Are you a Great Team Leader? - my take on the topic

This is my reaction to Sean McPheat's article, which I posted prior to this. If you have not read that yet, you might want to scroll down and read that one first... it'll hopefully make reading this reaction (and the succeeding ones with the same focus) that much more understandable.

“Great team leaders are sensitive. They understand that everyone has different concerns, needs, and interests and they do their best to address these differences.”

Can I say ‘preaching to the choir’ on this one? Because this is exactly my viewpoint – this goes without saying – a leader knows that he leads individuals and these individuals will have different goals, dreams and aspirations. At times, they may even be motivated to do the same thing for similar reasons – but deep down, they will have different skills, capabilities and style. That is why leading them all the same way… treating them like similar items out of a processing line, will not work – as the saying goes… different strokes for different folks. Leading people will have to have a personal touch and to do this, said leader must understand where their team member is coming from… what pushes their button, what is important to them… what will make them work – what, if anything, will inspire them?

Know these needs – know what is important to them – know what inspires them… and if we can prove that what we are doing will help them achieve such goals, it will be so much easier to ask them to do their tasks, knowing they are helping themselves. That said, I obviously subscribe to this, and it may not always be that easy to do – often coming across as trial and error, but at least there is that trial. It showed my previous teams that I listened to them… understood them, and even tried helping them achieve their goals whenever possible.

My opinions and practices were not reached by simply reading this – and other ‘like-minded’ articles, and saying ‘alright, there seems to be a trend here… so this is what I’ll say as well.’ Nope… although it is nice to see such a trend, my opinion was in many ways, based on experience prior to reading such articles – say, almost two decades past worth of experience.

I was already noticing the fact that different people have different needs – myself included, and to better get their cooperation, I had to know and understand these needs; maybe even help them achieve such needs.

Did I question myself back then – oh yeah… maybe, much more than I would like to admit. However… I was, after all, leading from a perspective of ‘Do unto others…’ a.k.a. the Golden Rule, so I trusted that this would get me through many rough spots - but there were definitely times that I asked myself if I was doing the right thing. Was I being too lenient? Some of my colleagues, in some points of my career, thought so… and I would ask myself, again during those times if I was just too naïve in using this style? Should I have to be high-handed?

Back then, I did not know and since I was a relatively new lead, or more accurately, an experienced hire into a new organization, I just had my ‘technical’ skills to prove my worth. I was a star of a previous team (or workgroup) having proven my capacity to get the job done with flying colors… and it was at the suggestion of the client I had worked with, that said organization hire me to continue offering the services I had been doing. So I joined the new team with the position of Technical Staff 2 (or TS2) – a term simply meaning that I was ‘experienced’; as compared to the relative newbies or inexperienced people that were ranked as TS1. A TS2 could to get the job done with minimal supervision required.

As I was not yet a lead, I looked forward to working with my team’s lead – and I tried to keep within the role expected of me; helped my teammates where needed, and made sure that whatever needed to be done to keep the working relationship with the client and my team smooth, I would help do. If I felt that certain actions or situations might be overstepping my boundaries – as team member, I asked my lead if it was okay to do what I was planning to do.

After all, I did not want to strain a good working relationship. For his part, my lead would handle all admin work – thus freeing us to focus on our core competencies. He set simple – and fair ground rules for assignments, and did not complain about whatever was left him, as he chose last. Other than that, we’d talk when we had some free time. If we had some issues or concerns, he would listen and give advice – thus being a mentor. This, to me, was a ideal setting… and I proceeded to grow technically at a pace to my liking. I was oblivious of career advancements, as I concentrated on giving my best to the project.

My ‘great results’ and ‘positive client feedback’ were reward enough for me… and I was glad to be working in a company I admired, for a high-profile client in a field that I was good at. If I’m being vague, here… let me just mention that said company was the Institute of Advanced Computer Technology, the client was the Asian Development Bank and field or course was offering training in I.T. applications – or at that time, the PC applications – later referred to as the ‘office suite’. In that sense, James, my lead – hardly needed to supervise me. He gave me the trust and elbow room I needed to shine.

A few years down the line, I was eventually asked (if not coaxed) to lead – and I would try to emulate James style, plus add my own touch where needed. In hindsight, I tried giving people the same space I looked for – yet there were times that I had mixed results… where some people that, rather than shine, would hardly rise; or for that matter, fall from some heights, and I would ask if the fault were mine… most of these folks would even be kind enough to say it was not. But I still felt bad at being unable to help them… somewhere deep inside, I thought I could have done more – or differently… but what and how? I did not know back then.

