The Engineers are leaders. When my nine years old son asked, “what do you do at your office?”, my simple answer to him was “I am solving problems”. At a nutshell, Engineers are problem solvers. It may be either small, big, simple, or complex. During Engineering management routine works as a leader in problem solving, we have nothing to do with quantum physics theories or complex integration. It is all about crystal understanding a problem and application of common sense to solve it.
A leader may not be a person who makes everybody happy. Leader is a person who chooses the best alternative solution among number of available options.
“If you want to make everyone happy, don’t be a leader. Sell ice cream.” – Steve Jobs
Leadership is a topic which was explored enough during last decades by researchers and professionals. I am not going to repeat those theoretical aspects in this article. I am going to pinpoint you “Must-Follow” three essential rules according to my experience as a leader. Leadership is all about making decision with a common sense. It is practical and hands-on experiential construct. I called this “Three Rule in leading people”
Rule No 01: Report-Back-Report
As leaders, we are interested to know the challengers and barriers which team member faces and when/where team member needs our assistance to resolve those. It doesn’t matter whether status is positive or negative. Real status is much important as a leader to know that we are in a process of achieving agreed objectives. Biggest myth is that if it is negative, team member doesn’t want leader to know it because team member thinks that it is his/her problem. We need to train team members to rise a flag at correct time. Once issues or problems are informed to TEAM, problem may become “Ours”. It is no longer belonging to one person. It becomes global and universal problem where all team members shall attend and try to bring their imaginations to resolve it. The problem becomes “OURS”. As leaders, it is our responsibility to facilitate team member to resolve problem. In such circumstances, it is paramount important to know the real information for leader to assist him/her.
If news is negative, Please Report it. It is not your problem anymore. It is problem of OURS.
Similarly, if status is positive, it has similar importance to leader. It is called “Back-Report”. If team member performs his/her duties and result is achieved, team member needs to inform leader and say that “Mission Accomplished”. Most of team members never back reported to leader when it is positive. Because, team member thinks that if it is achieved, there is no necessity to inform leader due to fact that result is positive. As leaders, we shall emphasize team members that positive news has similar importance as negative news.
It is super important to back-report positive results to the leader.
Regardless of news becomes negative or positive, Team members shall understand importance of Report-and-Back-Report process as a shared responsibility among team members.
Rule No 02: Follow up – Follow up – Follow up
As leaders, we need to get specific task done by each team members. As an example, if you need to get Y-Report from one of team member on coming Monday, you need to keep contacting him since minimum 1 week.
It is all about making sure he/she is in a correct track to get it done. The best way to validate the progress of task is to continuous follow up. It is not just one time follow up. It is called three times follow up. This follow up process ensure the interest of leader for the task and emphasize its importance in terms of achieving project objectives.
Without following up with team members, we cannot expect Y-Report within one-week time. It is a matter of reminding and making sure that task is in a process of achieving objectives. It is simple as that. There is No rocket science behind this.
Human factor called “Healthy relationship” plays a key role when following up with people. Again, making good relationship is not a Science, it is an Art.
Being Follow up and keep him Reminded until get it DONE.
Rule No 03: Don’t Say it. Write it
All communications shall be in-writing. You may surprise why I do note this as a rule. It is true. As a construction professional, we believe documentation rather words. On the other hand, it is common fact that brain has limited capacity. Therefore, everyone forgets things. Fittingly, “Write Down” may clarify things further and enable to re-confirm what was communicated verbally. The “What Said” put into paper by “In-Writing” makes both parties responsible for what we verbally agreed.
Moreover, Work-day is full of fact and information. So, it is hard to keep memorize things and prioritize actions with out write down the content.
In-writing facts are avoided miscommunication. No Final Moment Surprises.
Conclusion
If you just follow these three simple rules in a context of leading people, you may feel BIG difference than ever before. These three rules are lessons learnt from my work life. It is what I feel. It works for me. All in all, I feel that Leadership is all about Common Sense.
Lead Teams and Have a Fun. Lastly, don’t forget to Taste Ice Cream.