Popping over to Google, I entered the word Leadership, and received nearly 200 million hits. There is no shortage of self-proclaimed experts, who will share their concept of leadership and—for a nominal fee—wave their magic wand and turn even the unlikeliest of candidates into a leader.
Save your money. Leadership requires a mountain of patience and hard work, but the how-to part is a no-brainer.
There are four "keys" to being a good leader—and they all start with the letter "T": Truth, Teamwork, Trust, and Transparency. (Some leaders will interchange transparency with visibility, but—what can I say—that doesn't start with a T.)
No leader can accomplish anything without a solid team, and a truly solid team can accomplish anything. However, no team will follow anyone they cannot trust. They might pretend to follow, but they will stray from the path when the opportunity arises. In fact, they may eventually take a different road altogether.
How do you gain the trust of your team? That's easy: be truthful and trust them. If you want a team to deliver, tell them why it must be delivered and why it must be delivered by a specific time. Don't use any buzz-words, white lies, or mumbo-jumbo. Be yourself, and—above all else—be completely open and honest. Put your trust in them, and they will not let you down.
To do this, in addition to trusting you, the team must also trust each other before they become that "truly solid team" I mentioned. Without trust, there is no team, and that's where the transparency comes in.
Ford CEO, Alan Mulally, spoke to the Wall Street Journal regarding transparency and how Ford had a long-standing culture of hiding problems from management.
He tells a story...
"One of the first meetings we had, I asked how it's going, and most of it was all green and a little yellow. I said, 'Hey, we lost like $12 billion, it can't all be green.' "
"The next week, [Ford Executive Vice President] Mark Fields was launching the Edge [Ford's new small sport-utility vehicle] up at Oakville [Ontario]. He had a technical issue, so he chose not to deliver the car, because we wanted to start off with the highest quality."
"In the weekly review, he presents the chart with all the launches. It has all the greens, yellows and this one big red box. The place goes silent."
"I started to clap. I said, 'Mark, that is great visibility (transparency), and I am glad you understand that. Is there any help you need? Other resources you could get from technical or product development?' "
"Within a couple weeks it went from red to yellow to green and we had a great launch. It's not a warm and fuzzy thing, it's relentless focus on your area. The expectation is we will portray it exactly as it is, and that's OK. What will not be OK is not dealing with it."
Since the beginning of the year, Decade's development team has made visibility and teamwork job one. We've done this through a management process called Scrum.
In Think Box, Simon Baker described transparency in Scrum...
"Everything is transparent at all times. You inspect frequently, creating more opportunities to obtain feedback, and you adapt accordingly to keep improving and to optimize results. There's no hiding problems, burying bad news, or ignoring obstacles. Visibility of problems provides better information on which to make more informed decisions."
"When you start Scrum, almost immediately it reveals preexisting problems. Newcomers often blame the problems on Scrum and claim that the process isn't working, but Scrum is doing what it's meant to do: See the problems, understand them and deal with them."
To properly lead a team, you must trust them to lead themselves. To do this, all deliverables must be easily measured and status must be highly visible through a process that is completely transparent. When everyone can confidently see where project dependencies lie—and when no one is afraid to ask for help or point out obstacles to be removed by either the team or management—trust within your team will thrive, and you will prove yourself a successful leader.
Now, tell your consultant to go home. You have work to do.
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