Being a Leader First

Today as I reflected on the past week and what we had accomplished at work.  My team writes and supports software for our company.  This past week we fixed a few things and resolved a problem that had been going on for several weeks.  This was great since it increases out customer satisfaction and makes the environment a little less stressful, but in the end I think our biggest success is that we became a closer group.  Our journey to become an true 'Ohana may take some time, but I am determined to guide us there be being a leader first.

Not knowing my background some may say this is no big task, but I wish it were that easy.  You see, just four months ago I was a member of the team I now lead.  I was having fun programming  as an individual contributor and working a my projects with the members of our team. Now I have to remind myself I AM the leader and no longer the programmer.

Several times I have heard the CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh, say that they are a service company who just happens to sell shoes and clothing.  Tony has been very outspoken about service first and building a culture to support this.  He even wrote a book about it, Delivering Happiness - A Path to Profits, Passion ans Purpose. Once I get around to reading the book I will share more, but if you have ever seen Tony speak you can tell he has figured out how to be a great leader.

I'd like to steal Tony's quote about Zappo's and use it for myself.  In my mind I am the leader of a team who just happens to write software.  As I have told almost all the members of my team the most important part of my job is helping them be successful.  That means if they need something I help them get the help they need.  It also means I don't get in there way when they are working.  I also means they do the programming and I do the leading. Going back to my initial post, I will take care of them as there leader and they take care of me by producing awesome software.

Give a Little, Get a Lot

In my last post I talked about learning and the importance of a dedication to lifelong learning.  Today I find myself thinking about teaching and how important it is.  

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." -Chinese Proverb

This is a very elegant way to say teaching someone and passing on knowledge is much more valuable than just doing it for them.  While doing some work or task for someone often fills a need, the greater gift is to show them how to do it for themselves.

I had an employee today who was late getting something to me which is a weekly requirement.  It was not really a big deal, but since we were talking I asked why it was late.  Not really wanting to admonish the person, but understand how it got missed.  I got the typical answer we all might give, it just slipped their mind and it would not happen again.  Since this person was new the company I asked if they had considered setting up a reminder in their calendar to prevent this from happening in the future. They said they had considered it, but since they had not figured out our email client completely they did not set any reminders up.  

This brings me to my "teaching moment".  We went to my computer and I shared the steps to create a weekly reminder with them right then.  This person was very thankful to learn this, it only took a few minutes of my time and I am fairly optimistic I will not get required item late ever again.  Best of all, that teaching moment gave me great satisfaction and helped me get the day off in the right direction.

My new boss often refers to these moments as "teaching moments" and in the just the short period we have worked together taken the time and effort to give me a "teaching moment" when it presents itself.  In one instance, a hallway conversation turned in to a forty plus minute discussion on leadership.  I am sure he had many other things to be doing at the time, but he basically dropped everything to take advantage of the "teaching moment".  I believe for him, just like I experienced today, these are very powerful and rewarding and he like myself would much rather teach someone to fish than just give them the fish.

Go out and teach when you can, even if you give just a little knowledge you will get a lot more back!

Aloha,
Chris

My Thirst for Knowledge

I have always enjoyed learning and especially enjoyed learning new things.  It is my belief that life is a continuous learning process and we should try to expose ourselves to new experiences and situations.  It is my quest to learn that brings me to this blog today and also finds me surrounded in a room with lots of books.

My grandmother was an avid reader.  I remember many times in my youth going to the library with my grandmother (my Nana) to pick up books.  I never paid to much to what she read, but I believe Nana was a big Louis Lamour fan.  In my early reading days, I enjoyed the Encyclopedia Brown series, but today non fiction seems to be my strongest interest.  Quickly scanning my stacks of books, I count less than five fiction books in what must be more than fifty or more books.

Right now the book at my side is Managing with Aloha (MWA).  I just read the chapter 'Ike loa which is the value of learning.  Once again I find the words of Rosa Say resonate with my experiences and beliefs. Great leaders are also lifelong students, but they also must concentrate on the growth of their employees.  For me another big takeaway from this chapter is the idea of "The Daily Five Minutes".

In practice the Daily Five Minutes is a simple task, spend five minutes of impromptu time with an employee once a day.  Sadly, in my company this is something I rarely see done.  In my role as a individual contributor I rarely saw my manager and often wondered what was keeping him so busy.  I have been doing something similar to the Daily Five Minutes in an ad hoc manner, but now I intend to lead by example and make the Daily Five Minutes part of my daily routine.  I truly believe that this small investment in time will pay huge rewards in the future.  I'm excited to get to work tomorrow and make this happen.

As far as learning for me I will continue to keep MWA and GTD by my side.  Most of the books in my stacks need to be read so I have to find a way to absorb all the knowledge.  I am excited for the week for there is much to learn but now it is time to get some rest.

Aloha,
Chris

Who Am I, Why Am I Here?

I come from a blue collar family from Northern California.  My mother and father both worked hard to help me be successful and happy.  In school I always gravitated to Math and Science and enjoyed participating in sports.

All of this led me to going to college at the United States Naval Academy.  There I studied Computer Science but I also learned about leadership.  In the end I graduated with a degree and already many lessons on leadership.  The one lesson I remember best and has always helped me as a leader was simple, "take care of your people and they will take care of you".

I spent almost nine years in the Navy in over six different leadership positions leading groups as small as five to as large as thirty.  During those years I think I saw almost every leadership style, but I pretty much stuck with what I had learned at the Academy, "take care of your people and they will take care of you".  I was also very lucky to be surrounded by great hard working people which made it easy and fun.

Once I left the Navy I entered my company as a Test Engineer where I would be a individual contributor.  It was the first time in my adult life I did not have someone reporting to me.  It was different to just be responsible for myself.  In a way I was more relaxed and a little less stressed, but I did miss helping people grow in their jobs and lives.

A few months ago I was selected to a leadership position and moved from being an individual contributor back to leading a group of people.  Most people know that there is a big difference when you make this change.  I went from thinking how I would complete my projects, to how I will take care of my employees and help them complete their projects.  I guess if you look at it in a way I took on an exponential amount of work and responsibility, but I also gained the chance to influence my employees lives in a positive way and guide us in a direction of continued success.

I have always enjoyed learning and I was looking for some leadership help when I found Managing with Aloha (MWA) by Rosa Say.  At one time MWA meant "Management by Walking Around" to me, but now I associate it with the book by Rosa Say.  It may be because one of the best leaders I ever worked for in the Navy was Hawaiian, or possibly because I enjoy the Hawaiian culture and lifestyle, but I am sure it is because I believe the words Rosa has written and hope to model them as I begin my new leadership journey.

Along with MWA I needed a process to help manage that exponential amount of work and responsibility so I am using David Allen's book Getting Things Done (GTD) to help me keep my mind clear and my focus on leading my team to achieve our mission.  

My goal is to blog to help share my journey.  Please feel free to participate with comments and feedback.  If this helps just one person I will consider it a success and since I am sure it will help me, does that mean I already won?

Aloha,

Chris