Obviously, I was already instinctively noticing the different needs of some – and if communication were better, and needs were better understood – maybe, just maybe, I would have ‘saved’; as in ‘stopped some of my team members from being frustrated with work, and continue working with the team (and the company) So here’s one ‘had I known back then, what I do know now…’ factor. But then again, that still is a big ‘maybe’ to all this.

On the other hand, when I was in Fujitsu, I was assigned a training team and had to transform them into a high performance team. Their skills were there, the direction seemed out of synch with what Management needed – So I was hired to step in and clean shop as the team’s Manager. During the first week, I talked to my most senior staff – Eboy, and asked a few questions like the team’s morale (in having their manager replaced), their thoughts about me - which was easily bridged, since the current team had a staff (Lindsay) who used to be in I/ACT – so she knew my style and – as confirmed by Eboy, had assured the others of what type of a Manager I was in I/ACT.

Mind you, I had, by this time, read about Situational Leadership, so that was the paradigm of leading that I was practicing… not only that, I had, by then been skilled in project management by way of handling several ‘projects’ in a non-profit organization/club called the Junior Chambers a.k.a. the Jaycees. So I was a more competent leader – than compared to my first years in I/ACT. I talked to everyone – asking them what they wanted or aspired for – and realized that, like myself in the past, they just wanted to prove their worth by working hard, showing result and hopefully getting a raise after showing such a good performance. In other words, they were happy to be told what to do… but I also tried to know some of their out-of-work passions and interests, to see what made them happy. I tried to get into their ‘What’s In It For Me’ (WIIFM) switch.

So yeah, I could say that I was always sensitive to my team’s needs… sensitive to their personal wants… and at times, made sure I helped them address these through their work – as needed.

Great team leaders have awesome communication and listening skills. They know that everyone has their own set of ideas, plans, and dreams. They listen to everyone and try to find ways to incorporate those interests.

Guess this is an extension of what I was already saying, right? I said that I listened – I understood them. Maybe I could not always do this – as I certainly lacked any training that told me the importance of listening, nor the necessary techniques to use for such.

Prior to my I/ACT years, I spent a year as part of a workgroup/team, and we shared many frustrations with how we were getting the raw end of a deal between us and management. We did not disappoint the client, but we were under-manned despite management’s promise to fix things – which they probably did, but only after many months of said frustration. This opened by eyes to the need of really listening to one’s team. You see… in my mind, I knew how it felt to be frustrated and seemingly left alone – and I did not like this feeling at all. This experience made me realize that should I lead, I would take effort to keep channels of communication open to avoid said frustration form my team.

Later on, my job in I/ACT made me learn and accept the fact that I could not know everything in the IT industry – and I simply had to find my niche. That said, I also needed to trust others with what they knew regarding their niche… and – from a management perspective, I just needed to ask the right questions – based on my, ‘limited – but able to relate’ knowledge.

This was where communication was key… the ability to understand, the need to explain or expound until one person knew where the other was coming from – what they meant… what they needed or what was needed to be done.

Now, you might find this surprising, but the fact remains that just because one person was a ‘corporate trainer’, this did not necessarily mean he or she was a good communicator – it may mean said trainer talked good… explained well, but talking is just half the equation, and explaining really is important – but the other half? It’s actually called Listening empathically.

The thing is, how will one know the other person’s plans, ideas and dreams if they don’t bother taking interest and really listening beyond a superficial or surface level? I guess, I’ve my Toastmasters training to thank for this. Granted, I was already a relatively good speaker, and I must say that I was likewise a good listener – yet my listening skills were further honed, by way of needing to evaluate a fellow Toastmaster’s speech – the exercise forced me to focus… to listen.

Since this seems to be getting too long, I guess I’ll just have to cut this entry into at least two-parts (or more… I can get quite verbose).

Next up, I’ll address the following statements:

Great team leaders share their own dreams, plans, and visions with their team members. They aren’t secretive and they refrain from merely working off of other people’s
ideas.

Great team leaders are awesome delegators. They are able to trust their team members and will give those who deserve it a significant amount of responsibility.

Are you a great team leader?

I receive a lot of email– borne out of the fact that I subscribe to a lot of things covering a myriad of interests. The obvious disadvantage here is that my email starts piling up on me, and there are times that I feel like a gardener who’s gone on vacation for a month and now finds his well manicured lawn filled with a lot of overgrowth and unwanted weeds… therefore the need to start trimming and pruning – heck, at times, it’s even setting aside the careful cutting and doing a carpet-bombing style in erasing loads of unwanted email.

