My Leadership Philosophy: Put People in a Position to Be Successful
I’ve been leading people for a long time. I’ve led IT teams, coached athletes, managed people across different countries and time zones, and worked through more incidents, reorganizations, difficult projects, and organizational changes than I can remember.
I’ve had successes. I’ve made mistakes. And I’m still learning.
But over the years, I’ve developed a leadership philosophy that guides how I approach a team.
At the center of it is one idea:
Put people in a position to be successful.
You can’t guarantee success. But as a leader, you can create an environment where people have the opportunity to succeed.
1. Know Where You’re Going
Have an end result in mind.
Have a roadmap.
Have a plan for the direction you’re heading.
The route will change. It always does. But your team needs to understand where you’re trying to go and why you’re going there.
If people understand the destination, you don’t need to tell them every turn to take along the way.
2. Build a Team, Not a Group of Employees
A group of people reporting to the same manager isn’t necessarily a team.
Teams have an identity. They have expectations. They have core values.
Two of mine are simple:
Ownership and communication.
I want people to think in terms of we, not I. I want them to take ownership of problems rather than waiting for someone else to solve them. And I want them communicating—with me, with each other, and with our customers.
Keeping good people together is part of this.
I’ve learned through coaching that player retention wins championships. Teams that stay together develop trust, communication, experience, and chemistry. Eventually you don’t just have talented individuals. You have a team that knows how to work together.
The same thing happens in IT.
Contractors, outsourcing, and offshore resources can make good business sense, but leaders need to recognize what they can do to team culture. Whatever the employment arrangement, the goal should still be to create one team.
Culture doesn’t happen accidentally.
3. Be Fair and Consistent
You’re not going to make everyone happy.
That’s leadership.
People aren’t going to agree with every assignment, promotion, schedule, priority, or decision.
Don’t try to win a popularity contest.
Try to be fair and consistent.
People can disagree with a decision and still trust the person who made it. That trust comes from knowing that expectations are clear and people are being treated consistently.
4. Give People the Ball
If you want people to take ownership, you have to give them the authority to act.
Let them make decisions.
Sometimes they’ll make the right decision.
Sometimes they won’t.
When they don’t, coach them through it.
They either win or learn.
I also want people willing to challenge my decisions. Tell me I’m wrong. Bring me information I haven’t considered. Give me a better idea.
If you’ve got a better answer, I should be willing to change my mind.
But eventually the discussion ends and someone has to make the decision.
Challenge the decision. Don’t undermine the responsibility of the person accountable for making it.
Then we move forward as a team.
5. Control What You Can Control
Things will happen that you can’t control.
Budgets get cut. Organizations restructure. Projects change. People leave. Systems fail.
Don’t waste the team’s energy obsessing over things you can’t change.
Instead, focus intensely on the things you can control:
Preparation. Communication. Effort. Documentation. Attitude. Execution.
This applies when the team gets one of those ugly assignments, too—the difficult, repetitive, time-consuming job that somebody needs done yesterday.
Divide and conquer.
Then watch how people solve it.
The person who hates repetitive work the most may be the person who finds the shortcut. They might script it, automate it, eliminate unnecessary steps, or simply discover a better way.
When they do, make sure they teach everyone else.
Now you haven’t just completed the task.
You’ve made the team better.
6. Bring Energy and Rally the Team
Leaders set a tone whether they realize it or not.
Be upbeat. Be excited to be there. And most importantly, be present.
When you’re talking with someone, give them your attention. When you’re dealing with a problem, focus on the problem.
Your team watches how you react, especially when things aren’t going well.
And things won’t always go well.
That’s when you rally the team.
Sometimes they need a stern conversation:
This isn’t good enough. Refocus. Let’s go.
Sometimes they need to be reminded who they are and what they’re capable of.
And sometimes everybody has been grinding for so long that the best thing you can do is crack a joke, lighten the mood, and let people reset.
Leadership is knowing which one the team needs.
7. Keep Coaching
Feedback should be constant.
Don’t wait for an annual performance review to tell someone how they’re doing.
Tell them.
Positive feedback and negative feedback both matter. Recognize good work when you see it. Address problems while they’re still small enough to correct.
People should rarely be surprised by what they hear during a formal performance review. They should already know.
But coaching is more than feedback.
I don’t believe a leader’s job is to have all the answers.
It’s to build a team capable of finding them.
Set the direction.
Establish the values.
Communicate.
Coach.
Give people ownership.
Let them make decisions.
Help them learn when they’re wrong.
Recognize them when they’re right.
And keep putting them in positions where they have the opportunity to succeed.
Success isn’t one giant event. It’s accumulated through daily wins.
Solve the problem.
Improve the process.
Help a teammate.
Teach someone something.
Make a customer successful.
Learn from a mistake.
Stack enough small wins together and you build a successful team.
And when your team is successful, your customers have a much better chance of being successful.
I’ve been leading and coaching people for decades.
I’m still learning how to do it better.
That’s probably the most important part of my leadership philosophy.
You never stop being a white belt.