Technical Transformational Leadership

What kind of leadership do you follow with your team? How do you present yourself within your organization?

Technical Transformation Leadership is kind of the word I’ve coined for myself which explains the type of leadership I try and follow on a daily basis.  It’s merger of two styles of leadership that I have found work extremely well within a software development and technical organization. It creates a really collaborative fun environment were everyone clearly understands the goals and objectives of the long term vision, and work extremely hard to achieve it.

Figure 1 – Technical Transformational Leadership involves taking your vision and cause to every level within the organization, making others successful, and your vision a reality.

Technical leadership is not taught in business schools, and you will not learn the skills to be a technical leader in an MBA program.  Transformational leadership is one of those things that you either follow very well naturally, or try and force and do a bad job executing it.

It takes a great deal of practice to be a Technical Transformation Leader.  On the one hand, you need to have experienced the software development lifecycle from end to end in order to convey your vision all the way down to very details.  On the other hand, you need to be able to disengage yourself enough to allow your stars to shine.  I akin this to Martial Arts, where you would learn how to “fight”, and hopefully, never have to fight.

As a leader, your goal should be to set the stage for people around you to be empowered to shine, and show off their skills. As a leader, you want to find the best people, and let them perform amazingly!

Spend Time with Technology

Being a Technical Transformation Leader means spending 4 to 6 hours a day, every day, after work hours, keeping up to speed with the latest blogs, learning the latest technologies, trying out the latest API’s, downloading the latest frameworks and samples.  It’s a ton of fun if that is what you enjoy! The worst part, at the end of the week, you still feel like you are missing a huge piece of the pie, which you are because as a leader, you hardly get the time to apply your knowledge directly.

I am lucky in that I love technology and everything surrounding it. In fact, I am pretty much obsessed with it. I have over 600 RSS Feeds I try and keep up with, all sorted into various categories. I try and keep my pulse on what’s going on with the web, and try and focus on technology when possible that makes the web possible. Whenever I read something on a blog, or find a cool new web 2.0 application, I always try and categorize it in my mind. What business value does it bring? How many people will want to use this? Does it use a new technology or concept? Does it scale? How does it work? Can it be done better?

I also download any new piece of code I can get my hands on, watch all the latest recorded events I can possibly cram, and create some pretty cool sample applications mashing as many cool technologies I possibly can together.

Spend time with technology, as much as you possibly can! The key is it has to be something you do naturally, and that you enjoy obsessively. Although my wife tries to keep me in balance as much as possible. I am lucky in that regard she is extremely supportive and attended my last .net User Group presentation on Silverlight!

Communication is Vital at all Levels

Everyone will tell you that communication is vital in leadership and they are not mistaken, mind you communication can mean different things depending on the job you do.  In the software development world, it means being able to communicate with varying degrees of detail depending on the audience, but at the same time, carry the same message all the way through.  This means you are able to easily convey the details of the project upwards, and at the same time convey the message downwards with more detail.

A great technical transformational leader can easily explain a status report to an executive team and get them motivated and become part of the cause! At the same time, the leader must be able to take business requirements, challenges, new product ideas, and convey them down to the software developers and architects.  The same individual that presents status updates, sits in executive meetings, is the same person that can white board out a database design and create an architecture for a multi-tiered web application.

Being a Transformational Leader

This is where the transformational leadership kicks in.  The same individual that can create an amazing database design isn’t necessarily doing it.  He might jump in and lead by example when needed, but the technical transformational leader must be able to set the stage to allow his chosen database designers to shine and create something magical. It really is an art form, especially since if you are truly solid on the technically, your first instinct when something goes wrong, or something technically challenging comes up, is to solve the problem quickly, and instantly if possible.

Transformational leadership is a key ingredient in managing teams of technically talented people. Instead of micromanaging and leading with transaction based leadership, you are leading by elevating and mobilizing your team. Your goal is to inspire members on your team and “evangelizing” to them. It all sounds crazy to some, but in the end, you will have a team that is performing at their potential, and achieving 10 times more than a team that is micromanaged.

Be the Best Motivator, Live With Passion

Lastly in order to be a great Technical Transformational Leader, you have to be a great motivator.  But being a great motivator isn’t just about having one or two rally meetings to pump up the troops, it’s about living and breathing motivation on a daily basis.  Pick the developer that seems the least engaged, and take them out for coffee; ask them what’s going on.  You’ll be surprised by the answer.  Motivate them, paint a picture of the future for them, and remove the road blocks they might have told you about.  During the SCRUM meetings, you can motivate by solving technical problems, or leading people in the right direction for a solution.  There is no better motivator to a team of highly intelligent people than to have their leader solve a difficult problem, and allow them to keep working and meet timelines.

And of course, you do have to have passion in everything you do.  Have you heard the advice of “Smile when you talk to someone on the phone.  Your smile can be heard”.  Well, passion simply cannot be faked.  If you have passion for your job, what you are doing, it will shine through.

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