I Only Recently Found the Feeling of Being a Lead Again

I only recently found some of the feeling of being a leader again.

Author: Koutian Wu; GitHub: ktwu01

To lead means to think, and to think out loud. Saying “OK, OK, I’ll handle it” is a different job.

Often the question is more than “how do we do this?” It is also “should we do this at all?” Who does it? What do we give up for it? If it works, who benefits? If it fails, who pays? You cannot get past these questions with an eager yes.

Thinking out loud means putting the process of reaching a judgment on the table. Others can then see which assumptions still hold and which risks might be missed, and they get a chance to point out problems before the decision lands.

A lead is not necessarily the person who pushes things forward.

A good lead may well be the person who says “no” every day.

A team’s time is always limited. Every yes can crowd out something more important. Saying “no” protects the priorities you already chose, and admits that a team cannot do everything.

A lead goes through hard negotiations.

Everyone has different goals, information, and leverage. Many decisions cannot satisfy everyone. The best you can do is find an outcome people are willing to own.

Authority, responsibility, reward: skin in the game.

Who has the authority to decide, who bears the responsibility, and who gets the reward should line up as closely as possible. Once the three drift apart, the person deciding gets careless and the cost lands on someone else.

A lead may well lose sleep.

Some decisions have no right answer, but someone still has to make the call. Making the decision does not make the risk disappear. What a lead can do is see the cost clearly, state the reasons clearly, and then own the result personally.