Effective leaders believe in developing their team members.

First, they recognize potential in a team member and then do everything possible to make sure that the selected team member play to his/her own limits and reward him/her self, the project and the organization at large.

Often team members guess that their boss uses their skills just for the sake of squeezing more juice from him/her. Many times, that’s not the case, for example read below mini-saga:

Reward

Sure-handed Peter was disappointed playing different roles in a big software project. Analyst, Tester, Architect, ScrumMaster…Multiple. Every few months his boss would move him to take over another role. One day, he decided to resign but: A promotion letter was awaiting him saying “Congratulation, you’re ready for the next gig!”

Evaluate from this lens as well when you feel like being squeezed.

Photo Credit: Artotem’s Flickr Photostream

See Also:

1. Mini Saga – Decision Making
2. Mini Saga – Executing The Dream
3. 10 Peaks For Creating Performance Focused Teams
4. Mini Saga – Lights, Camera…Action!
5. Zen of Team Handling for Software Projects

1. Mini Saga – Decision Making
2. Mini Saga – Executing The Dream
3. 10 Peaks For Creating Performance Focused Teams
4. Mini Saga – Lights, Camera…Action!
5. Zen of Team Handling for Software Projects

Though it brings rewards in the end, most of us are afraid of challenging our own thought patterns as if it were an invasive brain surgery.

We’re designed this way, right?

Wrong.

But yes, we’re conditioned this way.

Few weeks ago I had a weekend discussion with one of my friends who shares a rare frequency and runs a successful design firm.

We talked about building the business, creating a-list teams and providing a-class customer service.

He was discussing with me about a customer feedback: designers working with his firm were otherwise very good but lacked innovation. He said that it was true for even their Chief Designer who had experience as little as 18 years in the design industry.

Conclusion was to hire a fresh (but brilliant) design graduate whose job would be to passionately challenge each one of the designs that the design team come up with.

Last week, I meet my friend again to hear the good news that his customer is very happy with recent design innovations that his team produced.

It worked like a charm. Why?

Because the beginning of the end of any great endowment is: “Falling in love with your own creation”.

Sure, you’ve to believe in yourself, your vision and your abilities. But, at the same time, following the same way of thinking just because that’s the way you’ve always done it, is the sure-fire way to attract devolution at the lightning speed.

The decision of bringing in fresh talent to challenge generated healthy conflict. The conflict was to challenge their designers’ fixed way of being and to ensure that only best comes out in the end.

Sometimes, it’s better to have someone in your team who has eyes to look at the things from fresh lens.  Maybe it’s good to have ‘No, but, Can we not…?’ kind of people rather than yes-men.

Photo Credit: livingonimpulse‘s Flickr Photostream

See Also:

1. What’s better? Being able to be specific or being able to do the work?
2. The Guaranteed Way To Best Manage A Project
3. 10 Peaks For Creating Performance Focused Teams
4. Contribute Beyond Your Title With Assumed Responsibility And Take The Right Decision!
5. 10 Signs You Are Happy At Work

1. What’s better? Being able to be specific or being able to do the work?
2. The Guaranteed Way To Best Manage A Project
3. 10 Peaks For Creating Performance Focused Teams
4. Contribute Beyond Your Title With Assumed Responsibility And Take The Right Decision!
5. 10 Signs You Are Happy At Work

When the performance appraisal happens and one colleague is promoted,  many of his co-workers don’t feel good. They compare themselves with him and conclude that their boss favors only who flatters her. Always, that may not be the case. For example, read the below story called Navigate Without a Map.

Photo Credit: David Masters’ Flickr photostream

Navigate Without A Map

Background
Peter and Scott – both joined the company on the same day as Analyst Programmers. Both were coming from different background but have two qualities in common. Both were hard-working and committed to their work.

