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Things I Have Learnt as a Team Leader

by Anna MatveevJanuary 9th, 2018

Too Long; Didn't Read

A long cycle has recently closed for me and I think it’s a good time to share some lessons learned.

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A long cycle has recently closed for me and I think it’s a good time to share some lessons learned.

I have been collecting these points in the last six months, but none of them popped up recently, they have taken shape over a few years and they include both things I did and that I failed to do.

Most of these points act as a personal reminder as well as a set of suggestions to others.

So, here it is. A summary of what I learnt in the last three years :

The Team Leader

Building an exceptional team or institution starts with a founder. But being a founder doesn’t mean starting a new company. It is within anyone’s grasp to be the founder and culture-creator of their own team, whether you are the first employee or joining a company that has existed for decades.Source: Work Rules!
I wanted to just start by asking everyone a question: How many of you are completely comfortable with calling yourselves a leader?I’ve asked that question all across the country, and everywhere I ask it, no matter where, there’s a huge portion of the audience that won’t put up their hand. And I’ve come to realize that we have made leadership into something bigger than us; something beyond us.We’ve made it about changing the world. We’ve taken this title of “leader” and treat it as something that one day we’re going to deserve. But to give it to ourselves right now means a level of arrogance or cockiness that we’re not comfortable with. And I worry sometimes that we spend so much time celebrating amazing things that hardly anybody can do, that we’ve convinced ourselves those are the only things worth celebrating. We start to devalue the things we can do every day, We take moments where we truly are a leader and we don’t let ourselves take credit for it, or feel good about it.Source: https://www.ted.com/talks/drew_dudley_everyday_leadership
People who try to persuade you to give up are not trying to help you. They are trying to make sense of why they gave up. The reality is none of those people ever make anything more than excuses. Doesn’t mean they are bad people. But they aren’t going to change the world and they won’t support anyone else in changing the world. Add to that the fact that every day, we are hammered relentlessly with distractions, lies, political agendas, crises, terror, and false hopes. This constant bombardment makes people believe they are powerless — mere spectators in their own lives who only know how to just get by.Source: Be Obsessed or Be Average
When you’re screwing up and nobody’s saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave up. And that’s a lesson that stuck with me my whole life. Is that when you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. Your critics are your ones telling you they still love you and care.Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
If you’re achieving all your goals, you’re not setting them aggressively enough.Source: Work Rules!

