Leadership Training
From SaintsRobotics
Mr. Kimura gave a presentation of basic Leadership, which we are all thankful for:
What is “good” leadership?
- People respond well to good leadership
- They expect to be told what needs to be done
- Strong team spirit can develop, often leading to a willingness to work extra hard
- People respond poorly to weak leadership
- Difficult to build effective, cohesive team
- Can prevent reaching your goal or objective
- Good leadership is when a cohesive team exists that effectively works towards their goal
- Cohesive: Where people feel part of a team with every person understanding their role and responsibilities
- Effective: Where all work is well focused and resources (funds, time, effort) are used efficiently
- Good leadership does not mean you will always successfully reach your goal; other reasons can prevent you from reaching your goal
Traits of a Good Leader
- Number One Rule:
- Always show respect to your team members
- Some ways to maintain respectful attitude
- Follow Golden Rule: Treat others as you would want to be treated
- Never yell at, speak condescending of, or belittle someone
- Be especially careful when you are under stress because it is too easy to say or do something disrespectful
- Team leaders should help each other maintain respectful attitude – give feedback and watch out for potential problems
- Having respectful attitude affects how you lead, not your leadership decisions
- You can still tell people what to do; it is how you tell them that is important
- It also affects how you react to problems – should always focus on the problem and not the person
- Other traits of a good leader are:
- Effective decision-maker
- Sets the standard for others, has high expectations
- Understands each team members’ strengths and weaknesses
- Not afraid to delegate responsibilities – does not micromanage
- Communicates well – ensures two-way communication exists
- Has good organizational skills
- Has a clear vision of the goal(s) and the pathway to reach them
- Steadfast in determination, but flexible and receptive to other ideas
- All these traits require time and practice to develop in oneself
- High school is a great opportunity to learn leadership skills
- Do not have time to discuss all these traits in detail
- First four traits probably have greatest impact on club
Effective Decision-Making
- Making decisions is often not easy because of lack of knowledge/experience, incomplete information, and uncertainties about the future
- Knowing how to make decisions under these circumstance is the number one challenge of leadership
- Fortunately, there is a decision-making process you can follow!
- Step #1: Define clearly what is the needed decision, why it is important and its potential impact, and when it must be made
- Perform triage to determine importance of decision relative to overall effort
- Helps define how much time you have to gather information and/or educate yourself before decision must be made
- Step #2: Decide on needed information/knowledge, means to obtain it, and people responsible for getting it
- Make sure means are well focused so people minimize wasting time getting extraneous information
- Set a time schedule for meeting again to discuss collected information
- Step #3: Evaluate usefulness of collected information
- Does it provide enough information to make a decision with a reasonably high probability of being a correct decision?
- If not, then decide on further information needed and repeat Step #2
- Step #4: If the answer to Step #3 is yes, then make your decision!
- Worse mistake of leadership is not making wrong decisions, it is not making any decisions – don’t be wishy-washy!
- Nevertheless, always adjust your decision depending on the level of confidence you have (see Step #5)
- Step #5: Be flexible and have a back-up option(s) whenever possible
- Expect your decision may need to be adjusted or even abandoned as you gain more information or your decision does not appear to be working
- Have back-up options ready – develop in parallel or in series depending on uncertainty of primary decision and available resources/manpower
Setting the Standard
- People instinctively look to their leaders as role models
- Provides a powerful way to influence the “personality” of the team
- The leadership sets the level of standards and expectations
- Do not be afraid to set high standards and high expectations
- People want to be proud of their work and the team’s accomplishments
- Setting high standards and expectations does not mean being a perfectionist
- Go for “functional quality” – it works, and it works well and reliably, but it is not perfect and it does not need to be perfect
- High expectations also includes expectations on team member behavior and follow through on responsibilities
- Demand appropriate behavior at all times, e.g., paying attention at meetings, finishing a job when promised (more later about dealing with problem members)
- Of course, the leaders must always set the good example!
Understanding Strengths and Weaknesses
- Strength and weaknesses include
- Technical knowledge and experience (e.g., electronics, programming)
- Personality/behavior (e.g., procrastinator, introvert)
- Special skills (e.g., works well with tools, fast learner)
- “Know thyself first, others second”
- Assess your own strengths and weaknesses, and those of other leaders
- Be honest, but not overly harsh – this is not a contest!
- Find ways to use each other’s strengths to compensate for weaknesses
- Determining strengths and weaknesses of other team members is generally more difficult
- May not know other team members as well
- Learn to constantly watch out for strengths and weaknesses as you work with team members – make a mental note, share with other leaders
- Use members’ strengths to help project, at same time avoid giving tasks that would rely on members’ weaknesses
The Art of Delegation
- Delegation of responsibilities can be a dichotomy
- Sharing work load gets more work done and is usually faster
- But, people can screw up causing more work and problems
- The steps for delegation:
- Determine number of people needed to perform task
- Before delegating task determine strengths and weaknesses of each individual – if you do not know, ask them!
