Good leadership – what does it mean to me?

I apply leadership to influence the people that I work with and I always do my best to be a good leader. The leadership I try to apply is the kind of leadership that I believe in, a leadership that is based on my core values.

What is a good leader?

• A good leader makes good things happen. And a good leader is driving those things in a way that makes people want to follow.
• A good leader support people to achieve the things they did not think were possible.
• A good leader helps facilitate discussions and support decision making in a way where all people and perspectives are brought into light.
• A good leader is opinionated but makes sure not to push their own ideas just because they can. The main goal is to get to the right decision not to be right yourself.

My leadership beliefs

I believe in people and care about them. I assume that people do their best and have good intent. Sometimes that is not true, but before coming to that conclusion I make sure that is the case. The other thing is that I truly care about people. When people are unhappy I always wants to do what I can to help. When things are not working out I make sure to act and show clearly that this is not the way we do things. I do that to improve the thing that is not working but also to point out which kind of behaviors that are appreciated and not, doing this with empathy is much more effective. When a person feels like you are telling them “no” because you really care that is much more powerful than if they feel like yo are telling them “no” because you have the power to do that. Caring about people is also about treating everyone with respect and in an inclusive way. As a manager I often get access to lots of information about an individual why it is extremely important that I treat that information carefully to not violate the integrity of people.

I believe that happy people has more impact. I make sure to keep an eye on how people in the organization is doing by being present and talk to people. Being happy can be a lot about having fun. Playfulness is an important ingredients since laughing together is a great way to build strong relationships. We are however in the office to do work together so the most important thing is that people enjoy working together in the organization. When people are raising issues or concerns I listen carefully and try to help and if I can’t help I will tell them so. I not only listen to complaints but I also actively reach out and ask for feedback and ideas. That is important because I will get lots of good input but it is also important since it will make people feel listened to, appreciated, seen and valued which is hugely important for the happiness of people. Finally, but not least, people feel happy when they feel accomplishments. People that acknowledge that they are having great impact, and that this impact is being acknowledged by others will be happy. We need to make sure people have what they need to become successful.

I believe that open and honest communication is key to solving difficult problems. When people have a lot of context about what we are doing and why they will be taking better decisions. A high level of transparency will also make people feel more included and aware of what is going on which will prepare them better for change.

Another aspect on open and honest communication is about giving feedback. When we are used to talking to each others in an open, honest and respectful way giving difficult messages will be easier. This will enable us to change and develop our behaviors even if that is something quite difficult for an individual. An important part of communication is listening and an open and honest communication culture also needs people that are proficient in listening actively being willing to alter their own opinion when new perspectives are present. Having this kind of communication climate will therefore enable much more efficient collaborative problem solving to more difficult problems.

I believe that engaged people take better decisions. Our work life is full of small decisions every day. It could be a decision about what to work on, how to write a piece of code, deciding to write a test or not, deciding to reach out to a colleague for feedback, deciding to reach out to another team to understand if they are affected by our change and so on. I sincerely believe that people that are engaged and motivated by their work and the things they are responsible for will take better decisions. They will walk the extra mile to get better results. They will cut fewer corners without weighing the alternatives and they will get out of their comfort zone if that is needed to not miss anything. This kind of behavior is needed to make sure that we solve the right problems in the right way.

One thing I believe is important for people to stay motivated is that they are able to influence things that matters to them. This is why I think it is important to strive for the teams to have lots of decision making powers. One challenge when having teams with a great deal of autonomy is that it requires more from leadership when it comes to setting the direction to create aligned autonomy. I think this investment in strategic leadership is necessary and totally worth it since you will get engaged people and in many cases also better solutions since you don’t have to come up with them all yourself.

The second thing that I think is absolutely necessary for people to stay engaged and motivated is that they are learning and growing. People need to be challenged to get a great sense of accomplishment from finishing a task and they need to throw themselves at least a little bit into the unknown when looking for a solution for a problem. So it is important to make sure that people are in the right place, solving the right problems with the right kind of challenges to stay super engaged. Finally, engaged and challenged people can get too engaged and too challenged to stay healthy. This is something that we need to monitor closely and take actions on when needed.

I believe in continuous development. This goes for both learning and growth as well as organizational improvements. The word continuous is important since I believe that it is always better to do small improvements all the time than do one big change once in a while. Regardless of how hopeless the situation seems – if we just start taking one step forward to improve just a little bit – that will make things better. But you do need to set aside enough time to get the improvements started – if you never decide to take that time you will never get the continuous improvement train to leave the station – and being stuck on a station you don’t like is not a good place to stay in.

I think the continuous movement is something that makes it easier for us to feel the improvement which is making a big difference since the feeling of being stuck in something bad is a killer for motivation and fuel for frustration. When you feel the improvement coming it is easier to get into a forward facing mindset that helps you find solutions to make things better instead of getting stuck in the situation you are unhappy with.

When working with continuous development you are working actively on growing yourself and the organization which is important in a continuously changing world. This mindset can be used to drive improvements in the organization, improvements in the technology (for instance as a result of an incident) or improvements of personal behaviors. It is much easier to point out problems or deficiencies since they can be seen as opportunities to improve rather than something bad. This helps not only to improve your ways of working but also to enable people to give feedback to each other or point out more personal things that are not working great. 

When we learn from our mistakes and see failure as a natural process to learn new things we will take bigger leaps and learn much more than if we are playing it safe to avoid mistakes. Anything is possible when we are not afraid of failing!