Career Kaizen #5 - 5 Days of Leadership

Monday - Level 5 Leadership

Leaders help team members
solve their own problems.

Most agree leadership is important, but there are many definitions out there. Are you a leader? Do you have leadership in you? The ScrumMaster role is often described as a servant leader, so it's worth some focused time on it.

One of the classic business books is Good to Great. In the book, Jim Collins talks about Level 5 Leadership, the highest of all and a level few CEO's attain. There are good metaphors that describe that type of leader.

First, these leaders look out the window to assign credit, and look in the mirror to assign blame. Always try to deflect to the team when someone looks at the results and says "You've done a great job leading the team," especially if it's in a public situation, like a meeting. There are many ways to do this, for example, "It's not me. It's the team. Anyone could have done it if they had a team like this," or "Thank you, but really, the team is the one responsible. They have really put in a lot of time, effort and heart into this, " or even just point to some specific positive aspect of the team (perhaps from one of their retros), "The team really feels that _______ has been the key ingredient to the success we've had."

Second, these leaders want to make clock-builders, not be time-tellers. Rather than always have the answer, or be quick to solve someone's problem, Level 5 Leaders help team members solve their own problems or find their own answers. This builds their own abilities, ownership of the solution, empowers self-organization and makes teams faster. Many times making a clock-builder can be started by responding to a question with "What do you think?" I've been surprised how many times they already have an idea, they're just looking for feedback, support, or political covering. You can answer with, "Well, try that out and let me know how it goes," and watch as the team begins to solve more and more of their own problems.

Homework: Ask yourself: Does it feel good to solve people's problems? To be needed? Or to be able to help? Is your value based in part on how critical you are for things to get done? Are you okay with them figuring out everything by themselves?

Tuesday, Common Team Needs

Marcus Buckingham said that the difference between management and leadership is that management looks at what is unique among people, and capitalizes on it, while leadership looks at what is common among people and capitalizes on that.

Knowing what the common concerns are, or addressing a common need, is important. Vision, a key leadership trait, is pointing to a common goal or destination that enables a group to rally around and towards that - a common goal or challenge as they struggle, fail, win and journey together.

Homework: Look at the common felt needs of employees compared to what management thinks they need. What do you think the top three for your team members are? List them in the next retro and have the team dot vote them.

Wednesday - Positional or Influential Leadership

The challenge, and the blessing, of leadership in the ScrumMaster role is that you do not have authority over the team. You can't tell them or force them to do anything. Yet, traditional, authoritative leadership is actually the lowest form of leadership. People aren't as likely to truly be following you as a positional leader (for example, a manager). They are doing what you say, whether they like it or not, because they have to. In those situations, they're not giving the positional leader their best, but only the minimum required. Just enough to not get in trouble or fired or noticed.

Having people listen to you, follow you, as a servant leader means you must learn and grow in the powerful area of influential leadership. Forming relationships, understanding their needs and concerns, fighting on their behalf, protecting them, taking hits for them.

Homework: Looking back over history, who do you admire? Any heroes or people that you respect the work they did, the impact they had, or the challenges that they overcame? If so, in what ways can you apply lessons from them for your life and work now? What would they tell you?

Thursday - People Development Wins Championships

You must develop team members to win championships

John Maxwell wrote a very popular book on leadership. A few quotes from him:
"You can't lead people without liking them."
"At one level, you focus on becoming a change agent - focusing on productivity."
"Productivity wins games. People development wins championships."
"Besides the obvious competence, effort and skill, leadership also depends on intentionality."
"To succeed as a leader, you must help others move forward."

Homework: Pick one of the quotes you like (or another quote from the web page), print it out large to post on your wall at work, and small to put on your bathroom mirror or car dashboard. Keep it in front of you for a week. Don't start your computer or end your day without looking at it (even better to say it to yourself) or start your car or brush your teeth without the same.

Video Fridays

Stanton Complex - face the brutal facts, but don't let go of hope. In 1965, Captain Stanton was shot down and in a POW camp in Vietnam. While others kept believing any day that they'd be released, the reality was they weren't. These people ended up giving up, or worse. Stanton was hopeful, but not unrealistically so, and faced the reality that, also, they may never be released.

