As a technical leader, it’s inevitable that you’ll find yourself answering to senior management from time to time in a variety of situations – some more pleasant than others. Besides the (hopefully frequent) occasions of discussing your great success, there will likely be the occasional time when your team fell short of expectations, or when you’ve taken on more than you can handle. In other editions of this newsletter, we discussed how to mitigate these latter two situations with strategies like prioritization and delegation. In this edition, I’ll discuss how you can take ownership and answer to senior management when these cases do arise.
When your team didn’t deliver
It can be frustrating and embarrassing when your team doesn’t deliver on a project or goal. But as the leader, it’s important to take ownership of the situation and not pass the blame onto your team. Instead, focus on what you can personally do to improve the situation.
First, take a step back and assess. What specifically went wrong? Was there a breakdown in communication of expectations? Did your team lack the necessary resources, research, or support? Consider holding a postmortem with your team to ensure you hear of any contributing factors first-hand.
Once you have a clear understanding of what happened, you can start to develop a plan to address the issue. To aid your thinking, consider making a two-column list. Note the specific problem your team encountered in the first column, for example, “We lacked a clear definition of the product to be delivered.” In the second column, propose a remedy; for example, “Write down and agree on product requirements before work begins.”
With this list in hand, answering to senior management could not be more straightforward. Like you, they are leaders with responsibilities for their teams. Like you, they want to know what happened and how it’s going to be improved upon in the future.
Communicate your list openly and honestly with senior management. Take responsibility for the outcome as your team’s leader and clearly and specifically explain the steps you’re taking to ensure that future outcomes improve. Show what you’ve to learned from the situation and that you’re committed to the future success of the broader organization.
Once you’ve discussed your remedies with senior management and incorporated any suggestions they may have, put these into practice with your team that very same day. In the product requirements example, don’t hesitate to take the time to ensure that all current work underway has a list of requirements to meet your new standard. Continue to reinforce your standards as the team adapts to the new process.
When there’s too much on your plate
As a technical leader, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and like you have too much on your plate. Instead of letting responsibilities pile up to the point of affecting your work-life balance (startup leaders, I see you!), take a step back and focus on what you can control.
First, prioritize your tasks and responsibilities. If you have more than one “priority,” you’re doing it wrong. What is the most important thing your team needs to accomplish right now? What items must necessarily happen later? Do some items block others? Sorting through what feels like a bucket of backlog soup may seem like a daunting task, but it’s one that pays back the time investment tenfold. Dedicate a day, if necessary, to ensure you get priorities straightened out for your team.
Next, examine what you do in a day. Ask yourself if there’s anything you do that a team member could do instead, and be honest with yourself about the answers. You may feel hesitant to give more work to already busy team members, but this is a flawed perspective.
If you’re currently doing work that team members can help with – such as code reviews or requirements gathering – delegate these tasks to your team members. Don’t, however, simply pile it on top of the work they’re already doing (that didn’t work for you, did it?) but reprioritize their tasks as necessary to ensure you stay within their individual capacity. Don’t hesitate to ask someone to pause work on a bug fix in order to spend time reviewing code for a more important bug or feature. Communicating relative importance clearly and objectively can help your team to understand the order of operations and to feel like they’re in the loop when it comes to the bigger picture. By delegating more tasks, you’ll be able to free up some of your time and focus on the things that only you can do.
If, after prioritizing, it becomes clear that there’s too much expected from your team in a given time, communicate this to senior management. Ensure you state clearly what your team can accomplish within a certain time given the people and resources you currently have. If necessary, ask them to re-prioritize what they’d like your team to get done, so you can focus on delivering quality work for each desired goal.
Emphasizing your success
When it comes to answering to senior management, it’s important to emphasize your successes and accomplishments. It’s equally important to do so in a way that demonstrates extreme ownership and leadership.
First, be specific about what you’ve accomplished. Provide concrete examples and data to back up your claims. Show senior management that you’re able to achieve tangible results. Saying, “We did a great job making feature X faster,” is not as effective as saying, “We delivered feature X in two weeks and our customers are seeing a 200% improvement in response time.” For maximum impact, capture facts like this in charts and graphs. People with little time love visuals.
Next, give credit where credit is due. Acknowledge the contributions of your team members and colleagues. If someone made a particularly significant contribution, mention this specifically. Demonstrate that you’re in touch with your team and invested in each person’s individual success. Good leaders care more for the success of their team than for personal glory.
Finally, be humble and willing to learn. Even if you’ve achieved great success, there’s always room for improvement. Be open to feedback and use it to continue growing and developing as a leader.
Take it to work today:
If your team didn’t deliver, assess what went wrong and make a plan for future success. Take ownership of the situation and communicate the specifics of how you plan to succeed next time. Receive any feedback and suggestions in good faith.
When there’s too much on your plate, prioritize and delegate. If necessary, communicate your team’s capacity to senior management and ask them to re-prioritize your team’s goals so that the most important items are addressed first.
When highlighting your team’s successes, be specific. Offer facts as numbers or charts and graphs, and mention any specific team members whose contribution stood out. Emphasize your team instead of too-easily accepting personal glory.
Answering to senior management requires extreme ownership and leadership. Whether your team didn’t deliver, you have too much on your plate, or you want to emphasize your success, approach each situation with honesty, humility, and a willingness to learn and grow. By doing so, you’ll be able to build trust with senior management and demonstrate your value as a leader.