Technology Leadership @TUI 🏝 | Analytics & AI | Global Communication Services | Strategy & People 🤗
I read a book recently and highly recommend for reading if you are interested in building great teams; Sooner Safer Happier: Antipatterns and Patterns for Business Agility by Jonathan Smart. One of the sections covers leadership: “Gardeners don’t try to command plants to grow with a detailed Work Breakdown Structure in a Gantt chart and milestones. With care, they tend to the garden, planting seeds, watering them, and when done, producing a varied and flourishing garden. In a leader-nurturing culture, people can build psychological safety, the single most important ingredient of a high-performing team. When a “gardener” leader is willing to risk a daisy growing where he thought a rose should grow, team members will feel safe enough to share their vulnerabilities.” So… how do you go about becoming a seasoned gardener? Excuse my puns, attempt to bring some horticultural idioms to the mix… Gardening has its seasonal routines and there are things you need to do to cultivate a thriving environment. By establishing good habits, you too can improve your leadership skills and help your team perform safely; Seasonal — take notice of the business landscape, ask yourself what has changed, what is standing out, which fruits are low hanging for easy picking. Most importantly — Have a vision to tackle the changes. Monthly — check in with core team, nurture ideas, take stock of current major work in progress. Weekly — take stock of progress, water the seeds that the team have planted; pick the best ideas for growing into bigger things. Daily — observe current work, reduce bugs and nurture new growth; cut out blockers and weeds. The key to being a gardener? I think it is to roll with the seasonal changes, develop a cultivation mindset for your team and above all — enjoy the fruits of your labour.