On your team, in your company, it may look grim. It doesn't help to believe things will magically change based on nothing other than your wishful thinking. And yet, we have to hope and believe that there is a chance, a chance worth fighting for, that they someday could.

Always respond positively. Don't join others in their complaining. Focus on solutions - what can you change, what experiment, what can you ask for, that might help. If you're not sure, ask yourself, "Is this noble or excellent?"

Homework: Watch the video of Jim Collins (or listen to his audio clips), or Patrick Lencioni.

Weekend Warrior: Review all of Jim Collins Hedgehog Concept items. List out the five levels of leadership.

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You Already Chose Failure (or Success)

Ever wonder if it's going to work? Is this role right for you? Can you successfully lead this team? Will the project be a success?

Although we may have the skills and experience to be successful, much more is determined by the intangibles - passion and drive, collaboration skills and empathy, work ethic, vision and values.

We all have roles, and those roles are our decision filters on how we behave, and therefore our success. We are acting out of those roles whether we realize it our not, and often it's not the roles we want to be in, but default or roles not appropriate for the situation.

I might know a lot about parenting, but if my primary role when I come home is (still) business, then my actions are based on that, and I fail. I'll be trying to get one more email done. I'll be thinking about upcoming meetings and not listening to my family. I won't be present emotionally, even if there physically. And I certainly won't be leading my family to a vision of what we can be, something they get excited about and get behind.

The roles of the ScrumMaster include Servant Leader, Impediment Remover, Coach, Educator and Evangelist, Organizational Change Agent, Chief Mechanic and Shepherd an Guardian of the Process.
Our roles act as a decision filter. When you're at work, try consciously wearing one of these hats. That way, we take initiative in stopping our default responses or reactions and start acting from who we want to be.

For example, if I'm late to work, my default role of employee or reports-to-someone pulls me towards trying to sneak in unnoticed. Now, my teammates or those I lead will notice this. I've not only missed a coaching or learning opportunity with them, but I've actually modeled just the behavior that I don't want  them to have.

Instead, if I am late to work, but I'm wearing the role of servant leader, I'm thinking of my team first. I transparently check in with them, letting them know that since I was late, I might have missed something they needed (or worse, the daily stand-up). I might model vulnerability about how I'm wrestling with my own inspect-and-adapt cycle on how to solve this on-time problem.

ScrumMasters, Be Different from the Inside Out

Reading up on Design Thinking, I came across this part of the process and was dumbfounded.

"Set aside emotion and ownership of ideas."

Oh, really? Is it that simple?

Personally, I've practiced self-awareness, servant leadership, and been coaching teams and individuals for years, and I struggle with setting aside emotion and ownership of ideas. What about people who don't even understand others, much less themselves?

And here's where I think Scrum and Agile struggle. We can teach the framework and values, but it doesn't equip us for

• the people issues, 
• the resistance to change, 
• the turf wars and politics, 
• and the fear, uncertainty and doubt that these newly minted ScrumMasters will face back at their organizations.

Besides the classic resources I would recommend, I can honestly say that I think the ScrumMaster or agile servant leader needs to be a different person from most of the people in the workplace, different inside than 95% of the people around them.

1. They need to be hopeful and believe they will prevail, regardless of the circumstances. And when bad things happen, they need to believe that good will come out of it.
2. They need to be patient, continuing to work and work towards the goals. Not patient in terms of days or weeks of not seeing results, but sometimes months or years.
3. They need to look for the good in people, while having firm and respectful boundaries that cordon off the bad.
4. They need to know the worst of humanity that impacts our efforts in the workplace - ego, selfishness, inability to admit mistakes or lack of knowledge, revenge, fear, control, but not react to these when they come out. 

Not should they not be naive about these negative aspects of the workplace we navigate. In fact, they will have even greater impact if they have been the victim of some of these abuses and not only come through it, but have no resentments. They dealt with the emotional baggage, have forgiven the person or people, and let it go. These are people that no how the game is played, don't get angry about that reality, and are still effective in getting immediate results with that environment, while slowly helping to change it and make it less dysfunctional. When South Africa began to deal with all the residue from apartheid, Desmond Tutu actually asked for just these sort of people to lead the cultural change.

