people love a good challenge or like to step outside of their comfort zone now and then. However not everyone is able to take on a role that is something they consider a weakness. Instead of pushing people to the point of being uncomfortable and making them the wrong person in the wrong seat we need to help them succeed. An example might be having someone with limited experience creating marketing material perhaps working to come up with written pieces of the deliverables instead of the entire design. Or maybe having them do a single flyer or handout instead of the entire job. Giving them the opportunity to stretch a little and succeed is a much better way to help them in their career instead of throwing them in the deep end of the pool and hoping they can swim.

Tom’s Take

You should listen to the entire podcast episode with Mike Bushong. It encapsulates why he’s such a well-liked and effective leader. He knows his limitations and he works to overcome them. He identifies the right people for his team and he puts them in the places they can make the most impact to get things accomplished. He knows that a good leader makes the people around them better by enabling them to succeed. Some of these lessons are things that I’ve learned over the past few years through Wood Badge and the way he’s phrased them helped me internalize them a bit better. Play to people’s strengths and you’ll be happily surprised at how far they can go with you.

Fast Friday Thoughts on Leadership

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I’m once more taking part in the BSA Wood Badge leadership course for my local council. I enjoy the opportunity to hone my skills when it comes to leading others and teaching them how to train their own leaders. A lot of my content around coaching, mentoring, and even imposter syndrome has come from the lessons I’ve learned during Wood Badge. It sounds crazy but I enjoy taking vacation time to staff something that looks like work because it feels amazing!

A few random thoughts from the week:

  • You need a sense of urgency in everything you do. You may not know exactly what’s coming or how to adjust for what needs to be done but you need to be moving with purpose to get it done. Not only does that help you with your vision to make things happen but it encourages others to do the same.
  • Team building happens when you’re not focused entirely on the goal. It doesn’t take much for your group to come together but it can only happen when they aren’t charging toward the finish line. Remember that taking a few moments here and there to reinforce the group dynamic can do a lot to build a cohesive unit. Stopping to smell the roses isn’t a bad thing when your team members chat about them too.
  • Make sure you appreciate your team when they succeed. The grindstone doesn’t feel quite so rough when you know that your effort is appreciated. It’s difficult some times to remember to recognize those that put in the work but if you do you’ll create happier people and more functional ones too.

Tom’s Take

I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts about leadership and team building as soon as I’m done with the practical application of it this weekend!

Servant Leadership and Standing Out

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LonePawn

My son is fifteen and he’s the typical teenager that either thinks he’s being asked to do way too much or he’s not getting recognized for what he’s accomplished. That last part is hard for him because he’s a bit humble and doesn’t like to tout his own work. I once told him that he didn’t need to do that because he stands out to the people that matter. He did the typical teenager thing where he fought me and said that no one noticed anything he did. I told him that if you do things the way they’re supposed to be done and don’t spend your whole day crowing about what you’re doing that the right people will most assuredly notice.

The worry that your work is going unnoticed isn’t unfounded among teenagers or adults. How many times have we asked ourselves in our daily work roles if we matter? It takes about two weeks worth of meetings in a typical IT department for you to see how things go. There are those that coast by with the knowledge they obtained years ago that have their niche and they intend to fill it. Their entire purpose is to avoid notice. They fear someone will figure out their job is redundant or they don’t want to get found out for having less capability than they really possess.

The other side of the coin is the group we all loathe. The braggarts and proclaimers. The ones that spend all of five minutes turning a wrench or typing in a command and then take the next hour to talk about how great a job they did or how things would have fallen apart without their help and expertise. These are the people that we’re all worried about. They don’t want to avoid attracting attention. In fact, they revel in it. They want the eyes on them. They have no fear of looking inadequate or incapable. They will put any of their skills up against anyone at any time so they can be seen as the best at something.

What about those in the middle? The ones that want to be recognized for what we are without sounding overly confident or even boastful? What about those that are learning but still unsure of their skills and don’t want to do something wrong just in case it’s going to cause problems? Or the people that only want to stand out because they work hard and feel like the braggarts get all the eyeballs? What if I told you there was an easier method to figure out where your stand?

The Pillars of Productivity

You’ve probably already noticed that your leaders come to you when something needs to be done, right? Not the usual kind of busy work or tasks that have little importance in the long run. I’m talking about the big tasks. The important projects. The things that can’t fail and need attention to detail because they have to be done right. You know, the kinds of things you get asked to do all the time?