The Team

We call them leaders because they go first. We call them leaders because they take the risk before anybody else does. We call them leaders because they will choose to sacrifice so that their people may be safe and protected and so their people may gain, and when we do, the natural response is that our people will sacrifice for us. They will give us their blood and sweat and tears to see that their leader’s vision comes to life, and when we ask them, “Why would you do that? Why would you give your blood and sweat and tears for that person?” they all say the same thing: “Because they would have done it for me.” And isn’t that the organization we would all like to work inSource: https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_why_good_leaders_make_you_feel_safe
The biggest lesson, if you noticed — did you catch it? — is that leadership is over-glorified. Yes, it was the shirtless guy who was first,and he’ll get all the credit, but it was really the first follower that transformed the lone nut into a leader. So, as we’re told that we should all be leaders, that would be really ineffective.Source: https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement/transcript
When something goes wrong, someone is going to tell the story. You’ll be better off if it’s you. Otherwise, you create an opportunity for rumors, hearsay, and false information to spread. When something bad happens, tell your customers (even if they never noticed in the first place). Don’t think you can just sweep it under the rug. You can’t hide anymore. These days, someone else will call you on it if you don’t do it yourself. They’ll post about it online and everyone will know. There are no more secrets. People will respect you more if you are open, honest, public, and responsive during a crisis. Don’t hide behind spin or try to keep your bad news on the down low. You want your customers to be as informed as possible.Source: Rework
There are four-letter words you should never use in business. They’re not fuck or shit. They’re need, must, can’t, easy, just, only, and fast. These words get in the way of healthy communication. They are red flags that introduce animosity, torpedo good discussions, and cause projects to be late. When you use these four-letter words, you create a black-and-white situation. But the truth is rarely black and white. So people get upset and problems ensue. Tension and conflict are injected unnecessarily. Here’s what’s wrong with some of them: Need. Very few things actually need to get done. Instead of saying “need,” you’re better off saying “maybe” or “What do you think about this?” or “How does this sound?” or “Do you think we could get away with that?” Can’t. When you say “can’t,” you probably can. Sometimes there are even opposing can’ts: “We can’t launch it like that, because it’s not quite right” versus “We can’t spend any more time on this because we have to launch.” Both of those statements can’t be true. Or wait a minute, can they?Easy. Easy is a word that’s used to describe other people’s jobs. “That should be easy for you to do, right?” But notice how rarely people describe their own tasks as easy. For you, it’s “Let me look into it” — but for others, it’s “Get it done.”Source: Rework
But if you don’t know why you do what you do, and people respond to why you do what you do, then how will you ever get people to vote for you, or buy something from you, or, more importantly, be loyal and want to be a part of what it is that you do. The goal is not just to sell to people who need what you have; the goal is to sell to people who believe what you believe. The goal is not just to hire people who need a job; it’s to hire people who believe what you believe. I always say that, you know, if you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money, but if they believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.Source: https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action/transcript
All it takes is a belief that people are fundamentally good — and enough courage to treat your people like owners instead of machines. Machines do their jobs; owners do whatever is needed to make their companies and teams successful.Source: Rework
Micromanagement is mismanagement. People micromanage to assuage their anxieties about organizational performance: they feel better if they are continuously directing and controlling the actions of others — at heart, this reveals emotional insecurity on their part. It gives micromanagers the illusion of control (or usefulness). Another motive is lack of trust in the abilities of staff — micromanagers do not believe that their colleagues will successfully complete a task or discharge a responsibility even when they say they will.Source: Rework
Work is far less meaningful and pleasant than it needs to be because well-intentioned leaders don’t believe, on a primal level, that people are good. Organizations build immense bureaucracies to control their people. These control structures are an admission that people can’t be trusted. Or at best, they suggest that one’s baser nature can be controlled and channeled by some enlightened figure with the wisdom to know what is best. That the nature of man is bad, and must be forged through rules, rewards, and punishments.Source: Rework
As I wrote in chapter 2, if you believe people are fundamentally good and worthy of trust, you must be honest and transparent with them. That includes telling them when they are lagging behind in their performance. But having a mission-driven, purposeful workplace also requires that you approach people with sensitivity. Most people who are performing poorly know it and want to get better. It’s important to give them that chance.Source: Work Rules!
The most talented and creative people can’t be forced to work.Source: Work Rules!
This is why we take as much power away from managers as we can. The less formal authority they have, the fewer carrots and sticks they have to lord over their teams, and the more latitude the teams have to innovate.Source: Work Rules!
If you give people freedom, they will amaze youSource: Work Rules!

