A packed schedule doesn’t guarantee you’re being effective. It’s easy for leaders to get caught up in endless meetings and a flurry of tasks. However, the mark of a great leader is the quantity and quality of new leaders they leave in their wake. You can’t develop your people by being an armchair quarterback. On the flip side, you can’t live in the trenches all day long. Great leaders find ways to immerse themselves in the team challenges to be effective mentors while being able to extract themselves to a higher elevation and set the right strategic direction.
Rethinking Busy Leadership
Imagine a leader who’s always in meetings, responding to emails, and putting out fires. They’re so busy with these tasks that they hardly have time to truly connect with their team. This leader might think the solution is to push their team harder or bring in someone new to fix problems quickly. But what’s really needed is a shift in how they spend their time.
Leaders should consider focusing more on understanding what their team is dealing with and helping them grow. Leaders can offer more effective support by diving into the team’s daily work and facing challenges together. This approach doesn’t just make the team work better together; it also leads to stronger, more confident team members who can take on bigger challenges and drive the company forward.
Diving Deep with Your Teams
Leadership isn’t just about keeping track of goals or checking off tasks. It’s about gaining the context needed to develop your team effectively. Here’s how leaders can embrace this approach:
-
Schedule Regular ‘In-the-Trenches’ Days: Spend a day every week or month working alongside your team, overseeing and participating in their tasks. This hands-on time can reveal better ways to do things, solve problems faster, and make sure the team is working on what’s most important. For example, during a session, a leader noticed that the team was spending an excessive amount of time manually testing new code for bugs. By experiencing the issue firsthand, the leader was able to prioritize the integration of automated testing tools. This change sped up the development cycle and allowed the team to focus on more important tasks.
-
Encourage Open Conversations: Create spaces where your team can share their thoughts and concerns without fear. For example, a leader decided to host bi-weekly coffee chats with no agenda other than to listen. These sessions revealed a need for better task management tools, which they then implemented, significantly raising productivity. These open talks can bring to light issues you weren’t aware of, creating a trustful environment.
-
Sharing the Big Picture: Leaders should also help their team see the bigger goals of the company. For example, a leader might ask a team member to join a meeting about the company’s main plans and challenges. This lets the team member understand how their work helps the whole company and makes them feel part of something larger. It’s a good way to ensure everyone knows where the company is headed and why their work matters.
-
Embrace Adaptability in Management: Adopting a flexible approach to leadership allows for adjustments based on new insights and evolving project needs, steering the team more effectively towards its goals. For example, say a leader noticed fluctuating team energy levels throughout the week and adjusted their sprint planning meetings to a time when the team felt more energized and focused. This small change led to more productive planning sessions.
These approaches will allow you to get deeply involved with your teams. As you continue with these practices over time, you will notice that teams become more capable, making you a more effective leader.