Providing Internal Facilitation
In traditional business, the role of the leader is to hand down orders from above, tell his people what to do, and keep an eye on them to make sure that they are doing it. This does not apply to leading geeks at all: the manager may still hand down orders from above, but would be wise to translate them into requests for help rather than demands backed by threat; but his role is to facilitate and empower his team rather than to provide close and detailed direction.
Facilitation vs. Control
Most conventional leadership is centered around the notion of power: the ability to influence the behavior of others. But because the productivity of geeks is derived from thought rather than action, traditional approaches to power and influence are inappropriate and counterproductive.
Facilitation is quite different: the employee is in a position of power, and the leader serves their needs in order to ensure they have what they need to get their work done - and in general, geeks are not only tolerant of, but also grateful for, the leader who can clear the decks of obstacles and enable them to work.
The Challenge of Facilitation
Managers from traditional business face substantial challenges when they find themselves in a facilitating role. Psychologically, their confidence and self-esteem can suffer from being placed in a position where they lack the ability to boss others about and be obeyed without question. They may feel they have lost status in the organization. Delegation to experts at a lower rank may lead them to feel out of touch, and more distant from the "important" work.
For that reason, may traditional leaders fail to manage geeks effectively: facilitation doesn't "feel" right, and they reverent to autocratic patterns of behavior, which will undermine productivity, sap morale, and alienate the more talented members of the team (or perhaps elicit mutiny). In short, doing what he feels a leader "should" do to succeed will only contribute to his failure as a leader.
Establishing and Maintaining Local Work Environment
One of the primary responsibilities of the leader is to create a productive local work environment that is conducive to knowledge development. Some of the tasks requisite to doing so include:
Creating Community and Culture
Geeks are individuals by nature, and part of the task of the facilitator is to create a sense of community among them - not so much for social reasons, but for practical ones: to enable them to draw on the expertise of others, have an understanding of how their work integrates with the work of others, and have an established relationship with those whom they will help and on whose help they will depend. Culture will develop over time, and is largely the result of shared experiences.
In many ways, the leader is a facilitator and moderator who is not a "full" member of the community and does not often participate in the group's interaction - be cannot control the culture, but can influence it. Of paramount importance is leading by example and being consistent in your expressed values and your actions. To do otherwise is to appear dishonest, and untrustworthy, ad you will have little influence over the culture as a result.
Creating Safety for Ideas
Another important concept is to ensure that the culture provides safety for ideas. Specifically, there can be no taboo subjects or sacred cows, or any sort of dogma that cannot be questioned or criticized. The geeks should even be free to openly question the leader's decisions, or even his authority, without fear of retribution.
Not only should a geek feel at liberty top say anything, he should also get the sense that the ideas he expresses are given due consideration. Geeks generally earn esteem by expressing insight and well-thought-out approaches, but be careful that the established though leaders do not automatically steamroll the input of junior members.
Finally, one must have the right to be wrong, even completely and bone-headedly so, without being stigmatized or dismissed as an idiot. The most creative minds come up with dozens of bad ideas before arriving at a really good one, and sometimes an unconventional approach can be effective (or be the basis of something effective) The culture should be supportive and forgiving.
Creating Forums for Conflict and Search for Truth
There is much competitiveness in geek environments to be the smartest kid in the class, and a lot of ego tied to each person's ideas. As a result, differences of opinion can lead to argument, sometimes with each party seeking to "win" rather than to discover the truth.
The leader often cannot be an arbitrator, deciding what is right and wrong, or cast the deciding vote when teams are split over how to proceed. Instead, he must provide an appropriate forum for working though such conflicts, either a careful eye to ensuring that the resolution is a constrictive one: that the better case, not the more aggressive one, wins out in the end.
A good tactic for the leader is to assume the role of the idiot - getting each side to explain themselves in terms that he can understand, and asking questions about the qualities of the solution and possible side effects. This can diffuse the tension, and help each side to see the details of both solutions.
The leader must also be able to smooth things over once the conflict is resolved - the "losing" geek must be willing to express and fight for his ideas in the future, and maintain the respect of his peers in the face of his error. He must also be convinced to abandon the fight rather than attempting to undermine the solution.
Valuing Achievement, Not Just Knowledge
Another key to creating a productive environment is shifting the focus to achievement. Geeks are very fond of knowledge, but may neglect to consider that it is only valuable when it is applied to achieve a goal.
However, gaining knowledge, even if it doesn't have an immediate application, should still be encouraged: consider knowledge to be stored energy, to be applied in the future.