But one thing I really keep a keen eye on are any articles for leadership – so if your email title has that particular key word, well… you’ve got my attention and I may opt to spare it from the usual clean-up job and – if the situation permits, open it right there and then – do a quick glance and absorb things on the spot, or I make sure it’s set aside for a better , more concentrated viewing that it may deserve at a latter, less busy time.

Such is the case of this email that I had received from Sean McPheat – a management / leadership trainer from the U.K. The title of his email is “Are you a great team leader?” – and as you can see, it obviously had said key word that piqued my curiosity… so, open it I did.

Now, just because it’s opened, does not mean I may automatically like what I read – some leadership articles come across as technical (i.e. will take time to absorb), while others seem to present their ideas in a very simplistic – yet surprisingly believable manner. McPheat’s articles normally fall under this category, so they are easy to absorb. Once in a while, he outdoes himself with those bits of wisdom, and I then think of sharing such article with my friends… other times, I feel compelled to expound on McPheat’s (or other writers) words, making their message my own – relating why I feel strongly about them.

This entry is one such situation and just to let you in on the contents of said email, I’ve taken the liberty of copy-pasting it, word for word, here.

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To: Butch

From: Sean McPheat

Topic: Are you a great team leader?

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

_____________________________________________________


Do you know anyone in your company who would benefit from receiving these tips? If you do, please ask them to sign up at http://www.m-t-d.co.uk/freecourse.htm

_____________________________________________________


Hi Butch,

Some managers think they can lead by telling their employees what to do.

Others know that real leaders lead by example.

The greatest leaders, however, have special qualities that make them stand out from the crowd.

Over the course of my experience as a manager I’ve identified some of these special qualities in others and I thought I’d share them with you today.

Great team leaders are sensitive. They understand that everyone has different concerns, needs, and interests and they do their best to address these differences.

Great team leaders have awesome communication and listening skills. They know that everyone has their own set of ideas, plans, and dreams. They listen to everyone and try to find ways to incorporate those interests.

Great team leaders share their own dreams, plans, and visions with their team members. They aren’t secretive and they refrain from merely working off of other people’s ideas.

Great team leaders are awesome delegators. They are able to trust their team members and will give those who deserve it a significant amount of responsibility.

Great team leaders allow their team members to participate in the goal-setting and problem solving processes. They allow everyone to become a part of the process instead
of just telling their team members what is going to happen next.

Great team leaders aren’t perfect and don’t pretend to be. They let their team members know about their own mistakes and use them as learning experiences.

What type of team leader are you?

Do you treat your team members fairly and include them in the decision making processes that dictate what they do on a daily basis?

Do certain aspects of team leadership work better for you than others?

Please share!

Thanks again

Sean
PS Here's a link to our management open courses at
Heathrow and Manchester:
http://www.m-t-d.co.uk/opencourses.htm

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Training

Telephone
0800 849 6732
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There you have it… Sean’s message in all it’s glory. Now, I’m sure that – like me, you reflected on each point he raised… doing a mental measurement of your leadership skills, and if not… well, why not? I suggest going back and really reflecting on these ideas … it’s part of the reason I posted this. So by all means, please – return to the top and reflect on them, It’s not like this post will be going anywhere else any time soon.

As for my reflection, I‘ve come up with my thoughts, and how I think I measured with Sean’s list, putting these in a separate blog entry… after all, I wanted to expound a bit – and putting these ideas and words of mine here would defocus this blog entry’s overall important spotlight to said checklist (as I’ve decided to call it as…), so no sharing of spotlights here, it wouldn’t be fair to Sean and his article.

Then again, if you’re curious as to what I have to say, then you’ll be welcome to look at my reaction and discern if I’m too full of ‘it’ or maybe – just maybe, I’ll be telling the truth. Either way, I hope you found Sean’s questions intriguing and answered them truthfully yourselves – and don’t stop there, of course… should the checklist make you realize the need for certain improvement efforts, then by all means, please make the necessary adjustments to be the best leader you can be.

I would also suggest that you find Sean’s regular updates to similar emailed blog entries. He will welcome you, and encourage you to visit his site – so do subscribe. Not everything in life may be free… but sometimes you can find golden cusps of wisdom in the internet… you just need to know where to look.

Why not look at what Sean has to share?