Leadership
Becoming a leader starts with leading without authority.
What is it?
Leadership is much less about what you do and much more about who you are.
Leadership has a “know it when I see it quality”, and it is separate and distinct from management. Subbu Allamaraju had a decent treatise on1 what defines leadership. He notes several qualities:
- Leadership is about being a better person. Personal flaws greatly hinder progress as a leader.
- To create a high performing team, you must help others grow as leaders. Taking time to scale people allows more time for the leader.
- Leaders must set unarguable goals for the team they lead
When trying to accomplish the above, he points out the following behaviors:
- Setting the pace (decision making, task execution, progress tracking etc). Don’t let issues linger
- Watching for excuses -> probe into why constraints exist. Do not stop at team boundaries.
- Use your leverage. Use your title to solve problems appropriate for your scope.
- Follow through with commitments
- Sharpen your knives (keep your understanding of technology). Use this expertise to ask better questions.
- Picking up the hard parts of growing people