Promotion of Peter
After a couple of years Peter was promoted as a Lead Programmer while Scott did not get the promotion. Scott got very upset with this, drafted the resignation letter and went to Stella, his Department Manager. He complained that Stella does not value hardworking staff and promotes only who blandishes her.

The difference
Stella knew that Scott also worked hard for past two years but she had a point to address and make Scott realize the difference between him and Peter.

So, she discussed a scenario with Scott, “While working as a dedicated developer with an offshore client, if you reach a limbo stage when there is no work for couple of weeks. How’d you proceed?”

“I’d call the client and ask for the work”, was Scott’s reply.

Stella explained further, “The client responded that he needs to send you some task specifications but he would be able to send it only after two weeks when he’ll return back from the vacation. So the limbo stage continues. What should be the next step?”

Scott said, “Well, since I have no work, I’ll work on my pet project or do something else. May be I will also take some leaves. Given it is a Dedicated Developer Contract, client is going to pay for the two weeks anyways so he can’t blame it on me or the organization.”

“Well,” said Stella. “Let’s discuss the same scenario with Peter and ask what would he do.”

Peter responded, “Well, first of all I won’t come in the limbo stage because I keep communicating with the client very frequently and always make him aware about the work status. But still if that stage comes and I do not have anything on my platter, here’s what I’d do:”

1. Optimize the code for performance – I’ll utilize the knowledge I’ve gathered in Application Performance Improvement classes I attended in the last weekend of April.
2. Recheck the code comments and take it to the next level. I understand that there is no comparison between well-commented code and just the code.
3. I’ll do some research and learn more about my client’s business. I’ll also prepare a document which will outline the knowledge I’ve gathered by performing the research. I’ll share that with the client also.
4. I’ve some high level idea about what changes he wants to make in the software I’m working on. So I’ll make some draft user interface and modified architecture diagram with added application scalability.
5. I’ll record such additional activities and submit a report to the client such that he can know how I’ve utilized my time for which he is paying.
6. I will do…

“OK, Great! This information is sufficient for what I was looking for. You may go and continue your work, Peter.” interrupted Stella.

The realization
Scott soon realized the point which Stella wanted him to understand. He understood that Peter has an edge over him. He observed that:

1. Peter has absolute clarity about where to go and how to proceed even when no path is given.
2. Peter has invested his time to learn different technology verticals which are even indirectly related to his core strength by investing extra time over the weekends.
3. Peter is a true servant leader. He’s willing to learn his client’s language (business) so that he can serve his well.
4. Peter does not need a map to navigate. Instead he is willing to travel when there’s no map. He will try hard to improvise application’s architecture and would work on making it still better.
5. Peter utilizes the information in a way; it becomes meaningful to the client and the organization. Most important is that he keeps all the important information in the written form.

“I want to take back my resignation,” were Peter’s words. “I’ll learn from him and be an equal or better version of Peter.”

Only hard work and commitment are not sufficient. You need to develop an ability to navigate without a map (Yes, wordings are taken from Linchpin by Seth Godin – a great read, indeed.)

We’re in a different age where rulebooks are not matching pace with the changing demands of the workplace so start thinking beyond the rulebooks, take personal risks and excel at what you’re doing. Remember, observation power is a big differentiator. And, excellent use of observed information may take you a long way.

May be that’s the reason we are blessed with two ears and two eyes but only one mouth. So speak less, observe more. Maintain a mental database of observed information, index it often and use it to navigate when no map is available.

See Also:

1. Mini Saga – Focus
2. Contribute Beyond Your Title With Assumed Responsibility And Take The Right Decision!
3. Waiter vs. Grabber
4. Are You Proud of the Email that You Just Wrote?
5. Contrast Thinking

1. Mini Saga – Focus
2. Contribute Beyond Your Title With Assumed Responsibility And Take The Right Decision!
3. Waiter vs. Grabber
4. Are You Proud of the Email that You Just Wrote?
5. Contrast Thinking

I’m happy to denote that my post Contribute Beyond Your Title With Assumed Responsibility And Take The Right Decision! – which is a story about a Leader Beyond His Title who led to create a win-win-win situation for the organization, the client and the individual – is selected in several different Blog Carnivals and May-2010 Leadership Round-up of Mountain State University’s blog.

