The other main reason for loving this gig is the opportunity to once again build an effective team. This project is particularly challenging given it's multiple location, language and culture. So to build a cohesive team that works well together and overcomes these barriers is an ongoing task.
For me there are a few things that I, as I lead a team, strive to do:
1) Provide direction and focus
2) keep momentum
3) drive collaboration
#1 Direction & Focus
As a leader this is your first and main job, to give the team and individuals a direction in which to follow. This is not about giving orders. Orders will need to be given, but this is about showing the way towards the end goal , making difficult decisions, and giving your team what they need to do their job and accomplish that goal.
Direction can come in many different forms - you can provide direction through listening to your team members work through a problem out loud with you; or through reminding them of the vision at times where that vision may not seem possible anymore.
It is however very important to build trust with your team because you want them to follow your direction and they want to know that they are being led in the right way.
Trust is a difficult thing to build and it comes with time, so in the early stages of your project and team building you want to focus on clear and constant communication to drive understanding of your vision and opportunities for interaction. Once you've spent some time together going through some hurdles and overcoming them you will begin to build that trust.
In my case, where my team spends most of its time working remotely it becomes challenging to build trust fast. The important thing to do for us is to find opportunities to get together and maximize these opportunities with focused task-filled days where collaboration is at it's peak - that's exactly what last week was all about!
Also don't forget to have fun with your team. When people get to know each other on a personal level they begin to understand the intricacies of what makes them who they are. Plus having those fun memories to pull from during difficult challenging times during the project is priceless.
#2 Keep momentum
We all deal with slow decision makers, red tape, and other obstacles that can delay and sometimes bring a project to a halt. When this happens people tend to get frustrated and loose faith in the process all together. They even begin to think that the project may not be that important if we're allowed to "waste" time with non-value added tasks.
As a leader your job is to insulate your team from all of the "nonsense". Maintain them aware because knowledge of it is important, but focus on keeping momentum on productive and value-add tasks.
The way I keep my team's momentum is by providing a bit of structure and through visualization. Structuring their days, their tasks and providing them high level views of the overall project helps them move passed the current challenges and focus on the goal.
I like to constantly review a graphical representation of the project plan with my team- in the agile world I would review a feature map but it's all the same : an opportunity to see the forest and not just the trees.
Also I'm a list queen! One of the best most simple but life changing concepts I've learned with Agile was the concept of "backlog grooming" - a concept I carry with me everywhere I go.
A backlog is essentially a list of tasks (stories) for a team; and the process of prioritizing, cleaning, removing and adding tasks to that list is referred to as "backlog grooming" - for more details visit this site : http://guide.agilealliance.org/guide/backlog-grooming.html
In the context of my project, while we're not using Agile as the methodology, I still leverage some of the best practices; including backlog grooming.
I spend the last two weeks in Brazil, one to oversee the test phase of our project and the second one I spent together with my team to collaborate together and define next steps. That was a short week with a lot to do, so I created a simple list (backlog) of tasks for the four of us to complete. Together we "groomed" the backlog on the first day, to determine priority and decide how to complete them. We completed 26 out 45 items, all High priority items were completed and of the 19 left 10 of them are low priority. It was a productive and very collaborative week and I attribute that to having a backlog and grooming it together with the team.
#3 Drive Collaboration
Collaboration is key to success! When you have a team that works together and helps each other you get amazing results.
Collaboration suffers when egos get in the way. So your job as a leader is to focus on the team as a whole and the team goals to avoid individual focus. Obviously you can always recognize individuals for their contributions but in the early stages of team building, try to focus on the team as a whole and encourage your team members to recognize each other.Recognize when teamwork takes place and encourage collaborative behavior at all times.
In addition to providing direction, keeping momentum and driving collaboration, I strive to always lead by example. The best way to encourage a behavior is to model it. As a leader you should be the example of what you want to see in your team. So if you want results, deliver it; if you want collaboration, be a team player. Be the mirror of the team you want and need.
