Becoming a Leader... (Part 2)

This week’s newsletter brings Part 2 of the Cyb3rSyn Labs Podcast with Ebenezer Ikonne, the author of the book, Becoming a Leader in Product Development.

In this episode, Ebenezer (Eb) dives into common misconceptions about leadership and how this can lead to frustration and inefficiencies within teams. Highlighting the importance of emotional self-regulation, humility, and curiosity, we explore the ethical dimensions of leadership and the significance of fostering a collaborative culture.

The conversation also touches on the challenges of implementing agile (most of which end up being, "agile in name only"). Additionally, we discuss the necessity of self-care for leaders.

Members of the Cyb3rSyn Community can watch/discuss the podcast episode on the www.cyb3rsynlabs.com portal or the mobile app (iOS and Android).

Part 2 focuses primarily on leadership, organizational culture, and personal development in a professional context. Key themes include the pitfalls of mistaking personal preferences for organizational principles and the transition from commanding machines to effectively leading human beings without simply issuing directives.

Eb also addresses the importance of humility and curiosity for continuous learning, the need for leaders to practice self-reflection and emotional self-regulation to avoid contributing to organizational problems, and the ethical imperative to view people as an end in themselves, not merely as resources.

Finally, the discussion touches upon the challenges of adopting Agile practices superficially and the importance of self-care for effective leadership. For those of us navigating the tension between command-and-control structures and the promise of autonomy & self-organization, this episode is a MUST WATCH!

One of the most challenging transitions for a technologist moving into a leadership role is shifting from commanding a machine to supporting human beings. Eb shared a powerful personal story about his early management experience: having been promoted, he fell into the trap of thinking his job was to give other people commands. He expected his team to be a "carbon copy" of himself, resulting in massive rework and frustration because he was imposing his personal preferences and mistaking them for governing principles.

This tendency - to assume "I'm doing all the right things; it's all the people over there who don't get it" is described as the "height of hubris". To break this pattern, leaders must stop assuming they are exempt from the problem and start looking inward.

For those focused intensely on delivery, it’s easy to focus solely on the "what" and overlook the "how". However, Eb stressed that the "how" really matters, perhaps even more so. This is fundamentally an ethical perspective: seeing people not just as a means to an end, but "as an end in themselves".

This distinction is so important that the term "human resources" is problematic because "a resource is a means to an end," while we are an end in ourselves.

This reminded me of the quote from the systems thinker, C. West Churchman’s quote reminds us that "improvement whether in terms of efficiency or effectiveness always raises questions of an ethical nature".

Many companies adopt Agile, but often fail and "fizzle out" due to the inherent conflict between the idea of self-organization and the lingering reality of top-down command and control. This superficial adoption is what we call "Agile in name only". Teams adopt practices superficially without embracing the underlying values and tacit assumptions.

For a frustrated senior leader, the first practical step to escaping this trap is self-examination. Leaders must first clarify what they mean by "Agile". Then, the critical question must be asked: "How am I contributing to the behavior that I don’t want to see in the organization?".

Leaders must constantly reflect on how they are managing the balance between commands/directives and autonomy/self-organization.

Eb says that when examining an organization, we must recognize that an organization is a culture, rather than merely having a culture. This also means there are often multiple subcultures (e.g., engineering vs. product) that can lead to cultural clashes and inconsistencies.

Eb referenced Edgar Schein's wisdom: People develop norms and patterns of working that enable them to succeed and respond effectively to their environment. When clashes occur, the focus must shift back to the overarching goal.

The goal is not compromise, but integration. Mary Parker Follett’s concept of integration involves blending the best of what each conflicting party brings to the table to produce something superior.

This, however, requires high levels of humility and a willingness to say, "I might not have all the answers". The more we understand what matters to other groups in the organization, the more empathy we develop, which fosters cultural agility.

I had a blast doing this podcast with Eb and invite you to contemplate on the challenge Eb left us with: While we work on foundational change, we must also try our best to co-create and experience joy at work in the here and now.

Here is the link to John Cutler’s Self-care post for Systems Thinkers that we discussed in the conversation along with an amazing visual version by Viktor Cessan.

That’s it for this week. Stay tuned for more multidisciplinary insights next week.