Finally, they need to have a source of fulfillment that doesn't depend on their results - personally or with their projects, because these results may or may not come, not fully in this person's control. Yet they should still be a leader in that they always have something to give others, and they can if their personal tanks are full. This could come from their own personal growth, or how they've helped others grow.

We want these leaders in our workplace, but they are rare gems indeed. Be the change you want to see. Don't try to act like someone amazing, that will run out. But start becoming someone amazing, and then the actions just become natural.

Find a guide to help you grow:

• The Road Less Travelled - A classic text on personal growth
• Storyline - a new workbook to trackback the events in your life and how they are telling a story of your purpose here
• How People Grow - Thorough book by well known psychologist
• The Search for Significance - Another workbook that is a guide for finding significance over success

and be inspired - find some heros:

• Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World - A fun read by a surprisingly unconventional, almost wacky attorney who founded Restore International, a nonprofit human rights organization operating in Uganda and India.
• The Hiding Place - The riveting story of how a middle-aged Dutch watchmaker became a heroine of the Resistance and a survivor of Hitler's death camps.
• Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption - An 18 year old leaves everything in American to start an orphanage in Uganda.
• Pranitha Timothy - Has lead dozens of rescue missions to free slaves.
• Freedom Writers - A movie about the teacher in the inner city who changed lives.
• Amazing Grace - The movie of William Wilberforce who began the movement to end slavery in Britain.

Are You Fighting Others or Creating New Options?

Is it fiercely competitive for you to be successful? Do others have to lose for you to win?

Below is my first blog post from 2004. I was a manager trying to get projects done. I had only glanced at agile. There was no iPhone yet. But some things haven't changed. Leadership Coach Tim Sanders is still great, The Leadership Summit is still awesome (I already bought my tickets for next year) and my views of how and why we should work have only deepened.

Be sure to get the free PDF chapter of Tim's new book at his site. Good stuff, easy read and it can change how you work and interact today. Also, there's a great interview of Tim by Dave Ramsey at the Entreleadership podcast site. At the podcast site are also interviews of Jim Collins, Patrick Lencioni, Dan Cathy, Steven Covey and more.

Recently I was reminded of Tim's lesson while reading Zappos! Delivering Happiness - A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose (great book - now in audio and comic book form, too). The author wrote about playing the card games at Vegas, and how in life we have the ability to "create a new table" - to create opportunity. Be sure to check out the free Zappos! Culture book, too.

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At the 2004 Leadership Summit, Tim Sanders, Leadership Coach for Yahoo!, shared that we often don't have faith in our people or ourselves. There are those that have an attitude of 'scarcity', driven by fear of competition and filled with a sense of lack, what they don't have. It's the difference between social networking for other's benefit and networking for personal gain (which he said is actually prospecting or brokering).

He gave a good word picture by saying "It's the difference between being a gardener and a butcher." Tim said that at Yahoo!, if you are driven by scarcity (nay-sayer, doom and gloom), they will literally stamp a piece of paper with "Chicken Little" and stick it to your back, to be left there all day. Tim made me think how often I look to the negative side of a situation. In software development, we need to look at the possible concequences, but really only as risk analysis.

Even then, the downside should perhaps only be considered, noted, and then everyone should move forward on the project focussing on the upside. This doesn't mean be unrealistic, niave, or wear rose-colored glasses, it only means that we decide to concentrate our energy on the possible positive outcomes, encourage others, and be a contributor to the solution.

And an IT project, we could all agree, is much more than flowcharts and code.

Listening to Your Team

Sometimes for a retrospective, I'll have a team play the ball point game. I do this because it let's be see the team dynamics as a whole in only 20 minutes. Is someone dominating the rest of the team? Is this a team afraid to take risks? Is this a team that innovates? Is this a team that has trust, is close and works well together, or are they a group of individuals who begin to blame and finger-point when the pressure is on?

Recently I had a picture of a team that was unique to me, but perhaps common to others. It was a team that I would give an A+ to for effort and energy. They were trying as hard as the possibly could, and that was part of the problem. They were so intense, so focussed, trying so hard that they weren't listening and giving weight to everybody's ideas. Instead, in the craziness and loud voices, it seemed they found themselves guided (or more appropriately, driven) by the energy and passion of a few.