- As a group decide on how task will be done and time line – leader is responsible for informing group on time constraints
- Decide on next meeting time with leader – avoid leaving tasks open-ended
- The art of delegation
- Leader should frequently monitor person’s or group’s progress – can be through informal or formal meetings
- Make sure everyone is staying focused on task, help them set priorities
- Avoid micromanaging by not insisting on how they do something – make suggestions, give feedback, help provide resources
Robotics Club Special Needs
- Because of deadline for contest, staying on schedule is imperative
- Not enough time to do everything you wish, therefore, must prioritize
- Work on basic requirements first, embellishments second – leaders must decide what are basic needs and what are embellishments
- Team members cover wide range of capabilities, experience, and maturity levels
- Leaders need to be sensitive and adapt accordingly, i.e., you cannot treat everyone on the team the same
- However, those same team members are your greatest asset, so treat them well and use their abilities wisely
- The club leadership also has a wide range of experience leading others
- Process already in place for senior leaders mentoring junior leaders
- Do not be afraid of making mistakes!
- Just remember, it is easy to correct a mistake with a thing, it is hard to correct a mistake with someone’s feelings
Strategies for Staying on Schedule
- Build up schedule in steps working from gross level down to fine level
- First define major tasks, e.g., decide on basic design approach, design components, fabricate components/systems, assemble robot, test/debug
- Allocate blocks of times (e.g., number of weeks) for each major task
- Be sure to add, if possible, buffer time to accommodate delays
- Within each block of time, allocate smaller blocks of time for subtasks
- Review schedules with affected team members
- Leaders’ job is to maintain schedule and keep other leaders informed on progress
- Monitor progress regularly, more frequently if problems arise
- Encourage team members to notify others of problems ASAP because it gives you more time and options to correct the problem
- Expect to rebaseline the master schedule more than once
- Rebaseline as major tasks are completed and/or serious problems occur
- Leaders must decide when to forgo something in order to stay on schedule
Building a Winning Team
- Your club consists of ~15 highly active members (Type A), ~10 semi-active members (Type B), and ~15 with marginal commitment (Type C)
- Use Type A to manage working groups with Type B providing support
- Encourage Type C to participate with hope that they will change to Type B
- Best way to get participation is to ask someone to do something; do not wait for the person to volunteer
- Subgroups consisting of 3 – 5 people is a good size for working groups
- 1 – 2 people is okay for very small tasks, but on larger tasks there is risk of work overload and/or task failure that holds up everyone else
- Greater than 5 people can be harder to manage and more difficult getting everyone to meet together when necessary
- Subgroups should have mixture of Type A, B, and C
- Perforce many will be members of more than one subgroup
- Use this to help communication between subgroups
- Nevertheless, all subgroup leaders should meet together regularly
Working With All Kinds of People
- Working with “difficult” people requires application of some psychology and a GREAT deal of patience!
- Everyone likes to feel appreciated – use to encourage change in behavior
- Everyone likes to feel in control – use to insist on follow through with promises/commitments
- Be patient, but firm with less mature members
- Insist they act more mature – predicate full involvement with club activities on consistent mature behavior
- Genuinely interested members will change their behavior to stay in club; those not genuinely interested will drop out
- Changing meeting format may help, e.g., remove distractions, rearrange seating, working more in small groups
- The fun activities of the club is the “carrot stick” that motivates team members
- Leaders must make sure avoidable problems, such as chaotic meetings or miscommunication, do not spoil fun for everyone
- Leaders should help each other in working with difficult people
Develop an Effective Leadership Plan of Action
- Leaders should meet to discuss ways to improve leadership of club
- How can we make the management of the club better?
- What are things you like; what are things you do not like?
- How can you reinforce the things you like and correct the things you do not like?
- Be open to new ideas including reassigning members to different responsibilities and changing procedures
- Lack of procedures can ruin the best leadership plans
- Procedures ensure everyone is “dancing to the same tune”
- Procedures help ensure important steps are not forgotten
- Examples of relevant procedures are:
- Approval of purchases
- Communication protocol
- Design review and approval
Self-Evaluation and Fine-Tuning
- Leadership training is an on-going, dynamic, life-long process
- Expect to develop your own style that fits your personality
- Learn by looking at others – other club leaders, your teachers, etc.
- Ask what do you like about their leadership style, what would you do differently?
- Adjust and fine-tune your own leadership style accordingly
- Club leaders should periodically meet to discuss progress on plan of action to improve club leadership
- Is the plan being implemented effectively?
- Make adjustments to the plan as necessary
Closing Remarks
- Leading and managing people can be the most rewarding thing you do and the most frustrating thing you do
- Being a good leader does not require super-intelligence or a thick skin
- It does require being sensitive to people and learning how to accurately “read” people
- And, as with any skill, it requires practice and more practice
