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August 14, 2018 by Chris Daily Leave a Comment

Check out our new shirts.

One of the things I noticed when I started at Angie’s list was the number of people who wore Angie’s list t-shirts.  It was typically the most engaged employees to boot.  In fact, employees could buy a t-shirt for $5.  I realized that, if I ever got a chance to run my own company, I wanted to replicate what I learned at Angie’s list.

When Tana and I originally formed beLithe, we were primarily partnering with great organizations like CEWit, Eleven Fifty, and TechPoint to work with college students .  One of the things we started giving away to our students was T-shirts.  Our original T-shirt from 2016 had a quote on the back was a Winston Churchill quote “To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often.”

I thought it was time to change the quote, so I found a new one (check it out here).  I couldn’t write one.  As I searched for ideas, I stumbled across Apple’s diversity statement off there website.  I couldn’t resist.  It reflects the approach that I have always felt was right for am company, but never heard anyone at my past employers be so direct.  With all due respect to Apple, I used this one on our shirt.

In my Scrum training, we discuss one of the values of Scrum, openness, as one of the things that makes Scrum work.  We talk about openness in terms of one’s day to day status, opinions on how work is done, and what can be improved.  Diversity is generally accepted as a requirement for high performing teams.  Including other points of view provides better decision making across the board.  After conducting Scrum training for a number of years, I have had a revelation.  In Scrum, we should be open not just in what we share, but in what we take in.  We should be open to other’s ideas as well, whether we agree with them or not.  We shouldn’t let all the crap that doesn’t really matter cloud our opinions about teammates.

My goal for beLithe is that we are a high performing team, and this is one small way of embracing our future.  We are just starting the journey, and I hope it will be a fun ride.

Thanks for coming in today.

Chris

 

 

 

Filed Under: Business Musings, diversity, Ethics, Scrum, women in technology

July 15, 2015 by Chris Daily Leave a Comment

Arthur Ashe on Leadership

True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost. – Arthur Ashe

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you probably know how I feel about just sharing articles and quotes for the sake of sharing.  If not, you can check it out here.

As I reflected on this quote, I couldn’t help but substitute the word “leadership” for “heroism”.

Restated:  True leadership is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost. – Arthur Ashe

The quote seems applicable to managing people and seems to embrace Servant Leadership.  When I got my first management position, I got in for the wrong reasons.  I wanted people to respect me, and I wanted to make a lot of money.  Luckily, I got some good advice along the way.  Hopefully, you’ll take this quote as a piece of advice.  If you don’t know anything about Servant Leadership, click here for a start.

Thanks for coming in today.

Chris

 

Filed Under: Business Musings, IMO, Leadership, Uncategorized Tagged With: Character, development, growth, Leadership, Motivation

June 23, 2015 by Chris Daily Leave a Comment

“Managing” Software Development – The Daily Standup

If you have been around software development at all, you have probably attended a “standup” meeting.  So why, is this meeting so important?  This meeting provides at least one opportunity for teammates to communicate with each other on a daily basis.  I recommend three components for the meeting to be effective:

  • The meeting should be recurring daily.
  • Everyone who is physically able should stand for the entire meeting.
  • The purpose of the meeting is to communicate a micros status of each teammate’s progress.
  • The meeting should be brief, and limited to 15 minutes or less.
  • One member of the team should facilitate the meeting.
  • Anyone can attend the daily stand up, but only the team members may speak during the actual meeting.
  • Discussion during the meeting is limited to each teammate answering the following questions:
    • What did I do yesterday?
    • What did am I going to do today?
    • What are the things(roadblocks) that stop me from getting my tasks completed?
  • Any detailed conversations should be wait until after the meeting is over.