After several iterations, and even my sharing with them the performance I've seen from the vast majority of other teams, they were beginning their next iteration with exactly the same approach as before, yet committing to significantly more work. "What changes have you made since last sprint?" I asked. "We are going to be more focussed!" they said emphatically. I wish you could have seen the situation - these guys had been giving more effort and energy than a playoff team, yet were saying the missing key to success was focus? Essentially, they were saying they were going to try harder, but make no other changed and more than double their productivity.

In the quiet moment while I had their attention, I asked if anyone on the team had any ideas that hadn't been tried yet. Immediately, one then two then three people shared great ideas that would enable the team to hit their goal. Now, these people sharing their ideas were not the loud, gregarious, driving leaders. They were more likely introverts. Just like the ones that statistically make up the majority of your technical team.

Often, I'll lead retrospectives by having everyone write down their thoughts one what's going well, not-so-well, and any ideas. This ensures that I hear the voice of even the quietest (or newest or youngest) team member. Our agile teams do not succeed based on the old, traditional approach of a project manager in charge who, often, is expected to make all decision (and therefore often the only person trying to solve all problems). Agile teams rely on collective intelligence. The same way that Google has come up with great products such as AdWords and Maps, or the way that Barrick Mining found fresh approaches to find where to mine based on contest submissions from around the world (as described in Mavericks at Work). 

No one of us is as smart as all of us, so make sure that you're creating space to hear all voices and great insights of your team.

Agile Presentation - Dear 31 Year Old Me

My session was "Dear 31 Year Old Me - 10 Things I Wish I Had Known Before I Dove Into Agile"

What agile practices were most important? What tools were most helpful? What books? How did you succeed? Where did you fail? What helped your career the most? If I could go back 10 years, there's a lot of things I wish that I could tell the 31-year-old me. Some lessons go counter to conventional wisdom, some are just not highlighted much. This session will cover what distilled, core lessons have helped me and teams that I've coached the most as we moved into agile.

Deck available here - 

http://www.slideshare.net/sdunnrocket9/dear-31-year-old-me-what-i-wish-i-knew

There were some great questions during the Q & A session at the end of the day, including "If process doesn't save us, what does?" and "What's the best way to start up new teams in an agile adoption?"

You Have Something of Mine

I was speechless. What I saw left me dumbfounded, like when you realize it was a trick play and you were chasing the person who didn't have the ball. I had been working so hard for months on proposals for the Agile 2011 conference - hours of collaboration, hundreds of pages of reading, a day long seminar. I've been waiting to hear whether I would be rejected again (for the fourth year in a row) when I saw the hornswoggling statement. A session had been accepted that was a summary of a book very similar to one that I had read. Helpful, yes. But cutting edge? World changing? Revolutionary? No, but that's where I was wrong. And I had been robbed.

Like many others, I'm always learning - reading books or blogs, talking to others and taking notes. New things are always interesting. But that doesn't mean that the old things are not still valuable. Also, those those old things are still new to other people. But that's not where I was robbed.

I was robbed when I listened to the voice that said, "No one's interested in the little things, the common things, that you value. It has to be completely new, completely unique, and obvious that it required lots and lots of effort."

I find that same line keeping me from giving my best to my team. "Don't share that with the team, they'll think its useless. Write up a bulleted summary with all the links. That would be better," "Don't tell him 'Good job!' What until the whole thing is finished, then tell him. It will mean more then," "Don't bring in cookies for the team. They'll think that's corny. Wait and ask the boss for approval to take them out to lunch." All those opportunities to give something good to others are robbed, robbed by the mirage of Great - the gold-plated big-bang delivery of perfection. Perhaps I would be better off to be agile and  give out what I have to offer early and often. Which leads me to be my next point.

You have something of mine - some story or tip or example that, although free for you to give, would be valuable to me. Don't hold back. Don't be robbed as I was. Let others decide the value, just like the Product Owners or customers we serve.

