Can Leaders Go Too Fast?
Is there such a thing as moving too fast?
Ready to feel uncomfortable?
I have some ideas I would like to explore about speed of delivery and share the shepherding perspective.
Here are some signs that we may have crossed over to into the unhealthy. I hope these warnings will be helpful to you and your teams.
4 indicators we are going too fast.
Sign 1: We notice others aren't keeping up
Sign 2: We feel resentful towards our people
Sign 3: We blame "others" when things don't go as we planned
Sign 4: We get angry at others that don't contribute the way we think they should
Delivering value quickly is important.
Delivering value consistently is most important.
If you are a shepherding practitioner, you understand that we put people first in the delivery equation.
While our pace may vary based on organizational need, we purposefully incorporate ebbs and flows. If we don't, we may lose people along the way. Illness, attrition, or toxicity can take its toll.
Sprinting
Teams that are only sprinting eventually fall apart.
How do I know? Show me a sprinter that sprints continually; never seen that. Maybe the Flash, but that another blog.
Seriously, think about it. No creature is meant to sprint continually. Even the leopard and cheetah rest most of the day. How would that work on our teams?
Prioritization, automation, and focused effort are both healthy and smart. Sprinting can be part of delivery, but if that is how we deliver, I wonder how we can expect people to keep the same level of intensity day after day. Don't you?
Would we ask our children to sprint everywhere they go? Don't we miss things when we are sprinting? I'm not sure it is a fair.
I'm open to being wrong so I'm still searching for a team that can do it consistently. I bet they exist. But I wonder for how long.
The fact that I have to search so hard tells me something too. The continually sprinting team must be rare. Could it be that sprinting can be part of a strategy, but can't be the strategy?
What does Shepherding teach us?
Shepherding places our people first. Period. People doing the work know best how to efficiently deliver. We should let them. Therefore, I think when we care about people that do the work, we purposefully focus on healthy human interactions.
The responsibility of leading demands building strategies that maximize human potential. The best leaders enable performance through setting clear objectives. They align the right people to the right work, and providing an environment where teams feel safe to do their best work. The exemplary leader also accepts that some of what they attempt might not work. They support the team regardless.
Velocity
So let's talk about velocity.
One area requiring our attention is the velocity of team delivery. We are tempted to go as fast as we can go. Once we achieve maximum velocity we find ourselves bench-marking to that.
Over time, when teams fail to hit the benchmark we wonder what is wrong don't we?
Teams are smart. They adjust and do their best to ensure the velocity always stays within the tolerance.
Oh that must be a great team, they are predictable. Leaders know the team also gets to size the work they completely control and thereby control there velocity for any time period. Leaders are not fooled for long.
So, how do we objectively evaluate the value delivered? Can we? Or, are we just 'ok' with it?
Is there a better way?
If velocity can be whatever the team decides it should be could we work towards consistent delivery with superior results?
Could we focus on team health and quality instead?
If we do that wouldn't we build the best products and keep teams together longer doing work they care about?
Delivering consistently at a high quality while having fun and living healthy lives. Doing work with people you care about that improves the lives of others. Wouldn't you want to come to work everyday if that was your situation?
Think about what happens if we don't give the team some autonomy?
Most of us have experienced people leaving because the work pace was too fast for two long. They burn out don't they?
Or what about the things we don't see that people do to cope with work problems. There are real social costs in the areas of alcohol, drugs, and relationship problems that people have as a direct result to their work lives. We know that. The idea of work life balance is also a myth but for a few people.
Leaders awaken
As leader, there are times when we are the pace-setter. We get things going, put some structure in place and then let our team(s) go accomplish what we hire them to do.
There are some leaders that forget that some people can't keep up the pace for too long. Perhaps they are built to be more deliberate in their work and going too fast for too long causes problems. There is nothing wrong with the team. This is a leader problem.
The team understands the mission and they have a plan. They will achieve what they set out to do. They may even be able to increase their speed over time as they discover efficiencies and employ them. Today, however, their moderate speed may seem slow to us, but it might be right speed for their development. Patience is in order. Giving space for development is important too.
We are connected 24x7 to our work can lead us to push ourselves and our teams too hard. When we do it wrong, the work we love and meant to bring value to others can begin to suck the life out of us and those we lead.
Actions to consider:
Review the quality of what you and the team are producing. Is it meeting expectations?
Examine the state of team relationships. Are people able to be vulnerable with each other?
Ask questions of the team seeking understanding of how they are feeling.
