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Leadership vs. Management
We at Leader's Edge CA are often asked why we
speak in terms of leadership rather than management.
There's an important reason for this: Technical people don't
respond well to conventional hierarchical management. Techies want to be
part of the decision-making process, rather than simply being told what
to do. They seek autonomy when solving problems and often rebel when
directed to follow a pre-determined approach or path of enquiry set by
someone else.
The majority of middle managers and team leaders in
most technical organizations are, themselves, technical people.
Since it is a common practice to promote technical people into such
positions, this is hardly surprising. In some lucky cases, the "techies"
who assume these leadership roles are "natural leaders",
but many are not. All too often, techies push their leaders
beyond the confines of conventional and accepted management wisdom.
Techies require special handling by comparison with employees in
other functional areas. Thus, those leading technical people must
have a clear understanding of what makes techies "tick".
Fundamentally, we at Leader's Edge CA believe
that good leaders are not just people born with the right set of
genes. Individuals with the proper outlook, drive, and skillset
can learn to be effective leaders. In particular, especially where techies are
concerned, leadership is not the sole purview of management. Leadership
is required in two distinct areas: administrative (resource,
process, and project management, customer service, etc.), and
technical (research and development, verification, quality
assurance, documentation, maintenance, etc.). A single individual
may lead in both of these areas, but whether or not that individual
is successful as a leader in both areas is another matter
altogether.
Technical Leaders
Contrary to popular belief among non-techies and some
executive managers, the administrative manager of a group
is not always acknowledged as the technical leader of the group.
The technical leader of a group is usually the person who:
1) has in-depth knowledge pertaining to what the group is working on, and
2) is willing to share that knowledge. If that person also happens
to have good people and organizational skills, he or she has a much
better chance of bringing a project to a successful conclusion.
Our goal at Leader's Edge is to help our clients
learn how to remove any stumbling blocks in these latter areas that may work
against them and limit their success as technical leaders.
Administrative Managers and Team Leaders
Technical people choose to move
into administrative leadership roles (i.e., technical management
or team leadership) for many reasons: a unique expertise, seniority,
career opportunity (next step on the promotion ladder), and/or a
desire to control the design and direction of company products or
services – just to name a few. Whatever the reason, the question
remains: How prepared are these techies to assume the role and
responsibilities of technical managers or team leaders?
Many technical degree and certification programs fail
to include instruction in numerous areas that are key to survival
in today's business environment. For example:
- Leadership
- Team development
- Project/program management
- Product development and lifecycle
- Process and organizational development
- People management
- Communication skills
It has been left to the business schools to provide
such instruction to those starting out on the management track.
Unfortunately, this strategy generally produces technical people
with few management or people skills, and business people with few
technical skills and little understanding of the special needs associated
with technical people and their environments. The need in
most technical organizations is for leaders who excel in both areas
(technical understanding and leadership) to varying degrees.
Happily, the halls of higher learning have begun to
acknowledge this hole in their technical curricula and are attempting
to devise programs to meet the need. Unfortunately, in their rush
to fill the gap, many programs are falling back on previously developed
business curricula that just won't cut it in the world of techies.
This is not to say that the concepts being presented are
not relevant overall, but rather that the manner in which the concepts
are presented is often flawed and based on assumptions that don't
reflect reality in the technical world.
Common Ground
The founder of Leader's Edge CA,
Yvonne T. Ryan»,
experienced this strange dichotomy between technical
and administrative leadership skills firsthand. Over the course
of her engineering career, Yvonne's area of expertise focused primarily
on helping companies and projects that were in crisis. She found,
with few exceptions, that the most significant underlying reasons
for technical project failure were less-than-adequate people skills
and poor leadership.
It's true that some individuals seem to have a natural
inclination toward (talent for) leadership, while others struggle
with their leadership responsibilities. Whatever an individual's
native abilities, experience has shown that effective leaders
(whether they be technical or administrative) are those who:
- Maintain a positive, proactive outlook
- Have strong incentive(s)
- Receive and give regular support
- Have good people and coordination skills
All of these characteristics are based on learned
skills that take time, conscious effort, and practice!
The need for technology workers, innovators, and technical
leaders is not going to go away any time soon. The reliance on technology
by almost every functional area within organizations today is steadily
increasing. Although this may be good news for techies, it also
creates a broader spectrum of challenges. The more techies must
interface with non-technical coworkers, clients, and managers, the
greater the need for constructive interaction. In short, techies
don't have much choice – they must improve their people
skills!
In addition, the need for competent individuals who
can lead technical people is also on the rise. These leaders (administrative
or technical) must be able to bridge the gap between techies and
the rest of the world. Clearly, most of the onus for developing
the proper leadership skillset is on the individual, but leadership
coaching can improve the chances for success.
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