Leadership of IT\/Software Teams in a Regulatory Environment<\/p>\n
Thomas Theobald<\/p>\n
leadership<\/p>\n
\/\u02c8li\u02d0d\u0259\u0283\u026ap\/<\/p>\n
noun<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cthe action of leading a group of people or an organization, or the ability to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n Not exactly helpful, are they?\u00a0 Wikipedia is slightly better:<\/p>\n “is a formal or informal contextually rooted and goal-influencing process that occurs between a leader and a follower, groups of followers, or institutions. The science of leadership is the systematic study of this process and its outcomes, as well as how this process depends on the leader\u2019s traits and behaviors, observer inferences about the leader\u2019s characteristics, and observer attributions made regarding the outcomes of the entity led[1]<\/a><\/sup>.”\u00a0 (Antonakis, John; Day, David V. (2017).\u00a0The Nature of Leadership<\/em>.\u00a0)<\/p>\n There are thousands upon thousands of different works on the subject of leadership, going back farther into history than the Roman Empire.\u00a0 What it really boils down to, at its core, is that to lead is to influence others into behaviors, commitments and actions in service of one\u2019s goal(s).\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n Let\u2019s dive in a little.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to explore what it means to exercise \u201cLeadership\u201d, what it takes to gain that influence over others.<\/p>\n First, we must recognize that influence over others isn\u2019t something we can take \u2013 it is something that is given.\u00a0 Whether voluntarily or through coercion, a person chooses to be influenced by someone.\u00a0 That choice may not be consciously made\u2026it may be something baser, more instinctual, and quite often this is the case whether one is in an office, a political party, a religious revival, or other venue.\u00a0 It appeals to not only the comprehension of the team, but also to their emotional triggers.<\/p>\n Less a mechanistic approach to guiding persons, leadership really is much more a \u201cway of living\u201d in the context of one\u2019s colleagues.<\/p>\n To exercise Leadership then, is a bit like playing a psychological game, guiding others thought processes to coincide with one\u2019s own.\u00a0 Just as each person owns his or her own emotions, team members must make their own commitments to the team \u2013 a leader finds ways to enable them to make those commitments.\u00a0 How does one do that?\u00a0 The United States Marine Corps focuses on six factors that lead to successful leadership:<\/p>\n This, I feel, is the most important distinction between a leader and a manager.\u00a0 A leader must care<\/em> about the persons entrusted to them.\u00a0 That care is demonstrated by actions that follow one\u2019s promises and commitments.\u00a0 When you care for your team, you engender a protective atmosphere for them, enabling them to feel safer around you \u2013 you become their guardian as well as their colleague.<\/em><\/p>\n A specific personality type is not absolutely necessary to exhibit leadership, though some personalities find the communications aspects easier.\u00a0 I think it may be easier to relate this idea of \u2018personality\u2019 rather as sincerity<\/em>, or genuineness of the leader.\u00a0 When you are sincere with your team, they know they can place trust in you \u2013 another safety factor.<\/em><\/p>\n Having boundless knowledge on the relevant topics is very helpful, of course \u2013 but is it really necessary?\u00a0 Not so.\u00a0 Understanding the limits of one\u2019s knowledge is equally important.\u00a0 The most<\/u> important aspect of knowledge, though, is recognizing where it is present in your team and promoting team members\u2019 own knowledge.\u00a0 When you use your team\u2019s knowledge wherever and whenever possible to enable them to step forward, even if you already can answer the need yourself, you build your team\u2019s confidence in themselves \u2013 you promote their ability to excel, strengthening them.<\/em><\/p>\n Succinctly, motivation in this context is the strength of effort used in the persistent pursuit of one\u2019s goals.\u00a0 Maslow\u2019s hierarchy of needs shines a light directly on the source of the motivation of every human:\u00a0 we all share physiological and safety needs; we quite often share the needs related to belongingness, love, and esteem; and we are all usually quite unique in our self-actualization needs.\u00a0 A real leader finds ways to bind the needs of the team at various levels of the hierarchy together, directing the members towards a common goal \u2013 motivating them all by giving them ways to self-motivate.<\/em><\/p>\n Closely tied to the concept of sincerity I mentioned above with Personality, Commitment <\/em>means to support the team with no reservations, during good and bad times.\u00a0 It embraces the team as a living thing, a culture, rather than a tool that can be pulled from a satchel and put away when not needed. When you commit to the team, you are accepting that you work together as a common course of action, which engenders similar action by team members, creating a self-reinforcing group.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n Finally, we come to communication, the bindings that tie all the others together.\u00a0 A person simply cannot be a good leader if they are not also a good communicator.\u00a0 Transparency, clarity of vision, visibility, and receptivity<\/strong> are key facets required of a good communicator.\u00a0 When you can spell out the goals set for the team clearly, make yourself constantly available to the team, and actively listen to the voices of the team, this skill at communication earns the respect of your team.<\/em><\/p>\n As I mentioned before, there are theories on leadership that go back thousands of years, so one could just as easily pick a definition from any period along the way to compare against.\u00a0 However, I think it will suffice in this context to use the USMC six traits \u2013 surprisingly enough, leadership is a near-universal concept, whether in the uniform of a military officer or the business-casual of a startup CTO.<\/p>\n Notice that each of the six focuses on strengthening the individual members of the team \u2013 and tend to de-emphasize the role of the leader her- or himself.\u00a0 This is not to say the leader should play no role, but rather that a successful leader encourages the team to excel.\u00a0 The most important take-away for aspiring leaders is:<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t about you at all.\u00a0 It\u2019s all about the team.<\/em><\/p>\n In the next section, we\u2019ll talk about how these apply in a software development and IT arena.<\/p>\n Part 2<\/a><\/p>\n Part 3 (end)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Leadership of IT\/Software Teams in a Regulatory Environment Thomas Theobald Part 1 – What Exactly Is \u201cLeadership\u201d? leadership \/\u02c8li\u02d0d\u0259\u0283\u026ap\/ noun \u201cthe action of leading a group of people or an organization, or the ability to do this.\u201d Not exactly helpful, … Continue reading Care<\/h2>\n
Personality<\/h2>\n
Knowledge<\/h2>\n
Motivation<\/h2>\n
Commitment<\/h2>\n
Communication<\/h2>\n
Summary<\/h2>\n