Becoming a true leader in 16 weeks

During the spring of 2023, I found myself in a position of wanting to prepare two people I managed to become leaders. I set an exceptionally high bar for myself in these matters and I wanted to make sure that these two people met that bar, or at least knew where the bar was.

Now, by leader in this context, I specifically mean a person who is entrusted by their employer to take full responsibility of a group of employees and is prepared to handle the fact that those employees are humans who can get badly hurt if they are managed poorly.

The first part of this program deals with general leadership, while the latter part focuses on leadership of a group of development engineers.

Format

The program is based on a mentor/adept relationship where I acted as a mentor for my two adepts and tried to impart whatever wisdom I have acquired to them. But I also pointed out where I consider myself weak and where they should seek out others to get different perspectives so that they can surpass myself in those topics.

The program followed a simple format. There were 16 topics to be covered so that the entire program can be completed in half a year. Each topic contains one simple homework and then a 1 hour follow up between the adept(s) and the mentor.

The program is also based on the assumption that each adept is currently working in a team setting and can make observations or activities with their team to then reflect on the results.

Point of view

This program is based on a point of view developed over many years of experience in leadership in transformative projects combined with extensive formal training.

It takes the view that much of what the popular view of leadership and management looks like is not useful and even destructive.

It takes the view that there within the large field of “leadership” exists certain fundamental truths that have been scientifically validated and cut across all cultures and generations because we are all mostly the same at our cores.

It takes the view that to become an effective leader, most people need to look deep inside themselves and find a new relationship with themselves and their surroundings, and that this is a journey that is deeply uncomfortable at times. However, by being placed in these uncomfortable positions in a safe space the experience can become a positive transformation rather than a traumatic experience.

It takes the view that although some people have a natural talent for leading, any person who wants to can learn the skills needed to become good leaders.

It takes the view that both hands-on practice and reflection are critical to learning.

Fundamentals of Management

Homework:

Read https://daniel.armyr.se/2022/10/08/fundamentals-of-management/

At the session:

Explain the text above in detail, section by section (The section about Susan Whelans Integrated Mode of Group Development can be skipped). Which point in the text do you think is most important? Which point in the text do agree with least / think is least important?

Susan Whelan’s Integrated Model of Group Development

Homwework:

Read Creating Effective Teams – The Detailed Curation | Hyper Island

Study your team for a week. Reflect on the following:

  • Team dynamics
    • Which stage is the team in as a whole. Why?
    • Are there sub-teams, if so which are they?
    • At which stage are any sub-teams you are a member of?
    • Teams can also have relationships with each other. What stage are the relationships between your sub-team and the others?
  • Leadership
    • Which leader positions (Formal and informal) exist in the team?
    • Which levels of leadership do they practice?
    • How well does that match where the team is?

At the session:

Present your findings above and discuss.

Feedback and difficult conversations

Homework:

Read How to Master Yourself and Win at Receiving Feedback | by Anthony Murphy | Ascent Publication and Feedback vs Advice — Tips on giving effective feedback | by Anthony Murphy

Write three pieces of advice feedback for each other person in the group. Two where you suggest they keep doing more of the same and one where you suggest they do something differently.

At the session :

  • The positive chair: One person sits with their back turned. The remaining two talk about only positive things about the person who’s back is turned. Repeated for everybody in the room.
  • Advice feedback: Taking turns, each person presents their feedback to the others in the group. As a suggestion, the mentor should start.
    • For each feedback you receive, actively choose where on the staircase you want to respond and respond.

Emptying your calendar / Interruptions vs Focus

Homework:

At the session :

Show your calendar and discuss the good and bad about it. Present your interruption log and describe what it tells you about your working efficiency.

Presentation technique

Homework:

Prepare a 10 minute session about your home town (Or any other topic you know well so you do not need to do research).

At the session:

Hold the presentation and ask for feedback on what went well and how the rest of the group think you could make it better. Make sure that the presentation is recorded as a video so that you yourself can view it and give yourself advice.