Defining Physical Space
The leader can also be helpful in maintaining a physical environment that supports productivity - in general, there should be "quiet space" where geeks can isolate themselves when they need to work without distractions and collaborative spaces where the team, or parts of the team, and gather for formal or informal meetings (without disturbing those in isolation).
Also consider the symbolic nature of space: an office is more important than a cubicle, which is more important than a seat in a bullpen. There are even companies in which the size of a space is determined by status rather than equipment needs, or the need for privacy or isolation.
Being the Therapist
The leader also needs to assume the role of a therapist, especially when there is a great deal of stress and conflict. In general, geeks have personality "issues" to begin with, and stress can aggravate them.
In many instances, being a therapist simply means listening to employees as they blow off steam. In other cases, you can help a person to manage their stress. In other cases, you may need to get them some professional help.
Facilitating Tasks
The leader of a technical team is seldom a technical expert - this cannot be stressed enough - so he cannot roll up his sleeves and pitch in, or help his employees by providing them instruction or direction. However, there are a number of things that can be done to facilitate work indirectly.
Allocating Resources
Among the most important duties is to get your people the tools and resources they need to do the job: equipment, software, system access, personnel, and training.
There is often a competition for resources, and geeks are fond of exploiting the ignorance of an inexperienced leader to obtain "toys" that they don't really need, both of which can be challenges to effective resource allocation.
Coordinating Schedules
In most instances, geeks can set their own schedules as needed to apply their personal effort to various projects and meet deadlines. However, the leader must help them to coordinate their work with the work of others, to ensure that each person sets priorities not merely according to their own workload, but also considering the goals of the team.
Also, because geeks can obsess and spend a great deal of time working of items of minor importance, or being too concerned with extraneous features, and need to be reminded of what si important and nudged back on schedule.
The leader is often in charge of setting deadlines, and communicating outside needs to the team and coordinating between the team and other business units, and must also coordinate internal schedules with external ones.
Coordinating Tasks
In general, the geeks will coordinate their own tasks - the programmer is well aware that the DBA must create a table before he can write a function to access it - but in other instances, dependencies among tasks may be overlooked, or not communicated. This becomes even more problematic when there are different work teams, or when work depends on tasks performed outside the department.
The leader should ensure that dependencies are considered, that someone specific is assigned to attend to a prerequisite task, that they are aware of when the task must be accomplished, that the task is in fact done, and that the party who depends on the task is aware of its completion, any delays or complications, or any deviations from the original plan.
Overcoming Obstacles
Another critical role a leader plays is clearing the decks of obstacles to success. A plan is laid for a smooth operation - but stuff happens along the way, and the task of the leader is to deal with them so that geeks can remain focused on the work.
The most common obstacles that arise are resource constraints: equipment or software scarcity, technical resources, personnel changes.
The second most common problem is schedule slip: a prerequisite task was not completed on schedule, and this has a domino effect on later tasks.
A leader should be careful about rushing in to save the day: geeks are problem-solvers, and can often deal with obstacles on their own (and want to do so). Some may be offended that you feel the need to step in, others may come to expect you to step in and solve things for them. It's a careful balance.
Monitoring Effectiveness
Leaders generally fill the role of spokesman and representative for their team, and are held responsible for knowing how the work is progressing as well as providing leadership and guidance to keep things on track.
Three key things to monitor:
- Is the team on track to meet their deliverables with the expected time, quality, and budgetary constraints?
- Are the team members having a "generally positive experience"?
- Will the people on this team be able to work together in the future?
If the answer to any of those questions is "no," intervention may be necessary to put things right. However, do not intervene too soon: there may be a resolution in progress, and stepping in may interrupt it.
Arranging Interventions
When a work team is not progressing satisfactorily, the leader is responsible to prescribe an appropriate intervention. This may take the form of counseling/coaching individual employees, scheduling a meeting to resolve the issue, reorganization of the project with staff changes, or cancellation of the project in total.
The primary goal of an intervention is to address the immediate problem, but care should be taken to minimize the occurrence and impact of any negative side-effects.
Any intervention has a negative impact on morale - the team sense that it has failed and is being punished for its inability to make progress under its own steam or resolve the issue on its own authority. No matter how you sugar-coat it, it's always a bitter pill.
Streaming Information
Finally, the team leader is an information source: he must gather and share information within the team and facilitate their communication with one another. He must also represent the team to external groups and bring information from outside to the team.
Clear communication is important: geeks are distrustful of authority and suspicious of misinformation and manipulation. Their preference would be to communicate directly, though they may need some prompting to do so.