I talk and write a lot about CX and UX and all too often about things like trust and cooperation.
I want to
write this time about trust and cooperation in teams and the relation of teams
and their leaders.
All too
often leaders look at their status, their position, their “indicators” or their
leaders ‘above them just to make them happy’. But if they do so they are more
managers than leaders. Leaders need to have empathy and perspective.
Way too
many leaders forget their real task ‘being a leader’ – from my point of view it
is not being in charge of anything and everything - ‘being a leader’ should be about
taking care of those in their charge.
The issue
with that is - that neither they nor their leaders realize this. And one reason
for that is they are not trained for this. We are trained to do our job while
we grow and do our jobs. While we are or were beginners or juniors our task was
or is being good at our jobs and completing tasks and meeting deadlines. By
doing and attending advanced educations we get better and good – during this
time we got trained by the companies to be good on the particular jobs. And once
you are good at your job you will get promoted
to a position where we will be responsible for the people who do the job we
used to do – so you become a manager but not leader – especially not if you
copycat the typical managers’ micromanaging behavior - and as I said before one of the great things
that is lacking in most of our companies is that companies are not teaching us
how to lead.
As
designers and especially as UX designers we have a certain advantage - if we
can, want and use it by transferring these UX skills to our new job role as ‘leader’
– I am talking about empathy for our users and perspective for users’ roles, environments
and goals. At this point I like to mention again the ‘picture of the iceberg’ -
As UX designer we have to see beyond the surface – beyond the ‘characteristics of the snow’ and ‘condition
of the snowpack’ – we have to see and understand the ice below the surface and
the water which is surrounding the iceberg.
As
mentioned before ‘being a leader’ should be about taking care of those in our
charge. At the end of the day as managers we are responsible for the job and
projects – but as great leaders we not only responsible for the job we are responsible
for the team or better for the team members who are responsible for the job.
I love and
find it challenging talking to chief blablabla officer (the blablabla might be a
‘E’ as in CEO or ‘T’ or ‘F’) or other big project manager – when I ask them “what's
your priority”and they proudly tell me “my customer and I know them and their
business best” I wonder whether they really believe it or just tell me. They know
the numbers and the big picture – which is important – but they're responsible
for the people who responsible for the people who responsible for the customer.
The world
and also the work world has changed in the past decades we are suffering the
side effects of business theories left over from my childhood in the 70s and an
old patriarchic system and they are bad for people and they are bad for business
- this concept of ‘male’ and shareholder
supremacy is still the standard theory today –most ‘manager’ will tell you that the first priority is maximize shareholder
value. I raced sled-dogs for more than
20years (and became vice-worldcup-champion once) and I am an American football fans
since almost 40 years – if I would have had this ‘shareholder value’ on my mind
as musher during my racing or planning for races or if a
football coach would prioritize the needs of the fans over the needs of the game
and the players how you gonna build a winning team (might they have two or four
legs) with that model? But it is ‘daily
business’ in so many companies. We don't even perceive it as broken or damaged
or wrong or outdated.
Empathy
A good
leader has to help each individual team member being at their natural best. Allow
me to quote one of the best sled dog musher George Attla:
”A dog never makes a mistake. He is just a dog and he does what he does
because he is a dog and thinks like a dog. It is you that makes the mistake
because you haven’t trained him to do what you want him to do when you want him
to do it. Or you have misjudged what he is able to do, physically or mentally.
So if a mistake is made in the team, it is you that has made it, not the dog.”
And if we
talk about teamwork I don’t see much difference – see the whole being and do
best for each individual – to get the best for the whole team – and that is damn true for training and racing sled dogs, and it fits
perfect as well for football and doing business.
We have to
start by practicing empathy and relate to what they may be going through and it
will profoundly change the decisions we make it will profoundly change the way
we see the world.
Perspective
And as a sportsman I learned that second point after empathy comes perspective. If you like you could replace the 'word' perspective by purpose, vision or idea - but I like the word perspective.
And for perspective
in general there are two different dimensions. It can be finite-dimensional as a race –
limited by the racetrack, trail distance or maximum time four quarters in a
football game – meaning each who participate in the race or in game has to
agree to the rules of the sport. And whether you have a finite game or an infinite
game (and you can replace game by business) it will change your perspective.
And running a company’s business is in 99% cases an infinite game of business
and the reason is because we haven't agreed to the rules of winning – the games
on and on - there is no checkered flag.
Way too many
companies actually don't know the game they're in. They are not watching and
listening to the ‘language’ of the own company - they are not watching and listing what they
are physically or mentally able to do. They are focusing way too much on beat their
competitors. These companies are playing finite games – with arbitrary rules.
Companies
that understand the game that they're in and organize their resources and their
decision playing and managing the infinite contest.
I clearly
see this finite contest again and again when I watch companies’ presentations
talking about how to beat their competitors – focusing, watching and listing others
– instead of listen to themselves – see where they are, having an idea where to
go and being flexible to reach the goal.
It is beyond
dispute that companies are competing against themselves and they understand
that sometimes they are or their service or product a little bit ahead and
sometimes they are a little bit behind. But if you wake up every single morning
and compete against yourself how do you make your service better than they were
‘yesterday’ how do you take care of your users, consumers, and customers better
than you did before?
Résumé
If you want to be a great leader start with empathy and change or work on your perspective - prepare for matches and play the game but keep the season and the long run on your scope and radar.
Closing note
Being a
leader is something that you can and have to work on - it's like a muscle if you
practice it all the days you will get good at it and you will become a strong
leader.
See also:
The Iceberg - and UX
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