As Leaders we need to Support our Teams...

So, here it is very early on a Sunday morning – I mean really early, 2:00AM to be exact.  And, I’m in the office.  I don’t really need to be here.  If you want to get down to the nuts and bolts, I’m not actually here to do anything!  The team is implementing some changes to one of our key applications tonight.  The best time to do this is in the middle of the night when transaction volume drops significantly.  So if I’m not here to do anything, why am I here?

In the building tonight is everyone from the project manager, developers, architects, database architects, to infrastructure team members.  They have the implementation plan documented forwards and backwards – in fact, most of the implementation plan has been executed in the last week as we’ve moved chunks of code in to the production environment.  Not only have they documented the implementation, but they’ve practiced the implementation and rollback steps in our parallel environment.  Making sure that each step has been identified and that we know how long each step should theoretically take.

These are good people – that take their roles in the organization seriously and who are passionate about making sure that we provide the best service possible across our network.  Not just good people, great people!

So, again, why am I here?  The people running the implementation tonight are competent and can handle any situation that comes up.  They don’t need me looking over their shoulder asking questions – in fact if I did, all that would do would be to slow things down.

There are really two reasons that I’m on site:

• My being here shows the team that I care and that I’m not putting myself above them.  If I’m asking them to come in during the middle of the night – then I should be willing to walk in that door with them.
• I’m here to act as a communication point if something does go wrong.  The last thing that I want the team to worry about if the stuff hits the fan is to call me to tell me there is a problem.  It’s actually my job to be here and if there is a problem clear any roadblocks, take responsibility to inform my boss, our CIO, and potentially the rest of the Senior Management Team.

Yes, I live just minutes from the office and can easily be on-site within 15 minutes.  It would be easy for me to stay at home and head to bed instead of staying up all night.  But does that show the team that I’m willing to be a part of the team?  No!

My small effort to support the team has been noticed and is appreciated.  I’ve had development team members, as well as people that don’t report up through the parts of the organization that I manage stop me as I roam the building and thank me for coming in.  They feel better knowing that I’m there, that I’m willing to help and that I’m willing to try and take some of the burden off their shoulders if push comes to shove and something goes wrong.

The good thing is that I rarely have to engage during these implementations.  Because I trust the team to do their jobs and because I know that they care.  I’m here in a support role and that’s ok!

How do you show your team members that you are part of the team and that your willing to step in and support them?

Tags: #sdlc, #softwaredevelopment, #lifecycle, #process, #applicationdevelopment, #leaders, #leadership

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