Photo Credit: katerha's Flickr photostream

Here is the list of sites who hosted the respective carnivals or the round-ups.

• IT Management Review: This carnival is a monthly digest covering the best of IT Management blog posts published within a month. It is maintained by Anticlue and focuses on subjects like Application Management, ITSM, infrastructure management, governance, performance management, program management and trends. Here is the link to Sixth Edition of IT Management Review which was published on May 31, 2010.
• Small Business Advice: This carnival offers essential things that a small business owner need to know. Article, tips and real-life success stories about starting up and maintaining a small business. Here is the link to June 01, 2010 edition.
• Corporate Vigilance: A carnival to spotlight the rights and the wrongs of the corporate world.  Here is the link to May 30, 2010 edition.
• Leadership Development Carnival: This carnival focuses on posts related to leadership, management, executive development, leadership, management, coaching, human resources, succession planning, and organizational development. This time it is hosted at Maximize Possibilities blog. This Carnival is maintained by Dan McCarthy of Great Leadership.
• Mountain State University – The School of Leadership and Professional Development: It’s a fantastic leadership spot maintained by Becky Robinson of Mountain State University. This blog focuses on lifelong learning and believe in the power of knowledge to transform lives. It selects the posts based on a select theme, which was based on Leadership and decision making last month. Read the posts round-up here.

Blog carnivals serve as very good index of topics related to specific themes and I’m glad that my post on Leading beyond a Title reserved a space  in the different blog carnivals and round-ups with my favorite bloggers. I heartily thank all of my blog readers for making a difference in my writing and my being at large.

Update 08 Jun, 2010: A Leader Beyond a Title continues rocking. It has been now included in the following two places today.

• Customer Service Carnival: This carnival is dedicated to helping business people become more aware of how important customer service is to their business. Here’s the link to early summer carnival hosted at People 2 People Services.
• Rainmaker Top Five Blog Picks: Leadership Development Carnival Edition also includes the Leader Beyond a Title.  (PS: Chris Yong, the man behind MaximizePossibilities blog  is a fantastic folk to follow on Twitter.)

See Also:

1. Leading Beyond Your Title Sometimes Means: 15
2. Contribute Beyond Your Title With Assumed Responsibility And Take The Right Decision!
3. 10 Peaks For Creating Performance Focused Teams
4. Leadership Development Carnival Sep 2009
5. Great Leadership Insights By Dan McCarthy

1. Leading Beyond Your Title Sometimes Means: 15
2. Contribute Beyond Your Title With Assumed Responsibility And Take The Right Decision!
3. 10 Peaks For Creating Performance Focused Teams
4. Leadership Development Carnival Sep 2009
5. Great Leadership Insights By Dan McCarthy

Easier are the decisions where one side is right and the other is wrong however in most situations, leaders do not have that liberty.

Instead, they need to choose between the two rights. They are literal sticky situations specifically because each side is strongly embedded in one of the core, elemental paradigms.

Photo Credit: Randy Son Of Robert's Flickr photostream

Here is a story about Peter, the project manager who assumed responsibility, led beyond his title and made a difference by his decision.

Quandary or the Growth Opportunity?

Background
Peter was working as a project manager with a small but growing software solutions provider company.  For last few months, he was working on a project which was critical for the client – Caroline.

Caroline was very happy with the way the project was progressing; especially with the way Peter was managing it. Peter never missed a Status report and used to keep Caroline updated with the progress by every possible means, always.

In fact, Caroline’s positive feedback was one of the reasons behind Peter’s recent handsome salary rise.

Quandary of Two Rights
On Thursday morning, Peter got an email from his CEO instructing him to “hide” important information in the weekly status report which was supposed to be sent on Friday.

