When people talk about engineering leadership they often are referring to leading human beings, specifically, engineers, but I think that it’s more accurate to realize that one is actually leading decision making. Some of these decisions are made unilaterally by the “engineering leader” but many are the result of input by multiple people in the organization. Regardless of who’s involved, the leader needs to make sure that decisions ARE made and made in an appropriately timely fashion.
Years ago my then boss informally confronted me with his concern that I might be making decisions too quickly. He pointed out that additional information is usually forthcoming and wondered if I might not be better off awaiting it’s availability before moving forward with a decision. We actually had a lengthy and enjoyable discussion about this topic.
I asked him for specific examples of such instances and he promptly cited three. I then proceeded to spell out all the information I had factored into the decision. In addition, I described other data I would like to have had to factor into my analysis and explained why such information wasn’t yet available and when I could reasonably expect said info.
We then chatted about the impact (aka cost) of delaying the decision; for these three examples he ended up agreeing with me that each involved instances where a timely decision, based on the available data was better than a delayed decision. Obviously this is not always the case.
__________________________________________
Jane Divinski has enjoyed the challenges of engineering management consulting since 1994. Most of her gigs are as interim VPE but Jane's also tackled other interim roles including CTO or program manager. Her background is at www.jadski.com
4 comments:
Your post begs the question: What is the difference between leading a decision and managing a decision? You outlined a reasonable process for managing a decision. Identify when the decision must be made and the impact of delay. Identify information that is missing. Identify the risk of making the decision without the missing information. But this is pure management. It's as much risk management as anything else.
So what does it mean, then, to LEAD decision making? In my humble opinion, being a leader means being courageous, ethical, and transparent. So leading decision making means bringing these character traits to bear on the decision making process.
Often a team will be unable to move from risk analysis to decision. It will suffer from analysis paralysis, or simply be too timid to take a stand. Strong leaders have the courage to make the decision. Strong leaders empower the team to be courageous by modeling courage and standing behind the team. "I got your back. Let's do this!"
But for a team to be able to make that jump, the team has to believe in the leader. The team has to trust the leader. And the leader must have modeled a solid ethical stance in order to garner that trust.
Finally (at least for this post), the team needs to understand how the leader arrived at decision to decide. The leader needs to not only move to a decision point with courage, but also take the team along for the ride. Ensure that the team has ownership for the decision as well.
In my perspective, there is a big difference between employing good decision making skills to manage a decision, and modeling good leadership character to empower and drive a team.
FINAllY, I provoked, inspired, whatever... a comment! Thank you David. I absolutely agree with what you wrote. In fact, after initially publishing the posting I re-read it and had the same reaction that you described so well... wondering if I was describing "leadership" or "management." I almost went back and added more explanation but then I decided that if no one else read it, it didn't matter and if anyone else did, then hopefully there would be comments :)
IMHO the ability to analyze constructively is a management skill that can be learned. The willingness to make difficult decisions and live with the consequences AND more importantly, to empower others in the organization to also take initiative in a productive and ethical way is leadership. Do you agree?
Note from JADski (Jane Divinski) that the previous comment by "EL SIG" was actually from me. Next time I comment on any posting I will do it from outside the Blog so it shows up under my name.
Yes. Absolutely. Leadership is a matter of character. Management is a matter of skill. I wise old leader once told me "you hire leaders and train managers." Words that I have lived by and that have served me well.
Post a Comment