19 Aug 4 activities leaders should do every day
After a few years as a manager/leader, I have been wondering if there should be a routine for this role. I ask this because we, in the technology area, fight for there to always be innovation and disruption of current models, among other things, because we need it – sometimes by nature and sometimes by virtue of the trade. But in a less operational and much more subjective or administrative way, I realized that yes, there are activities that we should perform every day so that our career and motivation (of leaders and subordinates) do not become stagnant or decline, and so we can help everyone who remains around us.
Realizing that new managers rarely ended the day with what they planned to do, as most ended up wasting time with problems that could lead their teams not to deliver on time, cost or quality as they should; I tried to gather some issues that I was able to identify so far to make new entrants reflect.
Cultivate trust
The power to influence others is one of the main paths to successful leadership, and trust is your best tool. You will never be able to influence someone who doesn’t have your trust – so you need to cultivate that relationship with everyone who works with you.
The question is how to generate a trusting relationship with those who work? Since we are not evolved beings like Jedi and therefore we cannot use this prerogative to do so, I see two great qualities that create a foundation in this relationship: competence and character. Competence doesn’t mean you have to be the most knowledgeable about everything your team does; but you need to know well enough to make informed and solid decisions, even if you need to ask questions that demonstrate less knowledge and will bring new hypotheses. In addition, this will also show a great quality: the courage to make it clear that you don’t know everything. Experience is a great ally in decision-making, as it will likely bring up scenarios or situations experienced and learned. Character means that your actions and decisions are guided by values about the work, about your customers, and about the people who do the work. To be clear, let your decisions not be interfered with by the interests of a minority or others, nothing more. If people believe in your competence and character, they will trust your decisions and everyone will think they are doing the right thing.
Participate and guide the team
An effective team is bound by a compelling common purpose and based on shared values. In a real team, the bonds between its members are so strong that everyone believes they will win or lose together, with not a single winning individual remaining if the team fails. It is a leader’s duty to ensure that this philosophy or synergy is perpetuated. For this, he must constantly assess and manage the team’s behavior, making clear the rules of engagement, such as which types of conflicts are or are not harmful to the ideal work environment. So, if the leader can guide the team not to forget the purpose, values and rules, the team will be consistent just like a team. Small approaches like “do it for the team” rather than “do it because I want to” are much more powerful and help shape aggregative behavior and sense of ownership to the team. But be careful, don’t do this only when you appear sporadically, you need to do this at a time when you are participating in the conversation or inserted in the context, otherwise your orientation will be seen as opportunistic. You can be sure that this way a manager will be able to have a much more productive team.
Build a network of contacts
Nobody can do anything alone, we always need help. With a team this is no different, they will always need the support or collaboration of other people or groups. Effective team leaders proactively build and maintain a network of relationships with external individuals, which include not only those required in constant work but also those who will help achieve future goals. Outside help is often one of the biggest difficulties managers encounter.
Many think that looking for new contacts involves a manipulative organizational politicking in which the rapprochement happens only because something is sought in return. If the search for new contacts is done honestly, openly and with the genuine purpose of generating benefits for both sides, politicking ceases to exist and everyone involved in this new relationship will reap the rewards.
Mutual evolution
As I said earlier, it is the nature of a technology professional not to work for a long time on the same technology, the same project, or the same product. This happens both with the team members and with the manager/leader himself. There are two well-known modalities with fluid methods to avoid a motivational decline at work that are directly oriented to the evolution of knowledge: one tries to catalyze the development of competences and abilities to reach planned goals, and is done by a coach; the other maintains the presence of someone more experienced (mentor) passing technical, behavioral or administrative knowledge to fresher people in the market so that they can develop their careers.
A true leader must constantly try to practice with his team at least one of the two modalities. If your baggage is more technical, try to evolve your learning or logical reasoning skills. This can be done through article sharing, code review or even pair programming when necessary, perhaps at some point when the team is unable to do so. Otherwise, when your base is a little more administrative or managerial, always try to remember similar past cases, sharing what was done and what the results were. Sharing experiences and knowledge will make everyone think about new things and evolve.
These are the four activities that I point out as the main success factors for a career and practice in leading a team. The absence of any of them may generate issues that at some point must be reversed. In addition, of course there may be other ways to remain a leader, such as having good communication, being organized, honest and honest, but I see these as complementary adjectives.
And you, what do you think? Leave your comment so we can exchange knowledge and evolve together!
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.