Benefit of hiding the information was continuation of the contract with Caroline for at-least next 6 months which meant a lot of money for Peter’s company.

On the other side, Caroline may go bankrupt in next 6 months if she continues funding the project which had no future – at least it was apparent with the information which was to be hidden.

Peter, the project management professional, was well aware that as a project in-charge he has to do the right thing for the project. He wanted to inform Caroline about the fact but he was asked by his superior NOT to do that.

Now, he has to make a choice between two rights. Between integrity (with the client) versus commitment (towards his own company).

Now what would he do? Would he send the status report and pretend that he doesn’t know about the “hidden” fact or update the client about the situation which will lead his company to lose the contract?

The Decision
Peter decided to Eat That Frog and chose a road less traveled.

He decided to meet his CEO to verbalize that he won’t hide that information in the status report and still do well for the company.

Peter quickly developed a business plan which would enable his organization to earn the money they were losing if they unhide the truth to Caroline and presented to his CEO.

“This plan is not bullet-proof and there is no guarantee we will gain the money we are going to lose,” paused the CEO.

“But, it’s definitely a way to go!  Peter. You, the leader beyond your title – Project Manager – have made me realize that the path I was heading was faulty and was not in the favor of our company’s long term sustainable success,” CEO ceded slowly.

“Go ahead and update Caroline with the facts. Even if we lose the contract we will at-least win a friend who will be ready to stand by our company for the remaining life,” added the CEO.

Conclusion
Peter sent the status report without hiding the fact. Caroline had taken the decision to stop further development on this project. Actually, stopping this project saved Caroline from going bankrupt also.

On the other side, CEO worked with Peter on the business plan he developed, made it bullet-proof and stared executing it.

6 Months Later: Peter, who is now leading the SBU as per the revised business plan, got a call from Caroline who wanted to start a new project which was 10 times bigger in size, of course with Peter’s company.

This was the story about 3 such quandaries which stand as fundamental models or paradigms while deciding from two-rights quandaries.

1. Honesty versus Commitment – Honesty towards his profession and commitment towards the company.
2. Personal interests versus Organization’s – Hiding the fact was easy for Peter but was going to be bad for the company over the long run.
3. Quick-fix versus Long-standing – Again, the quick-fix –  hiding the fact – would have affected the company adversely over the long term.

In such situations, first thing you need to do is to exclaim, as Peter did.  The people around you will know it nevertheless.

Everyone will learn it the harder way if you don’t cry it out.

Pause. Take a deep-breath. Decide how you are going to work out the problem. Make an alternative plan and execute it with the specific purpose.

Power Question: In quandaries, do you assume responsibility and take the may-be-tougher but the right decision?

See Also:

1. I’m not a project manager. Why do I need to learn project management?
2. Prevent Your Project from Collapsing
3. Leading Beyond Your Title Sometimes Means: 15
4. A Leader Beyond Her Title Leads By 7
5. Mini Saga – Decision Making

1. I’m not a project manager. Why do I need to learn project management?
2. Prevent Your Project from Collapsing
3. Leading Beyond Your Title Sometimes Means: 15
4. A Leader Beyond Her Title Leads By 7
5. Mini Saga – Decision Making

Sustainable success is the apple of most businesses’ eye and hence, business leaders strive to achieve and maintain the same. Chances of achieving such success become much brighter when they have performance-focused people.

And, empowering the people to perform at their best becomes much easier when business leaders understand how to leverage the people power.

Photo Credit: tibchris' Flickr photostream

Here are the ten peaks to leave your people touched, moved and inspired to do whatever your business expects them to do.