One Month to Live

My friend Brad asked a question last week that struck me so hard that I lost track of the conversation for a bit, lost in my thoughts. What if I only had 24 hours left on this earth? For most of us, it's fairly similar - going and letting all those we care about how much we love them, maybe forgiving some people or asking forgiveness. As powerful as that is, in my friend's opinion, how much more powerful if the question was "What if you had a month to live, or a year?" That question is richer, deeper, because you had time to do something, other than just communicate. You can change. And you can change lives.

Brielle Murray has changed a lot of lives. Barely 13 years old, she has touched many, many lives as she faced RMS cancer for the last three years. She passed away on Friday, February 17 at 9:45 A.M. In her room were still thank you cards and valentines that she was making for others. Brad's question had me going over and over Brielle's short life - here she was thinking of others while facing unbelievable challenges. Perhaps that question is part of the answer.

In our culture of Me First, we don't often think of what's left behind when the Me is gone. And yet, that's what's lasting. Recently, I was talking to a key person in one company's agile adoption and he kept referencing how one executive had made such a difference. When I went on LinkedIn to find out more, I saw that the executive had moved on to another opportunity years earlier. But you wouldn't know it from the way the agilist was talking - it was like the executive was still there. In some ways, he was. That exec was still making a difference through how he had impacted this agilist, and now how that agilist was coaching his ScrumMasters, QA folks, developers and others on the teams he was over.

You can make a difference. You can change lives - the way people view challenges, believe in themselves, respond to failure, treat others. But it doesn't start later. It starts now. It's starts with the focus, resolve and passion you would have if you were just told that you only have months or a year to live.

Below are some resources on how others responded to the same question -

• Tim McGraw - Live Like You Were Dying - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xSGLZd9Vg4
• The Fray - How To Save A Life - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjVQ36NhbMk
• Switchfoot - Dare You To Move  - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOTcr9wKC-o
• One Month to Live: Thirty Days to a No-Regrets Life - http://amzn.to/hkiXzg
• Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson - http://amzn.to/fx1Xsy
• Death Be Not Proud - http://amzn.to/eYGti5
• Alicia's Story - http://www.sfgate.com/alicia/

Technorati Tags: agile, scrum, coaching, lifecoaching, ScrumMaster

My Work Manifesto

I've found that people can play in the same field, doing the same activities, even using the same words, but have vastly different motivations underneath. What motivates us isn't always openly discussed, but it's clearly evident when when I'm in a discussion with a new friend, some colleague my area of work, and I feel a connection on a deeper level. This becomes more of an issue when a business sector is having success and some come into that area simply for that reason. That is, most people I've met in art or landscaping do so because they are passionate about it, not because it will pay for a home in Newport Beach and a new Lexus (while they might appreciate and get those material things, that is not their primary motivation).

Admittedly, I've struggled with how I feel about this with each new agile company I see or coach I meet. I ask myself, "Were they passionate about agile before this recent boom?", but I've also had to ask myself if that matters. Would it be okay, with me, if they weren't passionate about agile and were only in it for the money? What if they were good at coaching, training or in other ways helping companies and people? What if they become passionate about it? Those questions, and more, are ones I can't answer and, I've found, that I cannot decide the worthiness of others being in this field. I can only look at myself in the mirror and refine what's there.

To this end, I put together a list to help me determine my guiding values and, as the Agile Manifesto does, did so in a comparative manner. May it be of some help to you.

Purpose-Motivated over Money-Driven
Extending the Vision over Keeping to the Familiar
Stretching Myself over Staying Comfortable
Helping the Whole over Benefiting a Few
Abundance Mentality over Scarcity Mindset
Others' Needs over Self-Interest
Giving Back over Accumulating
Making a Difference over Busyness
Significance over Success

That is, while it may be fine for others to value the items on the right, I value the items on the left more.

The Leadership Summit - Session 1 - A Vision to Die For

The Leadership Summit
Notes from Session 1 - A Vision to Die For, Bill Hybels

Vision must be owned. Ownership is the most powerful weapon in casting and maintaining vision for your organization. It's the painting of the picture that brings passion out of people. It ties into purpose – a sense of destiny beyond to 9 to 5.

Hybels referenced the book of John – Being an owner vs. just a hired hand.

