No Silver Bullets
Last time I wrote about the challenges and emotions of being the new guy. Your new position is an important one with lots of responsibility. You are an executive, perhaps in the role of an individual contributor or maybe overseeing a number of employees or departments. Regardless, you’re a leader and expectations are high. Your team, adjacent organizations, and the company expect lots from you … and the honeymoon period isn’t very long. Where do you start?
Some things are obvious: meet the team members, attend project reviews, get overviews of the products and/or services for which you are responsible, etc. Probably, you’ve thought to read product and analyst reviews (if they exist), maybe converse with some of your customers, perhaps even trialed the product. These are all good things to help build a suitable foundation for guiding team members.
Nice start but change it up!
What about stepping out of your office (physical or virtual) to attend team standups and participate like a typical member, personally experiencing crucial processes and tools, and engaging in chats in a manner showing that you’re not just an ivory tower executive? You say your team is just 5 people, 50 people, 100+ people? Does it really matter? You don’t need to be tight with each member but can get around to enough to become known, show empathy, gain an understanding of their challenges and needs.
Sure you’ve got budget meetings, strategy sessions, presentations and more on your calendar. You’re busy! On the other hand, there is always time to exercise soft skills, be approachable, and “lead from within” rather than be on the outside. Team members come to respect and appreciate you as you become “one of them.” In fact, I like to remind people that we succeed only as a team, and that we’re actually peers with the principal difference being our respective roles. Indeed, while reinforcement of roles helps team members understand expectations, it is frequent and transparent communication that brings about effective collaboration and optimum results.
Dare to take action and be different!
It really works!
Perhaps you’re thinking that this approach works only with tiny teams. Nothing could be further from the truth! I’ve taken this same approach with teams of 500+. It takes a bit more work, but I learned quickly about my organization’s capabilities: who demonstrated innate leadership qualities, who stood out with lead and managerial qualities, and who evidenced an ability to innovate. Moreover, we established a high degree of trust, commitment, and a desire to succeed. We also created the means to have some fun.
He doesn’t have a what?
I recall doing exactly this at Citrix where I was hired to be Chief Technology Officer. I was not schooled in Computer Science or similar technical program, so was plenty nervous accepting the role. I knew the product area from my work at Microsoft and various readings, plus have a keen sense of strategy and what it takes to make impactful products. Bearing this in mind, I kicked off my first 30 days building upon this foundation, meeting developers, learning to use the products, and spending time with QA members testing the products. So many sharp, motivated people who knew the products better than me made me wonder if I was actually “good enough” to lead them. Yet those same interactions, besides educating me, helped quickly develop a rapport that fueled some amazing interactions and ultimately a highly respectful, collaborative team.
Don’t be a wimp!
I have always had a “can do” attitude and approach good ideas as possible until proven otherwise. (Sometimes ideas need to be “parked” for a time, but simply discarding them is not my style.) Being quick to collect details and data, I am similarly quick at decision-making. Even better, I endeavor to push such responsibility to appropriate team members and educate them so they can quickly and competently make decisions. (I’ll discuss decision-making further in another post.) The point for today is that active team participation, ably gathering facts, and not being timid when it comes to making decisions quickly made me a valuable asset and furthered team interactions. In fact, my role at Citrix grew substantially after pursuing this process and I don’t doubt that it could work for others.
If I can do it, so can you!
I’m no one special. But what I learned aided me, my team, and my company to steadily improve our velocity, increase revenue, and innovate some truly novel capabilities. Equally important, my team members evolved their capabilities, grew to take on more challenging roles, and some were even recruited for major positions at other notable companies. Thinking back, it’s what they did and accomplished that made me most proud.
Many more stories!
I’ve got lots more to share and that is what I intend to do. In the meantime, after completing this article, I’m going to consider topics for my Brazilian team’s monthly virtual happy hour. We’re all in different locations, conversing via Teams, sharing insights and sentiments just as if we were in the same office or a local bar. It’s fun and we learn lots about each other, so is worthwhile too. I sincerely appreciate our time together!
Being on the front line is truly a rush!
I’m happiest driving teams, creating or fixing processes, evolving cultures, and assisting with hiring. Helping others to competently set a direction, spearhead innovation, make critical decisions, guide team members, and grow individuals into very capable leaders and teams known for their ability to excel takes this feeling to an altogether new level! Expectations and stress are just fuel for the engine. Allow me to share my insights, demonstrate how to quickly make a difference (literally leading by example), or let me get the ball rolling for you!
Please contact me at KrugerTechnologyLLC.com to know more. Let me explain in very tangible ways how I could help you and your enterprise. In the meantime, I’ll keep writing and provide more meaningful tips.
