Google ‘Team Management’ and ‘Organize a Team’ and we’ll find countless people telling us countless times how to do it. In my experience, it comes down to just a few simple things…

And here they are:

1. Be clear what the objective is – share with our team the purpose of being in a team in the first place. E.g. to make our customers happy; to build a widget; to help people find stuff.
2. Give tasks to people who are best at doing them – use people strengths. If Bill is good at communicating to customers, then give him that job. If Sharon is the best at writing reports, give her that job.
3. Set deadlines – every task, no matter how small, must have a start time, and an end time.
4. Set standards – every task, no matter how small, must be measurable, and the target measurement must be set, communicated and achievable.
5. Share progress – team progress must be communicated for all to see.
6. Have backup – if a team-member is off sick, or unavailable, someone else must be able to step in to plug the gap.
7. Review history – we should look back, with our team, and identify what works, what doesn’t work, and learn from it.
8. Forget job titles – job titles mean nothing if there is work to be done. Everyone in our team must feel empowered to fill gaps if they go unfilled.
9. Define roles and responsibilities – notwithstanding point 8, lay out to our teams who is responsible for what, who is accountable, who must be informed, and who must support. If it helps, plot these in a RACI matrix.
10. Share success – a team is a machine that depends on all its working parts, so reward must be shared across the team.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

I just discovered the ‘essence’ of leadership, viewed from a different angle. I share what I learned right here.

The term leadership is often narrowed into discussion and tales about ‘methodology’, ‘leadership approach’, ‘leader/follower/situation’ – all of which are valid and have appropriate places in management theory and practise. In fact I talk about them often on my blog and when working.

I’ve been a leader in business for a number of years now, but something happened to me last week that made me think again about what leadership is all about. It had a curious and powerful effect on me.

I read something that resulted in a mind-shift away from seeing leadership from an ‘outside-in’ view, and towards an ‘inside-out’ view. It really challenged how I view other people as real people, or just objects.  At the time, I was reading Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting out of the Box from the Arbinger Institute.

It is an unusual book on leadership.

What struck me at first was that the book is written as a quasi-novel. It’s written in the first person; our ‘hero’ is a man who has just joined a successful organization as an executive, and he is preparing meeting the head-honcho. I don’t read many ‘management’ books like that (do you?)

The story unfolds to bring in the most important aspects of leadership – the interactions of people, not just on the surface, but deeper into how our ‘leadership interactions’ affect our self-esteem and self-importance. Especially when we’re feeling leadership is something being ‘done’ to us, or we’re ‘doing it’ to someone else.

Spoken in the first person, leadership principles are revealed in context and as we think, devoid of the usual text-book BS. Each page I turned, I wanted to know more. (It was like reading a Dan Brown novel!)

As a narrative, the effect of leadership interactions seem more acute, and it led me to see myself in the shoes of the people within the story, rather than viewing it from the outside. It frequently provoked me to think about my own past encounters, from the other person’s perspective. Like ‘did I really make XXXX feel that way? What a jerk I must have been!’ And when reading one part of the book, I could recall a similar moment where I had behaved inexcusably, although I didn’t see it that way at the time.

It’s fair to say that it encouraged me to reconsider some of the things I’ve ‘done’ to people before now, and I’ll be honest with you – I was embarrassed by some of it too. Wow!

The main thrust of the book is to ask one question; are we ‘in the box’ or not.  In the box refers to whether we view other people as ‘objects’. From our personal viewpoint, we look at other through biased lens. This means that we often (and mostly inadvertently) try to lift up our own self-esteem by reducing someone else’s. We treat people as things that we do things to. It’s powerful reading, let me tell you.

This book isn’t written to make us beat ourselves up. What you will get from this, I am sure of, is when you read this book you will experience powerful eureka! moments, perhaps even through a veil of tears (or curled toes). It hits hard, but its so enjoyable.

And once you have read it, like me I am sure you will be so glad you did. It did make me think twice about past times and behaviors, and in some instances it resulted in a memory becoming more painful than it was before, but sure enough this book shines the torch on leadership in a totally unique way. It offers us a different view of cause and effect. It results in deep-inward reflection on what it is like to be a leader, and what it is like to be led as a follower. If you can marry the two up without perceiving a gap (measured in units of self-esteem) then you are already a truly great leader, but if you’re like me and you can see still a way to go, then you will have learned something amazing, and cathartic.

If you’re a budding leader, or even an experienced one, you should read this book. It will make you think, and it will reward you too. Although it isn’t for the faint hearted!