Efficient Meetings

Homework:

Read the blog post Effective Meetings. Be the facilitator for all in-team meetings for an entire week.

At the session:

Discuss how facilitating meetings went. Are you following the pst practices? Discuss your reflections with the group.

Taking ownership

Homework:

Select two topics which you will take complete ownership of. One should be related to work, and the other to something in your private life. Track daily as a group if you have taken ownership of that topic during the last day.

Before you start, think about the following and then discuss.

As the session:

Discuss: Why did you select this topic to take ownership of?? What actions did you expect to need to take here. Did you have the time? Do you have the skill? If not, who can you ask for help. Who will be affected by you taking actions here? Did you talk to them?

Setting goals

Homework:

Read the following: https://daniel.armyr.se/2023/03/24/summary-of-a-little-book-on-goals/

Look at the current goals your team has. Describe each of these goals based on the theory presented in the article above.

At the session:

Discuss the above.

Vertical Slicing

Homework:

Read the following article. Example 2 About Autodesk Advanced Steel and Revit I don’t understand. Feel free to skip it unless you understand what they are trying to say. http://www.scruminc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/User-Stories-2.0.pdf

Take one single project from your team’s backlog (One that hasn’t been vertically sliced) and cut the smallest vertical slice from it that you can.

At the session:

Discuss the above.

Why relative estimations?

Homework:

Read the following article: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CvhEC5ISwLPmsAb0paLXxBfJep67bsKK/view

Bring 3 different tasks that your team has completed. One should be small, one medium and one large. Give them relative estimation numbers.

Bring an additional 5 tasks in your backlog that you have rated against the three above.

At the session:

Discuss the above.

Get stuff out of the door / Zero bugs policy

The science is clear. The shorter the time between when you decide to make a change to your code and when you have deployed it, the better your code is.

Spending a few days at the start of a project making deployment a 1-click / 5 minute task, the easier it is to write good code.

By limiting the work that is in progress and removing all bugs as they come in, the amount of unplanned work that builds up gets reduced.

Homework:

Watch the following two videos about continuous integration: https://youtu.be/FlaKS7EBsJc and https://youtu.be/v4Ijkq6Myfc

Watch this video about a practical way to implement a zero bugs policy: https://agilasverige.solidtango.com/video/dealing-with-bugs-by-deletion

At the session:

Discuss the above. Some questions to think about:

  • Can you think about a situation (Not necessarily work related) where you get immediate results from the actions you take (Hint: All the time)? How does this feel compared to when you do not?
  • Discuss if you would work differently in a system that you knew had no bugs versus one that you knew had a few.

Evaluating performance / Salaries

Homework:

  • Watch: How Does Salary Work?: a talk by Kevin Goldsmith
  • Write evaluations:
    • Select two people you work with, one junior and one senior (Not anybody among the group in the mentor program). It is easier if they have similar jobs. For their jobs, write down what you think should be the answer to each of the following questions:
      • Why do we have this job?
      • What is the simplest way to see that their job is done well?
      • What are 2-3 most important duties?
      • What should the user spend most of their time on?
      • What sort of traits/behaviors should a person have to be successful in this job?
      • For each person, write how well they match up against each of the answers you have given to question 2 – 5 above (Ignore question 1)
      • For each person, write down how much you think they should earn in relation to your salary (Half, equal, 50% more, etc).

At the session:

Present the above evaluations. Skip the salary figure you set. That is a mental exercise to be done in private.

After the meeting, delete all working material for this exercise. If this material leaks out, conflicts can arise.

The importance of 1-on-1s / Management by lunch

Homework:

Read the following: https://www.leapsome.com/blog/meeting-with-purpose-the-unique-benefits-of-1-on-1-meetings

At the session:

Discuss:

  • How long should a 1-on-1 be?
  • What topics should be covered?
  • What topics should not be covered?
  • Should we occasionally have longer 1-on1s? If so, what should the agenda / format be?