Simple and to the point, daily stand ups in this format create a number of positive outcomes.  Each teammate providing the answer to the three questions daily provides each member of the team an opportunity to let everyone else know they completed a task.  Getting stuff done will become infectious to a team.  Those teammates that are struggling will report the same thing several days in row, which create a small coaching opportunity.  More times than not, the team itself jump in and attempt to help teammate.  These coaching opportunities serve as a timely feedback loop to respective teammate.  Without the daily stand up, those feedback loops often manifest themselves in the yearly performance review, with decaying performance and coaching feedback.   Unfortunately, some teammates are not suited for their role or the company, won’t like the exposure of reporting a micro status, and will self-select themselves out of the team or the company.

Meeting on a daily basis will help ensure the updates are small in nature.  Everyone having to stand will also help keep the meeting short, as most people don’t like standing in the same spot for more than 15 minutes.

There are all kinds of reasons on why roadblocks are encountered.  The roadblocks often start out small, but have a tendency to grow into huge mountains over time.  There also many types of roadblocks which can become visible.  Some roadblocks are easily removed by the team, while other roadblocks require help to get removed by someone outside the team.  This is an opportunity for the servant leader/facilitator to help.  By learning about roadblocks early, the roadblock can often be addressed before it becomes larger and more complicated.  If the roadblock is bigger or more complicated than the team can handle, the servant leader has the responsibility to find an acceptable resolution or mitigation.  The effects of the roadblock can be communicated quickly so appropriate expectations can be set.

The daily stand ups often become a ritual, and are utilized by those outside the team.  In addition to listening to the daily micro status, non-team members who have questions quickly learn that, right after the daily stand up, they can ask questions and provide feedback to the team.  In person verbal feedback is far more effective than an email.

One word of caution:  stand up meetings have to stick to this format or human nature will turn this into an much longer time commitment with the benefits and value decaying over time.

Daily stand up meetings are effective regardless of the type of team you are on.  I have seen them used in lots of different types of teams, including customer service, marketing, sales, management, and operational teams.  If you are “managing” a team, start with the daily stand up.  Your teammates will grumble, groan, show up late, and generally try to avoid the meeting.  After a few weeks, your teammates will start to see the results.

Thanks for coming in today.

Chris

Note:  This post was also posted at belithe.com.

Filed Under: Agile, Blog, Business Musings, IMO, Scrum, Software Development Tagged With: daily standup, management, scrum, software development

June 8, 2015 by Chris Daily Leave a Comment

“Managing” Software Development – Servant Leadership

This is the second post in a series of posts under the topic of “Managing” Software Development.  If you haven’t read the first post, you probably should start there by clicking here and reading that post.

For those of you that have read the first post, welcome back.

Don’t tell anyone, but I really don’t “manage” software development teams.  I spent my formative years early in my career working at a mid-size bank.  Hiearchical management practices and organizations were all the rage.  I wanted to be the “boss“.  I wanted my “people” to do what I told them because I said so.  I knew what needed to be done.  After all, I had two years of experience and a bachelor degree from Ball State.  By now, you can probably guess I had a rude awakening coming!

My first team was made up of mostly folks who had less experience than I did, and were rebellious, independent, and a heck of a lot smarter than I was.  Trouble was coming, and I didn’t have a clue.  I will never forget how shocked I was when I showed up for a meeting with Paul McGinnis and Dan Lehman.  My entire team was waiting on me.  My memory of the meeting was the team was patient, but yet firm in telling me that I was screwing up.  I was sucking the enjoyment out of their jobs, and they weren’t happy about it.  I walked away with one key point:  My team could have ambushed me, but was still with me and needed me to do what they could not.

At the time, I didn’t have a clue about servant leadership, or what it was.  I knew that I was going to fail as a manager if I kept “managing”.  I knew that a group of people could get more done than an individual, but how did I get this group of people to do what I wanted?  How do I control them?  After all, I was working on an MBA.  I knew it all!  I should be able to do this.  Hiearchial management had been working for 70 years.  The industrial age and the modern assembly line made quotes like “Why is it every time I ask for a pair of hands, they come with a brain attached?” seem accurate.  All that was needed was an employee who wouldn’t think, but would do exactly the same thing over and over.  I thought managing software development was just telling developers what to do, and then kicking back and relaxing.