1. Maintain veracity. Be Transparent. Do not keep any hidden agenda. Performance of your team would be directly proportionate to their trust in the leader – you.
2. Strengthen your team members. Personal strength makes the individual stronger and strengthened individuals make a stronger team.
3. Maximize your team’s mental powers. Encourage them to discuss the best ideas publicly. Be open to what each team member has to offer. Bureaucracy is not an option.
4. Put your team members first than anything else. Also, encourage them to sharpen their saw and then allow them to play the right role for the right requirements.
5. Develop cozy tying with the team members. Leveraged relationships backed with integrity are what make things happen when nothing else works.
6. Exhibit confidence. Be courageous. Be open. Welcome change and celebrate new ideas. Make sure to pass credit to the person who had come up with the original idea.
7. Enjoy your opinions and views challenged. Invite a discussion. While in the discussion, listen. Either, be able to prove your views or understand the differences, make corrections and move on.
8. Establish and maintain a culture where performance wins over corporate politics or anything else.
9. Recognize the benefits of focused execution. Empower team members to focus on one MOST important task at a time and let them know and memorize that nothing less than accomplishment would be accepted.
10. Identify and isolate small projects out of a big project. Hand the responsibilities of the small-projects over to the right team member – by promoting her into a leadership role – so that she and her subordinates are energized.

Performance focused people, better performance. Better performance, better results. Make a better choice!

Power questions: Are your people performance focused? If not, what you can do about it, right now?

—
PS: This week, I was honored by inclusion of my post A Path-Goal Based Approach That May Take Your Project Leadership Repertoire To The Next Level in in 2 leading blog carnivals - Leadership Development Carnival for May-2010 by Dan McCarthy from Great Leadership and Carnival of Project Management April/May 2010 Edition by Elisabeth Harrin from PM4Gals –  along with several other must-read articles. Just check it out here and here.

See Also:

1. Mini Saga – Reward (Or do you feel like being squeezed?)
2. How To Inaugurate Effectiveness In Your Project Team
3. 7 Acts of Poor Managers Who Gift Cancer to Their People, Their Clients and Their Businesses
4. Twelve Tips for working with Offshore Teams
5. Four Causes Of Poor Performance (And What You Can Do About Some Of Those)

1. Mini Saga – Reward (Or do you feel like being squeezed?)
2. How To Inaugurate Effectiveness In Your Project Team
3. 7 Acts of Poor Managers Who Gift Cancer to Their People, Their Clients and Their Businesses
4. Twelve Tips for working with Offshore Teams
5. Four Causes Of Poor Performance (And What You Can Do About Some Of Those)

I have been following Dan McCarthy’s blog for almost a year now and enjoyed super-jedi leadership stuff presented in an easy-to-follow manner. I’d like to share some of his resourceful posts on Leadership development – which has been my personal favorite subject.

Below is some of his leadership goodness:

• How to rock as Panelist: It’s the recent one. Dan talks about how to shine as a panelist. He has shared six valuable tips for that.  Practice (a lot), Play (fully) and (make the best) Profit out of it – Read the whole article here.
• 10 tips on how to lead a global virtual team: Very effective tips starting from basics like respecting cultures and time zones to important ones like to make use of Global English and relevant technology – Read the whole article here.
• How to write a great individual development plan: Many people don’t make a plan for developing the self but if made, it will make a significant difference. Read more of Dan here.

Dan’s blog has been recently recognized as #14 Top 150 Management & Leadership Blogs list by Jurgen Appelo – the list is a just awesome great leadership resource.

See Also:

1. Five Random Thoughts On Organizational Leadership
2. A Path-Goal Based Approach That May Take Your Project Leadership Repertoire To The Next Level
3. Which Leadership Flavor Do You Deploy As A Dependable Project Manager?
4. Heroic Titles Without On-Key Leadership
5. If You Want to Have a Great Project Team

1. Five Random Thoughts On Organizational Leadership
2. A Path-Goal Based Approach That May Take Your Project Leadership Repertoire To The Next Level
3. Which Leadership Flavor Do You Deploy As A Dependable Project Manager?
4. Heroic Titles Without On-Key Leadership
5. If You Want to Have a Great Project Team