Becoming a Technical Leader

“I just finished reading this book - Becoming a Technical Leader by Gerald Weinberg, one of my favourite author”, I said to my friend. “Tell me about it, what does the book say about a Technical Leadership”, asked my friend who looked excited and interested. I was taken back. It’s an amazing book but, where to start and where to fend? How much do I remember of what I read? (Tip: If you sincerely try to answer the questions at the end of every chapter, you have a good chance of remembering what you read).

This book was written by the author, after running leadership workshops for over 20 years. Can you learn leadership from a book? Who is a leader anyway? Do you want to become a Leader? And, why do you want to become one? O.K, you decide to become a Leader but, unfortunately what if you don’t have the Charisma, the Magic charm or other traditional traits of a Leader, should you give up on, the hope of becoming a Leader? This book explains all these and much more.

So, I would like to write briefly about what's in the book and my thoughts on it. The book talks about MOI - Motivation, Organisation and Ideas or Innovation Model of Leadership, against a Threat/Reward Model of Leadership. Talks about an Organic style of Leadership against Linear Leadership. Traditional or conventional ways of identifying a leader are based on opinions of the team members or observers. But, understanding leadership in technical environment is a different ball game and the traditional psychologists fail to take note of this important point. Most of the discussion in the book focuses on the organic models characterized by systems thinking and contrasting them to linear or threat Reward Models. There is also a discussion of Leadership in the Seed sense or Seed Model which is the process of creating an environment, in which people become empowered.

Starting with MOI model, Gerald gives a very simple but profound real-life example of Pinball where he talks about, what makes people excel in the game. For example, I quote from the book “Ormond had no motivation, no push, to learn to play better. I loved this one “Ideas: - My eyes are dim, my legs get tired, and my hands are a lot slower than they used to be. Without ideas, I wouldn’t stand a chance of winning”. And, the actual problem- “Organisation: They didn’t lack push, for they did want to play better. Their lives just weren’t sufficiently organized to learn anything that required a nontrivial effort”. Understanding the problem, managing the flow of ideas, maintaining quality and Faith in a better way. Unlike the threat/reward model, where the number of ideas in the world is limited, there is always a better way.

How Leaders develop? “Leaders are leaders of change–change in other people, change in working groups, and change in organizations. Above all, leaders are leaders of change in themselves. To become a leader, you have to understand how change happens; yet it’s difficult to see change in yourself”. Another interesting concept is the Plateaus and ravines pattern. How does one Improve? Someone said, I can’t do it because, I am not a manager. The story of the village idiot whose antique watch stopped running. He pried it open and found a dead cockroach inside. “No wonder it doesn’t work,” he said, “the manager is dead.”

The book talks about various aspects of Leadership like, myth of the appointed leader, making small changes, the three obstacles, self-blindness (an interesting anecdote of Shirley’s supper (where she thinks, she had only a coffee but, ended up eating more than anyone else).

I also loved these, no problem syndrome. One person describes a terribly vexing problem, but the other merely responds with a callous, “No problem.” And, then the Single solution belief (belief in the central dogma of academic psychology, blinding you to alternative solutions).

Tool for self-awareness: - Importance of a Personal Journal. Developing the idea power: -Creative error, stolen ideas, copulation. The Vision: Career line. It’s not the event that matters, but your reaction to the event. Some real-life examples, like Iris, where success led to pride, which then led to defensiveness. And, Walston’s success that let him be seduced into staying too long with an obsolete system.

People who become innovators do indeed possess a secret key. What is it? every successful technical leader has such a personal vision. Perhaps only children can believe that what they do makes a difference in the world. Satir's Interaction Model: to see what’s going on inside of me, Helping and self-esteem. “Trying to be helpful: It begins with a sincere desire to help, progresses through some muddled communications, degenerates into emotional name calling, and finishes by making things worse”. “If everyone is trying intensely to do good, why do people fail miserably? You may have to succeed one hundred percent of the time to be perfect, but you don’t have to succeed one hundred percent of the time to be powerful”.

Then, there is more about Leadership, where power comes from? Influencing people and the missing ingredient. Power from relationship, technology, Expertise and Keeping power. Problem Solving teams and some team dynamics, decision making, how leaders are appointed etc. Obstacles to effective organizing. Playing the Big Game, treating people as machines, the job of a Leader – is it merely solving problems? Organic Organizing, learning to be an Organizer, looking for crossed wires and the point of maximum suffering was humorous but on a serious note, it gave an important lesson and made sense.

Then, some more stuff like Grading as a Leader, passing your own Leadership tests, learning how to keep everyone cool, Change and a Personal Plan. Small achievements and Importance of Finding the support for the change – a support system which is personal, growth, criticism, recovery. The paradox of problem-solving leadership is that you have to change in order to remain the same.

Finally, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. It is quite insightful, practical, relevant. The real-life examples Gerald gives are not only humorous but, makes the point clear. And the questions/exercises at the end of the chapter are quite valuable to deepen and solidify our learning's.