I didn’t realize it at that time, but my team was telling me that control is an illusion, and that I needed to be a servant leader.

What is Servant Leadership?  Robert K. Greenleaf defines Servant Leadership as “The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.”  How can you lead if you are a servant first?  I got lucky.  My team jolted me into a servant leadership style management without even understanding what it was.  My team wanted me to switch my approach, enabling them to do their job.  The team knew how to write code and had a great knowledge of the systems that we were charged with maintaining.  The team wanted me to provide overall direction, and get rid of anything that kept them from doing their job.  That’s what I did.  I bought them donuts occasionally, respected them as professionals, and protected them from everything else.  It worked.  They didn’t quit on me, and I started serving them.

Over the years, my teammates at various stops have continued to reinforce that Servant Leadership is the right approach for me.  As an avid reader, I have found several excellent Servan Leadership references that have reinforced the approach.  I have found that most teams have evolved into a state of dysfunction, not because of the members of the team, but because the “manager” of the team doesn’t get Servant Leadership.  Those managers set the bar so low, that being a servant leader has an immediate impact on the team dynamics.  Often, being a Servant Leader is all that is required to turn a team around.

Servant Leadership has certainly changed my career, providing me a fulfilling career, with some great friends and even greater memories.

Thanks for coming in today.

Chris

Filed Under: Agile, Branding Yourself, Business Musings, IMO, Leadership, Scrum, Software Development Tagged With: development, Leadership, management, software business, software development, Solutions

February 17, 2015 by Chris Daily Leave a Comment

Leadership versus manage

Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right. – Professor Warren G. Bennis

So, last week was a crazy week!  The events of last week caused me to start thinking about my legacy.  While I am certainly not ready to spend eternity in a box 6′ under ground, I have been thinking “What will I be remembered for?”  For me, it was ironic that the week started with Martin Luther King Day.  Irony hit me in the face with a 2X4 when I found the quote above by Professor Bennis while I was looking for a quote about leadership.

This isn’t the first time I have thought about my legacy (click here), and it probably won’t be the last.

The words leader and manager are used almost as synonyms by most people.  If you look around in your life, you’ll see both managers and leaders.  What’s the difference between a manager from a leader?  Is it education, genetics, or experience?  Can it be taught or can it be learned?  Why are some people essentially modern day pied pipers, while others can’t seem to get their shadow to follow them?  My opinion is leadership starts with INTENT.

As a leader, is my intent to further my career or to do the right thing for the company?  Is my intent to keep my job or do my job?

Doesn’t it seem obvious?  Think of the great leaders of history.  Dr. King, Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Mother Teresa, and Nelson Mandela to name a few.  Their actions were guided by their intent to right a wrong, regardless of the cost to them personally.  King and Lincoln were ultimately assassinated for their intentions.  Gandhi and Mandela spent years in jail because of their intentions.  In the business world, most people are not typically faced with death or imprisonment as a result of our intentions.  Yet our intentions play an integral part to whether we are a leader or a manager.  The intent of the top leaders of companies can drive success or failure.  We follow leaders who have genuine intent that we agree with.

What do I mean by genuine intent?  Genuine intent is the intent that is communicated by one’s actions, not by what is communicated.  Think back to a time in your life, where you interacted with a leader.  What was their intent?  Who was got the most benefit?  The leader or those who followed?  Did you feel like the leader was actually somehow serving you?  In my experience, leaders are not even aware they are leaders or even why people follow their lead.

Think about why you follow a leader.  They are all around us.  It could be a minister, manager, peer, or teacher to name a few.  What is their intent?  What is your intent?

Thanks for coming in today.

Chris

Filed Under: Branding Yourself, Business Musings, Getting Personal, IMO, Software Development Tagged With: growth, Leadership

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