#0129: Leadership values
Braingasm
I was fortunate to be part of a panel discussion last week talking about some of the issues that we face as Engineering Leaders. It was an excellent discussion with some fellow Leaders that ranged from changing values during the Pandemic to the use of microservices and few other things in between. In preparing for the session, I wrote a few notes, and I thought it might be useful to publish them as a series of blog posts to capture a transcript of what was said (or what I wanted to say at the time).
This is part 2 of the series, and it takes a look at leadership values, and how they may have changed (or not) during the COVID19 Pandemic. Part 1, published earlier, talks about microservices and the pathologies that sometimes plague their use.
The second question the Panel discussed was:
How can you keep your engineers motivated in these difficult times -- especially in a situation where businesses are cash-strapped due to the Pandemic?
The Panel turned this question into a discussion about Leadership Values, and if they had changed or not during the Pandemic.
I know these times are epochally weird, but I like to think that some of the things that have served me well in “normal” times are also some of the things that have served me well in these crazy times. So, I think the most basic answer to the question of how to motivate engineers and keep them motivated is simply: be a good Leader. That is easier to say than do, but perhaps it is worth looking at a couple of examples of some things that have served me well in my career as an Engineering Leader so far.
I have developed four high-level principles that guide my behaviour along with a set of Leadership Values that I try to inculcate into my day-to-day activities and that of my teams.
- Always try to think in terms of Why / What / How
The first principle that guides my behaviour is to always think in terms of WHY / WHAT / HOW.
In 2009, Simon Sinek created the well-known aphorism “Start with Why” in which he explores the reasons behind peoples’ motivations to buy a product or service or engage meaningfully with an organisation. If you are not one of the >50 million or so people that have seen his now famous TED talk, do yourself a favour and go and watch it. It’s well worth your time. Sinek’s framing is about the sales process and about why consumers engage with a business. Whilst this is enormously powerful, I think this is a bit different when you are talking about leadership and inspiring and motivating smart people to do their best work. Without taking anything away from what Sinek says, I’d like to propose something slightly different in terms of leadership.
I apply this WHY / WHAT / HOW thinking link this:
- As Leaders, our job is to explain WHY we are here and WHY we are doing the things that we are trying to do,
- As Peers, we should collaborate to work out WHAT each of us is going to do, and
- Leaders should then get out of the way and let the team work out HOW to do what is needed.
This pattern can be applied at different levels of leadership and doesn’t have to be the sole purview of the person at the top of the hierarchy. It is equally valid for a CTO to use as it is for a team leader or a junior engineer.
2. Have a simple set of values and do your best to live by them
Values are tricky because they are, by definition, so subjective. I would argue that everyone should be explicit about their values, but equally, I don’t think you should blindly copy mine or anyone else’s. The act of intentionally developing a set of values for yourself is a powerful exercise. Even if no-one else ever hears them, I am pretty sure that you will be better off for having gone through the process of creating your own set.
In the same way that an Engineer should develop a personal software process that guides the way that they work with and build software daily, Leaders should establish their own personal leadership process that guides their behaviour and helps them focus their leadership attentions. Having a good working set of values is a vital component of that process.
These values have worked for me:
- Trust first: Always offer trust before expecting it in return.
- Assume best intentions: Assume that everyone has the very best intentions (aka “The Principle of Charity”).
- People first, work next: Great people do great work so prioritise in that order.
- Care personally, challenge directly: Adopt a radical candour orientation to care personally while challenging directly (I adopted this directly from Kim Scott’s “Radical Candour”).
- Be a builder: Always assume that the best and the worst people can be built up to be better than they are today.
- Favour legacy over empire: Empires come and go, but the real value is in a legacy that leaves the place better than you found it.
Your mileage may vary, and you will no doubt index on different things depending on the kinds of people you are working with, the types of problem you are trying to solve, the stage of your career, and the general context in which you find yourself.
3. Be vulnerable
This is one that I know some personality types can find difficult to comes to terms with. But my experience is that you need to be capable of authentically feeling and showing vulnerability for people to trust you. In practical terms, this means being as happy to share your successes as you are your failures.
4. Get out of the way
This last one is perhaps the one that has the potential to be most disagreed with because there is a personal style element of mine that is inherent in this principle. As a less experienced engineer learning how to grow into the world, I used to hate it when I was told how to do things. I found it wholly demotivating. Micromanagement — particularly from clueless non-Engineering managers — was one the thing that really ground my gears.
Today, most of the people that I work with, or that would like to work with, have a pretty good idea of HOW to do the things that need to be done. Even if they don’t explicitly know how to do something, they know how to learn how to do it. The last thing they need is me (or anyone else in leadership) telling them how to do something, but what they do need some help with from time to time is why. Why should they care about this endeavour on which you are embarking? This is a tricky thing for new Leaders to get their heads around because they want to dive in and do the actual work. Often the reason someone gets promoted is that they were good (or even the best) at what they were doing at the previous level. This can trip up engineers because engineering excellence and leadership excellence are not always housed in the same human.
This final principle dovetails into the first one, and that is intentional. Having a coherent set of principles and values, and ensuring that they are mutually consistent and mutually reinforcing is a good test of their effectiveness.
If you take anything away from this list of principles and values, it should not be to take these and use them as your own. But what I would encourage you to do is come up with your own, always test and refine them, and challenge yourself to guide your behaviour and the behaviour of those in your charge with an intentional leadership framework.
Regards,
M@
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