Hamstaa!

In the final session of the ACS "Growing Team Leaders" course I started back in May was held last week, we attended a breakfast with some guest presenters giving insight into leadership. We heard from

• Peter Grant, CIO of Queensland Health
• Anne-Marie Birkill, CEO of ILAB
• John Puttick, Chairman of GBST Holdings

As seen in so many other parts of this series, the common theme was the value of people and of course how to inspire them to greatness.

Peter talked about his, now departed, mentor and friend, the university lecturer who fired him with passion for IT. Not only did his mentor introduce him the world of IT, but also taught him the value of being skilled in all areas, not just those you find interesting.

Anne-Marie talked about taking a leadership role in the (ICT) community by giving something back to it. It was interesting to hear, not only from a successful woman¹ and how she got there, but from someone who is in a field not directly involved in IT.

Finally John, talked about his early years and the power of IT in business. John as part of Software Queensland is partly responsible for the creation of the ACS course.

While each presenter had some great things to say, for me, it was Peters comments that spoke to me the most. Peter struck me as a person who understands fully the value of people and providing them with the tools necessary to do great things.

After the breakfast, we convened once more for a final wrap up. This finished with everyone committing to doing something towards growing their leadership skills. For me, I've chosen to embrace the opportunity of representing Ephox at Software Queensland and to work with our local Universities in growing the numbers of students studying ICT.

Discussions with the people at my table indicated that they had all taken something valuable away from the course. It's been an interesting and insightful series, with some very useful gems of knowledge. I'm very glad to have been a part of it.

1 – We need far more women in IT.↩

Continuing the "Growing Team Leaders" course, last week Greg Stockwell of Public Speaking Australia presented "Public Speaking and Presentation Skills".

Unlike the previous sessions, this session was presented as a series of exercises where Greg introduced a few simple techniques for dealing with the obvious nerves of speaking. Interestingly when you hear people say they don't get nervous when speaking, this can sometimes mean they are overconfident. This overconfidence comes across to the audience as disingenuous.

Greg also presented a few simple rules when speaking publicly. For example

• never tell the audience you're nervous, they'll focus on looking for the signs of nerves instead of the substance of your presentation
• if showing a video, tell them how long it is so they know what to expect
• if possible, see the venue before you speak so you have a sense of the layout and reduce the unexpected
• finally, be yourself, don't try to be something you aren't.

I think the point I really liked, that Greg made, regarding public speaking is

It's not life or death, it's only public speaking.

During the recent session of my leadership course the presenter (Karl) raised an interesting point regarding the under-recognition of Capability compared to Competence.

If you aren't familiar with this, consider the image on the right. For any Situation, there are known and unknown situations. Similarly there are known and unknown Problems. Our ability to deal with Known Problems in Known Situations is reflected in out Competency. When we are presented with an Unknown Problem in an Unknown Situation, it is our abilities that assist us. This is our Capability.

The problem is that Capability is both hard to define and hard to measure.

Many in industry want be able to put a "tick in the box" when it comes to a persons abilities. This usually results in competencies being essential. Like Karl, I feel Capability is under-valued due to the difficulty in measuring it.

This also fits with my long held belief that in the "People versus Process" equation, People stand out. Sure process ensures replicable results, however when the inevitable problem arises that the process doesn't address, having good people with the autonomy to make decisions will get you through. It is their Capability that delivers in the end.

In the second session of the "Growing Team Leaders" course, Karl Buderus from Success Solutions presented "Leading IT Projects".

Karl started out stating that "Leading Projects" is different to "Managing Projects". Project management involves activities like planning, budgeting, organising, controlling and problem solving while leadership is about vision, alignment of people, motivation and inspiration. So, where management is a Science, leadership is more of an Art and involves enabling, empowering and supporting the team.

One of the key messages I took away from this session is that Leaders helps people find the answers versus telling them. In most cases, team members know the answers, by assisting them to find the answer, you not only grow their abilities, but empower them solve problems without your involvement.

Similar to the previous session, good communication was highlighted as essential, along with negotiations skills. This time, communication with project sponsors was discussed. Identifying how the key people required to make your project succeed want to be communicated, is essential to your success.

The remainder of the course then focussed on things like governance, organisational alignment and management tools.

So when you are working on something involving high innovation, which can result in high risk, good leadership is essential to succeed. Share the vision, excite the team and ensure key stakeholders are involved, clearing the way for your team to innovate and deliver.

ACS recently started a new course entitled "Growing Team Leaders" that I feel might compliment my management reading and learning. This post is the first in a series associated with the course.

The first session, "What is a Leader", presented by John Ware of Dale Carnegie Training was on this month. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of skills I was already aware of and am doing as part of my role. There were however a few points that I can continue to work on. One I particularly liked was "Micro manager yourself, macro manage your team". What this essentially means is manage your own time and tasks in detail and provide guidance to your people, trusting them to do their job.

With respect to leadership however, the main point that I took away from the session was that good leaders are focussed on people. This was highlighted by the statement "Managers manage process, leaders lead people". Management is all about managing the processes that achieve results. Leadership however is about vision and hearts & minds.

The bulk of the course then focussed around techniques to balance motivation and accountability within your team and building outstanding communication skills.

So if you really want to lead your team well at all levels, focus on people management along with your other management skills. Understand what motivates your people, give them the opportunities to grow and take them where they might not go themselves.