Buy It Now: Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting out of the Box

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

I’ve written before that if management was a true science, then there wouldn’t be so many books on the subject. Do a search on Amazon for management and you’ll see thousands of books on the subject. How do you pick books when there are so many to choose from?

Hopefully, I’ll give you a start. I’ve just read ‘Lead Well and Prosper ‘ by Nick McCormick – 15 successful strategies for becoming a good manager.

It’s unique: you’ll find non-fiction punctuated by fictional episodes for a high-impact effect, and this is what makes this book special.

Each of the successful strategies is articulated using extremes. Using fictional characters (such as Joe Kerr, the spiteful asshole-boss (perhaps Juan Kerr would have been a better name!), and Wanda B. Goode, the progressive professional with halo), Nick uses these extreme behaviors to illustrate how people behave in the workplace, and how a manager’s modus operandi have a stifling and degenerative effect on their reports. The extremes serve as a humorous yet poignant perspective on the way people really do behave in the workplace – I bet you recognize yourself at both extremes if you look back on your career!

The conversations between the characters is farcical, yes, but reflective of the conversations that go on inside the heads of people as they interact to go achieve their professional goals. The farce is grounded in the reality of human behavior.

Each chapter addresses a strategy (behavior). It begins with the ‘conversation’ which stirs up the reader’s emotions to understand what each strategy addresses. Then, Nick gives us commentary on the behavior and how the strategy is an appropriate solution. Each chapter is then concluded with a list of things to do and not to do in order to achieve the strategy, and a list of easily actionable steps to take. It’s a powerful writing technique.

The strategies are:

1. Adopt a Serving Attitude
2. Teach
3. Provide Honest and Timely Feedback
4. Share Information
5. Listen
6. Treat People Like Human Beings
7. Set Goals, Plan and Execute
8. Learn
9. Do the Right Thing
10. Embrace the Uncomfortable
11. Clean Up Your Own House First
12. Persist
13. Do What You Say Will Do
14. Always Follow Up
15. Plan Your Week

The chapter I found the most powerful and motivational is 10) Embrace the Uncomfortable; this is an eye-opener. I see folks in the workplace NOT doing this, and to some extent, I see it in myself. At times, we all avoid pain in order for an ‘easy’ time – but guess what – we just store up trouble and then have to deal with it when the pain is much worse. In fact I will be publishing an article on this very subject soon (subscribe to my RSS feed so you will know when!)

The book is short, just 93 pages, but don’t see that as a negative. This book is short, and sweet . It’s brevity is what gives it its freshness and page-turn appeal. It doesn’t assume too much about its reader, other than that they want to learn and grow.

This book isn’t just for managers or leaders. It’s not even just for people who want to become a manager or leader. This book addresses challenges that we all face in the workplace, so I think any professional in any industry will enjoy it and put it to good use.

By now, I hope I’ve convinced you that this is a unique book. It stands out from the other management books I’ve read over the years! Lead Well and Prosper is a bargain at only $14.95 , available from Amazon. Order today and you’ll get it tomorrow!

Buy This Book Today : Lead Well and Prosper: 15 Successful Strategies for Becoming a Good Manager

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Last week I began discussing the subject of Personality , and why it is important to IT leaders. Your personality is your personal brand and it’s how people, particularly your followers, will expect you to behave. Your behaviors are the root of your leadership style, and consistent behavior is what makes that style predictable by followers. Therefore, your behaviors and your personality are closely linked. But how do you know what your personality is?

This might sound like an odd question – most people will believe that they know themselves, and how they would describe their personality. You know what though, we don’t always have the same view of ourselves as others do. For the people who behave most inconsistently, this effect is amplified . The answer to the question "Is my view of my personality the same as others views of my personality? " is to assess our personality using a framework, and then to get feedback on the views of others. In this article, we will be looking at how we assess our own personality.

Our personalities, and therefore our behaviors, are very complex . More complex than there are words and pages to describe them, because our personality is formed by our unique experiences from early childhood. There are models and frameworks that give us a way of assessing our personalities to make the job simpler. Such a framework is the Myers-Briggs model, so named because it was orginally created by two boffins called Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers. Using the model tells us our preferences in how we view the world, which shapes and defines our personality. Each preference is in a ‘continuum’ between extremes (or dichotomies). I think the explanation on Wikipedia does this justice far better than I could describe it, so you should take a look at this wiki to learn more about the Myers-Briggs model.

You can take a Free Personality Test at the website 41q.com – it takes only a few minutes and you get instant results. Take the test, you might surprise yourself. I did – here are my results:

As you can see by these results, I am suited for this vocation of writing, counseling, coaching and mentoring .