Managing the Team

Clarity. Management reports are full of complaints about the lack of clarity. Compliance audits, consultants’ diagnostics. We need more clarity, we need to clarify the roles, the processes. It is as though the runners on the team were saying, “Let’s be clear — where does my role really start and end? Am I supposed to run for 95 meters, 96, 97…?” It’s important, let’s be clear. If you say 97, after 97 meters, people will drop the baton, whether there is someone to take it or not.Accountability. We are constantly trying to put accountability in someone’s hands. Who is accountable for this process? We need somebody accountable for this process. So in the relay race, since passing the baton is so important, then we need somebody clearly accountable for passing the baton. So between each runner, now we will have a new dedicated athlete, clearly dedicated to taking the baton from one runner, and passing it to the next runner. And we will have at least two like that. Well, will we, in that case, win the race? That I don’t know, but for sure, we would have a clear interface, a clear line of accountability. We will know who to blame. But we’ll never win the race. If you think about it, we pay more attention to knowing who to blame in case we fail, than to creating the conditions to succeed. All the human intelligence put in organization design — urban structures, processing systems — what is the real goal? To have somebody guilty in case they fail. We are creating organizations able to fail, but in a compliant way, with somebody clearly accountable when we fail. And we are quite effective at that — failing.Measurement. What gets measured gets done. Look, to pass the baton, you have to do it at the right time, in the right hand, at the right speed. But to do that, you have to put energy in your arm. This energy that is in your arm will not be in your legs. It will come at the expense of your measurable speed. You have to shout early enough to the next runner when you will pass the baton, to signal that you are arriving, so that the next runner can prepare, can anticipate. And you have to shout loud. But the blood, the energy that will be in your throat will not be in your legs. Because you know, there are eight people shouting at the same time. So you have to recognize the voice of your colleague. You cannot say, “Is it you?” Too late!Source: https://www.ted.com/talks/yves_morieux_how_too_many_rules_at_work_keep_you_from_getting_things_done
Less is better. You need to use source code control. You need to be a good code citizen. You need to deliver code that works. You need to communicate your designs and their level of effort. Not much else is “needed” or “required”. If you are smart, you will get your design reviewed, your code reviewed, and you will write tests and appropriate monitoring scripts. Hire people who understand that you want these things because they help you deliver better products, not because they are “required”. If you make a mistake, and you will, own up to it, and get it fixed. It is also important to find your own mistakes, not rely on others to find them for you.Source: http://highscalability.com/blog/2011/6/27/tripadvisor-architecture-40m-visitors-200m-dynamic-page-view.html

Mentoring

Traditional performance management systems make a big mistake. They combine two things that should be completely separate: performance evaluation and people development. Evaluation is necessary to distribute finite resources, like salary increases or bonus dollars. Development is just as necessary so people grow and improve.”If you want people to grow, don’t have those two conversations at the same time. Make development a constant back-and-forth between you and your team members, rather than a year-end surprise.Source: Work Rules!
simply, because many professionals are almost always successful at what they do, they rarely experience failure. And because they have rarely failed, they have never learned how to learn from failure. … [T]hey become defensive, screen out criticism, and put the “blame” on anyone and everyone but themselves. In short, their ability to learn shuts down precisely at the moment they need it the most.Source: Work Rules!

Hiring

How can you tell if you have found someone exceptional? My simple rule of thumb — and the second big change to make in how you hire — is: “Only hire people who are better than you.”Source: Work Rules!
We’d prefer hiring someone who was clever and curious over someone who actually knew what he was doing.Source: Work Rules!

The Product

We spend most of our time breaking things and trying to prove that we’re wrong. That’s it, that’s the secret.Run at all the hardest parts of the problem first. Get excited and cheer, “Hey! How are we going to kill our project today?”Source: https://www.ted.com/talks/astro_teller_the_unexpected_benefit_of_celebrating_failure/transcript
“That would never work in the real world.” You hear it all the time when you tell people about a fresh idea. This real world sounds like an awfully depressing place to live. It’s a place where new ideas, unfamiliar approaches, and foreign concepts always lose. The only things that win are what people already know and do, even if those things are flawed and inefficient.Source: Rework
Think about the children’s game Telephone. There are ten kids sitting in a circle. A message starts and is whispered from one child to another. By the time it gets all the way around, the message is completely distorted — to the point where it’s usually hilarious. A sentence that makes sense at first comes out the other end as “Macaroni cantaloupe knows the future.” And the more people you have in the circle, the more distorted the message gets. The same thing is true at your company. The more people you have between your customers’ words and the people doing the work, the more likely it is that the message will get lost or distorted along the way.Source: Rework
“Your call is very important to us. We appreciate your patience. The average hold time right now is sixteen minutes.” Give me a fucking break. Getting back to people quickly is probably the most important thing you can do when it comes to customer service. It’s amazing how much that can defuse a bad situation and turn it into a good one.Source: Rework