Why is that? While you may not be able to see it from your vantage point, the best leaders are the ones that have been keeping score the entire time and they know how to get things done. They see those shadowy people in IT that have outdated skill sets trying to keep a low profile. They also have a record of all the times those people have asked to learn something new or stretch their horizon. While those team members may think they’re flying under the radar they’re even more visible to those that know what to look for and how to select them out of important stuff. Those job roles they covet because they’re easy and important? They’re also one step away from being automated and keep unmotivated team members away from critical things.

What about the loud mouths? The ones that don’t miss an opportunity to talk about all the important stuff they’re doing and how management came to them to make it happen. How is it that they get all the good jobs and you get to toil away on these never-ending projects? What makes them so special?

Did you ever stop and ask yourself how important those projects were? Did you ever think that perhaps they’re not as critical as one might believe? Perhaps even that they’re so unimportant that people feel the need to brag about them to make them seem more important? I’ve seen more than a few times in my career that the ones that are spending the most time talking about what they’re doing are actually doing the least amount of work. If the task or project is so critical and important how is it that this person has the time to sit around the water cooler sharing how things are only going smoothly because they’re getting it all done?

They Who Serve Their Fellows

The idea that people should do the work without expecting credit or praise isn’t as foreign as it sounds. It’s a component of the Servant Leadership concept popularized by Robert Greenleaf. Servant leadership is based around the idea that the leader of a group exists to serve their employees and help them grow and be better. One of the important pieces of this the need to do things not for praise but for the greater good.

Leaders that subscribe to the ideas behind servant leadership don’t look for the loud team members crowing about their accomplishments. Instead, they look for those that are quietly getting things accomplished. They measure output, not volume. They seek those that serve others as they do not those that serve themselves. And those are the people that are relied upon over and over again to get things accomplished.

You may be saying to yourself, “That’s not how it works around my office.” And that’s entirely true for a lot of places. If that’s the case, do me a favor and think for moment about the bosses that are always heaping praise onto those that can’t stop talking about their accomplishments. Are they they kinds of people that also brag about themselves and their roles? Do they spend more time announcing their work than they do working? I think you’ll find a strong correlation. Those that can’t see the inherent value in someone’s output often need to be told someone is working hard. And because they feel the same need to boast about what they do they take the discussion at face value instead of understanding it all at a deeper level. I would also venture to guess that they aren’t the kinds of managers that you’d want to be working for.

Since we’re doing thought exercises, let’s do another. Think about a manager that you would want to work for. Maybe it was someone that was concerned with your skill set and encouraged you to learn more. Or that checked in on you frequently to see how you were doing on a project instead of just assuming you weren’t getting the job done because you were super busy with it. Maybe that manager even stood up for you after a mistake or spent time to help you understand where you needed to improve outside of your skills. Sure, they probably gave you lots of projects and you may have even felt overwhelmed at times. But never because you felt your manager was trying to sabotage you or overload you. These are the kinds of people you’d go back to work with in an instant, right?

Unsurprisingly, those characteristics are a hallmark of a servant leader. Those leaders rarely find themselves at the head of a major company. They get the work done instead of bragging about the work they do. They tend to find positions running departments focused on service or deliverables. They’re the rock you count on instead of the face you send out to sell the work. Ironically enough, they don’t thrive in sales positions because they tend to cut through the garbage quickly and judge people on results instead of promises. These are the leaders we should be promoting. Because these are the leaders that recognize talent and nurture it instead of listening to the ones that can only talk about things instead of getting them done.

Tom’s Take

It took me a long time to realize the guiding hand behind servant leadership principles. I knew what it was as soon as someone told me about it because I’d seen it being used my whole life. From my parents to my formative managers to the present day I’ve had the luxury of working for several people that have embodied the ideals of someone that works to better others. Sure, I’ve had to deal with my fair share of braggarts and shadowy figures. But knowing there was someone that knew what I was capable of and that I stood out to them enough to be trusted with the important work has been enough for me so far. As I find myself looking over more and more work and coordinating projects I also see the things that my former managers saw. I see the need to recognize those that are putting in the work and not just telling me what they’re doing. I seek out those that don’t do it for praise or don’t hide from my gaze. And in doing so I hope I can inspire a new generation of servant leaders as well.