Admit Weakness and Become Agile

Good teams help compensate
 for the weakness of its individual members.

Continuous improvement and changing organizations are difficult and time-consuming work.  I talk about it all the time because it is the vocation, I find myself.  I worked for years for bad bosses and exploitative people.  I swore to myself if I earned a position of authority, I was going to be different.  Your values and your principles are exposed when you are a servant leader.  You are vulnerable, and learning to forgive others, and yourself becomes critical. I want to talk about something which illustrated that point.

Being a software developer is hard.  It is a lucrative and satisfying career, but it is not easy.  You have to relearn your job every eighteen months.  Developers are surrounded by smart, capable people and expected to be intelligent and capable.  The time spent writing software is filled with false starts and dead ends.  It also contains unrealistic deadlines and pressure to excel.  I was an intermediate level software developer.  It explains why I am so protective of the developers under my leadership; I was one of them.

Since being a developer requires a tremendous amount of problem-solving skills, focus, and intelligence, it creates a culture where to admit misunderstanding or lack of knowledge is to admit weakness.  It is why stand-up meetings degenerate into a perfunctory status report or silent staring matches between the scrum master and the team.  No one wants to look weak, and in many technology companies, this weakness leads to unemployment.

A software demo went poorly this week.  The client was unhappy, and the CEO was frustrated.  What happened next changed the culture of the company and the career of the developer.  Instead of asking why the demo went poorly, the scrum master asked how the demo went badly.  It became apparent the developer was using an untested technology and was struggling for two weeks to meet a deadline.  Instead of speaking up, they suffered in silence.  No one knew there was a problem or that someone needed help.  It was apparent when the software demonstration failed, but by then, it was too late.

Instead of shaming the developer for not knowing the untested technology, the scrum master asked him what he would do differently.  In a heartbeat, the developer said next time they would ask for help.  By showing vulnerability and learning painful lessons, the developer grew as a professional.  The development team learned that they were only as successful as their weakest member.  The team discovered they would have to support each other.  Finally, they accepted failure was necessary if the team is going to succeed.  The scrum master used non-violent language and powerful questions to fix a problem and grow the organization.  I do not doubt that the team will have a successful demonstration in two weeks.  Together, they learned what it takes to be successful.

Admitting vulnerability and asking for help is essential for individuals to come together as a team.  Admitting weakness is a powerful professional strength.  Finally, understand those weaknesses and helping others overcome them is the key to good leadership.  I am glad I got a chance to witness it among my team.

Until next time.