"I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd puts the sheep before himself, sacrifices himself if necessary. A hired man is not a real shepherd. The sheep mean nothing to him. He sees a wolf come and runs for it, leaving the sheep to be ravaged and scattered by the wolf. He's only in it for the money. The sheep don't matter to him." - John 10:11-13

Hybels challenged us to ask ourselves, "At my current workplace, am I the owner of the vision, or the hired hand?" Do I pray for it, protect it, volunteer for it. Owners of the vision will sacrifice deeply. They will be high capacity workers.

Hybels then referenced a group that was an owner of a vision. On March 7, 1965, a group of civil rights marches left Selma, Alabama for Birmingham. They made it as far as the Edmund Pettis Bridge. There they faced state troopers and county sheriffs armed with billy clubs tear gas and bullwhips. The lawmen attacked the peaceful protesters and drove them back to Selma. This event became known as Bloody Sunday. Owners of a vision will be willing to die for the cause.

Out vision is so important. It should be bold, faithful, honorable, and clear. But vision needs to be owned by the people in our organization.

How do we do this? For some Type-A leaders who live on blazing a trail and calling back to everyone to follow their lead, it's a four letter word: P-R-O-C-E-S-S. Without process, we defeat every one left out (which is everyone but the leader).

There are three steps in the process for vision ownership:
1. Vision Formation
There is the top-down approach (bad), or the team approach (good). The top down approach is so often taken because it is quick, but doesn't take, doesn't hold.

The recommendation on the team approach was to have an offsite, with the focus being the question "What should our organization look like in five years?" It may feel slow or inefficient, and to some quick-acting leaders like "swimming in peanut butter." But this builds community, value and more likelihood of ownership. The team members may not always have their way, but they at least need to know their ideas have been considered.

2. Vision Refinement
Make a first draft of the vision. This crystallizes it, even in draft form. Take this draft to the groups at the next level out, trying to get different types of groups, feedback. Ask what's clear, what's confusing, what excites you, what scares you. The goal is to come away with a crystal clear, compelling vision.

3. Vision Declaration

Introduce the vision in front of leaders first, asking if it is clear and compelling. The declaration is not a solo effort, but a team activity.

Great leaders know that more time in the vision casting process increases ownership. Vision leaks, but don't berate the workers for this. Use any tactics to keep refilling the vision. And remember to celebrate progress.

David Maister on Passion, People and Principles

David Maister is so straight on with his post on Passion, People and Principles (posted here).

Over and again on projects and teams and in companies, I see these truths and consequences lived out. Throw in embracing a paradigm of servant leadership and an understanding of strengths, management and leadership, and I believe every person who wants to be successful, can be. But from what I've seen, many people aren't willing to give up what they want, even for better long term, or if it hurts the company, themselves or others. Like the monkey who can't get his hand out of the jar because he won't let go of the banana inside, these people get what they want but trap themselves in the end.

...You Need to Know, Pt. 3 - Leadership

For the past two posts, I have been reviewing Marcus Buckingham talk "One Thing You Need to Know." This is the final post on the session.

The job as a leader, according to Buckingham, is to rally people to a better future. One trait of leaders is that they are deeply, deeply optimistic. They are not naive, nor unaware of the dangers and difficulties. They have egos to lead. Some would say a leader should have strong ethics and integrity. We all should have that. But leaders have self-confidence and assurance above what most people, including managers, have. Leaders want to steer the boat, and believe in their hearts that they should be the one to do it.

Leaders find what is universal about their people and capitalize on it. One universal trait among people is fear of the unknown. And leaders traffic there.

The disciplines of leadership are:
1. Reflection, typically on excellence. Many people fail because they fail to understand what success means.
2. Picking the right heroes.
3. Practice - the words, stories to answer the universal fears and concerns of their people.
4. Clarity. Who do we serve? What is our core strength? What is our core score/metric? What actions can we take today? Why will we win? What is our competitive advantage?

Getting back to engaging workers, outstanding management and leadership engages people, not leaving 20% actively disengaged, wasted potential, like, as Buckingham said, "sundials in the shade."

More on Gallup's Q12 that lead to First, Break All the Rules here...
A summary of the strengths movement is here and related materials here.