Prioritization

Stop saying ASAP. We get it. It’s implied. Everyone wants things done as soon as they can be done. When you turn into one of these people who adds ASAP to the end of every request, you’re saying everything is high priority. And when everything is high priority, nothing is. (Funny how everything is a top priority until you actually have to prioritize things.)Source: Rework
There’s no need for a spreadsheet, database, or filing system. The requests that really matter are the ones you’ll hear over and over. After a while, you won’t be able to forget them. Your customers will be your memory. They’ll keep reminding you. They’ll show you which things you truly need to worry about.Source: Rework
When building a house, you draw up a plan, decide where to put walls, what floors and wall decorations to use, what materials to build from, and put all of that on paper. This takes some time but it’s generally something that takes a few days, then you have a meeting, agree and you have a plan. Having the plan and having built houses before, you can estimate the time it will take pretty confidently. It’s a known problem, it’s just a matter of executing the plan. Software is not “built” in this sense. You don’t hear mathematicians saying they are building a proof. They are trying to “find” a proof. Writing software is similar. A much better metaphor would be searching for certain objects in a house that somebody has lived in.Source: https://red-badger.com/blog/2016/04/07/deadline-driven-development-just-stop/
“I don’t have enough time/money/people/experience.” Stop whining. Less is a good thing. Constraints are advantages in disguise. Limited resources force you to make do with what you’ve got. There’s no room for waste. And that forces you to be creative.Source: Rework

Culture

You don’t create a culture. It happens. This is why new companies don’t have a culture. Culture is the byproduct of consistent behavior. If you encourage people to share, then sharing will be built into your culture. If you reward trust, then trust will be built in. If you treat customers right, then treating customers right becomes your culture.Source: Rework
When you treat people like children, you get children’s work. Yet that’s exactly how a lot of companies and managers treat their employees. Employees need to ask permission before they can do anything. They need to get approval for every tiny expenditure. It’s surprising they don’t have to get a hall pass to go take a shit. When everything constantly needs approval, you create a culture of nonthinkers. You create a boss-versus-worker relationship that screams, “I don’t trust you.” What do you gain if you ban employees from, say, visiting a social-networking site or watching YouTube while at work? You gain nothing. That time doesn’t magically convert to work. They’ll just find some other diversion.Source: Rework
How do you know if you’re working in a feature factory?No measurement. Teams do not measure the impact of their work. Or, if measurement happens, it is done in isolation by the product management team and selectively shared. You have no idea if your work workedSuccess theater around “shipping” with little discussion about impact. You can tell a great deal about an organization by what it celebratesInfrequent (acknowledged) failures and scrapped work. No removed features. Primary measure of success is delivered features, not delivered outcomes. Work is rarely discarded in light of data and learning. Often the team lacks the prerequisite safety to admit misfiresObsessing about prioritization. Mismatch between prioritization rigor (deciding what gets worked on) and validation rigor (deciding if it was, in fact, the right thing to work on). Prioritization rigor is designed exclusively to temper internal agendas so that people “feel confident”. Lots of work goes into determining which ideas to work on, leaving little leeway for adjustments and improvisation based on data. Roadmaps show a list of features, not areas of focus and/or outcomes.Source: https://hackernoon.com/12-signs-youre-working-in-a-feature-factory-44a5b938d6a2
The second something goes wrong, the natural tendency is to create a policy. “Someone’s wearing shorts!? We need a dress code!” No, you don’t. You just need to tell John not to wear shorts again.Source: Rework

Negotiating

It’s not that top managers don’t want new ideas. Rather, it’s the people around you — your colleagues, your manager — who are unlikely to bend toward change.Source: http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20170227-this-is-why-the-boss-will-crush-all-your-good-ideas
Psychotherapy research shows that when individuals feel listened to, they tend to listen to themselves more carefully and to openly evaluate and clarify their own thoughts and feelings.Source: Never Split the Difference
It’s a phenomenon (and now technique) that follows a very basic but profound biological principle: We fear what’s different and are drawn to what’s similar. As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. Mirroring, then, when practiced consciously, is the art of insinuating similarity. “Trust me,” a mirror signals to another’s unconscious, “You and I — we’re alike.Source: Never Split the Difference
It all starts with the universally applicable premise that people want to be understood and accepted. Listening is the cheapest, yet most effective concession we can make to get there. By listening intensely, a negotiator demonstrates empathy and shows a sincere desire to better understand what the other side is experiencing.Source: Never Split the Difference