These systems are not perfect . Because they’re really squeezing a complex thing such as your personality into a small number of parameters, we shouldn’t pigeon-hole ourselves into specific behavioral types. They are a guide, but they are a representation of how we perceive ourselves. This is important…

Let’s say I had decided to be in Sales. A typical salesperson is outgoing, sensitive to clients needs, applies logic to find the right solution for clients, and uses judgment of how to sell. Looking at my chart, that isn’t me! I would be in the wrong job and an unsuitable career path, wouldn’t I? OK, there maybe special circumstances where someone with my personality is right for a particular product or client but in general I don’t think I would make a success of it.

My personality profile is a useful guide on assessing my suitability for a job, task and situation. Can you see how powerful this is for me?

If I had been unawares of my personality profile, I may have been stuck in a career that made me miserable. It certainly would be a career where I could not be a high performer and probably wouldn’t have many followers.

I urge you to take this test and look at your results. Compare them against the personality profile you would expect for someone in your job. If it’s close to your expectations then that is great confirmation that you’ve probably found your true vocation in life. If not, then perhaps consider what roles that someone with your perferences, skills and experience will succeed in.

Next week, we’ll be looking at how others perceive you by examining the process of personal feedback .

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

I bet you can’t guess who this is straight away:

Age 23: lost a job

Age 23: was defeated in bid for state legislature

Age 24: failed in a business venture

Age 25: was elected to legislature

Age 26: sweetheart died

Age 27: experienced several emotional issues

Age 27: was defeated in bid to be speaker of the house

Age 34: was defeated for nomination to Congress

Age 37: was elected to Congress

Age 39: lost renomination to Congress

Age 40: was defeated in bid for land office

Age 45: was defeated in bid for U.S. Senate

Age 47: was defeated for nomination to be vice president

Age 49: was defeated in bid for Senate a second time

Age 51: was elected president of the United States

This person was……… Abraham Lincoln .

What does this say about Lincoln? Well, he was persevering, he accepted criticism and he was resilient – you could say a real tough SOB. It’s these personality traits that made him the President we remember today.

This is Part One of a series on the importance of your personality and it’s implications for you as a leader. It is one of the most important assets you possess. Did you know that? Your personality traits are the standard behaviors you exhibit, and they are what your followers come to depend upon . For example, you might be typically dominant, or perhaps you’re always a friendly person, or even someone who takes very few risks. These examples are personality traits.

Even traits that might be classically defined as bad are valuable in the right context. If you’re known for aggression, then if you’re predictably aggressive then you could make a mean negotiator in the right circumstances. The important thing is that you behave consistently , and it’s your personality traits that describe your behaviors. People know what to expect from you, if they know your personality traits.

The US presidential election is all about traits – probably more than policy.

Barack Obama is friendly, steady, and empathic.

McCain is dominant and demonstrates conformity.

Well that’s my view anyway. The months and weeks up to the election are really a phase of showcasing personalities . Don’t you think? Ask 1,000 Americans who will vote about their chosen candidate; you’ll hear more about personality than policy.

This is because by building a strong perception of your personality in your followers (and potential followers), they will know what to expect from you, trust you and vote for you at the right time.

The implications for new IT leaders are obvious – if you open up to people and show who you are underneath, they’ll know what to expect from you. It’s a sure fire way of developing trust and respect . It’s about behaving consistently and with integrity . IT is complicated enough for people without putting the extra burden of working out who you are and how you behave.

Many new leaders try to be ‘all things to all people’, in other words, they adapt their behavior in accordance with what their followers want to see. But this confuses them . Leadership, unlike the presidential election campaign, isn’t a popularity contest. In most situations, personal integrity and consistency are the only ways of building a strong following.

The world is changing and, with it, the IT industry. Outsourcing has disrupted the IT economy, and IT is under threat from technologically-savvy business people. What IT needs are strong leaders who stand up for who they are. There won’t be room for wishy-washy leaders who just go with someone else’s flow! So what does your personality bring to the table, and more importantly, do your people know what it is?

Footnote: The above isn’t just theory. I’ve put this thinking into real business practice for my own purposes, and also for the people I have subsequently mentored. A few years ago I joined an organization where, at first, I felt I didn’t fit in. So I made the mistake of trying to be ‘all things to all people’. What I found was that I was considered a ‘nice chap’ but folks didn’t really know what I stood for. This meant that my personality traits didn’t shine through and it created the perception of weakness on many fronts. I was also given, in several cases, the totally wrong assignments. It was only when I stood up for what I believed in and acted with personal integrity did my situation recover.

Next Time: How to assess your personality.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.