Tech Company Leadership, Followers & Managing Up

A lot of people think the secret to good tech company leadership is being smart and decisive. Or maybe they believe the most important aspect is being able to inspire the troops. Or to provide adequate resources for company success. All of that is important, of course. But I think that there are other important aspects of great leadership in a software or hardware company. Stuff that is more nuanced and often overlooked. Let’s take a look at some of those frequently overlooked but important points of successful leadership:

Every tech company leader also needs “follower” skills

This statement about “following skills” should be obvious. However, I don’t believe this is obvious to many in leadership positions. Especially to those who may be new to an increased level of responsibility. There is the old saying that “everyone has a boss,” which is true in 99% of the time. Even a CEO has a board of directors. Usually, they have outside investors to answer to. There may be a rare tycoon who doesn’t have to answer to many people directly. But these lucky folks still likely have bankers, suppliers, and customers. All who hold a great deal of influence over their ultimate success or failure. I believe that leaders who cannot truly follow when needed are set up for a fall.

The word “leader” itself implies initiating actions that impact those below them. Many in leadership roles interpret this as “telling those below you what to do”. Of course, that is a pretty dated view of the art of leadership. However, I find it is still probably the most common way leadership is practiced. This is true even in what should be the “enlightened” environment of the modern technology company.

Leading by example

Successful tech company leadership teams usually focus on “leading by example”. Employees tend to be much more strongly influenced – especially in the long run – by positive, concrete examples of desired behaviors. As opposed to being instructed to engage in those same behaviors. In other words, if you don’t follow your own advice and set a good example, your directives are likely to fall on deaf ears.

I really believe that one of the most critical of these “leadership by example behaviors” is the ability to be a good follower yourself. After all, good followership is critical to most managers’ success. That is,  having a staff they can trust will implement decisions after they become final. But I find that many in tech company leadership positions either don’t adequately understand what it takes to be a good follower. Or, they become so punch-drunk with power that they can’t bring themselves to practice the art of “good following”.

Help those who work for you be successful, and good things will happen

The second point I’d like to address in this discussion of under-appreciated leadership attributes is how effective a manager is at making their team successful. There are several key aspects to this:

• Listening closely to team members on their stated needs for the successful completion of their duties
• Allowing decisions to be made by team members closest to the decision whenever possible
• Doing everything within their power to bring the required resources and environment to bear to increase the subordinate’s chance of success
• Giving public credit to their team (individually and collectively) when the job is well done, especially up the chain of command

I find that these steps in themselves (regardless of any other executive attributes you may or may not possess) -when well executed – can position a manager as a strong leader within an organization. And set them up for great long-run success. Because if the team is successful and they believe their manager stands behind them, it’s almost impossible for their rising tide not to lift the manager’s boat. Sadly, I run across far too few managers who understand this concept.

Be a great follower for your boss, like you want to have on your own staff

 I’ve written about the early years of my career at HP often in my articles. HP culture at the time really allowed many people to accept leadership roles and “make their own mistakes”. Rather than respond to top-down management. But early in my career at HP, I was a bit of a “pain in the rear” to my supervisors. It was my first job in a technology company.  I was still pretty young, and looking back, I thought I knew everything.

It wasn’t until I had my first real management job, a couple of companies, and a few years later that I realized HOW MUCH of a pain in the rear I really had been. I had to learn the hard way the value of a manager being a good follower. It was a painful lesson and probably karmic payback. Some members of my team couldn’t bring themselves to effectively implement a decision that differed from their preferred approach. Even when they had been given every opportunity to participate and influence the decision-making.

Don’t just point out problems, offer SOLUTIONS

In addition to learning to be a good follower, offering SOLUTIONS and not just pointing out PROBLEMS to your boss is also critical to successfully managing upward. Good managers don’t just want a bunch of lemmings who follow their lead. They want folks who can assist them in solving those problems by proposing good solutions. Effectively managing upward ties together these two concepts of 1) knowing when to follow, but also 2) adding value by offering solutions. The key point to remember is that when the decision is finally made, it’s extremely valuable to your manager to implement that decision as if you were the one who came up with it. Even if you disagreed with the approach.

Managing up is critical

Looking back on my HP days, to this day I still feel like a majority of my ideas and opinions at the time were “spot on”. (Maybe ego really just dies hard!). But that really didn’t matter anyway, in hindsight. In practice, it’s much more important to help your manager get the outcome that has the best chance of success. Not being personally right! Sometimes that includes having the best idea, but more often than not, it’s helping implement some other idea to the best of your ability. This is hard for many people to accept and requires a great deal of maturity. In addition to the critical activities of proper following and offering solutions, there are a few subtleties that will help grease the skids for an effective relationship with your own boss:

•  Recognize your boss’s preferred communications style: Are they introverted or extroverted? Do they prefer formal presentations, lunch meetings, or off-the-cuff briefings in the hallway? Do they prefer to read or talk? Learn their preferences and proceed accordingly.
• Understand his or her key priorities and motivations. If you understand what is driving your boss’s behavior, it’s easier to anticipate and offer up the best solutions to their issues.
• Never surprise your boss, especially publicly or (god forbid!) in front of their boss.
• Above all, strive to help your boss look great to THEIR boss.

The ability to manage up effectively is very important to tech company leadership. Ironically, this ability to manage up successfully is critical to being a great boss for your own employees. If you are effective in helping those above you achieve their goals, resources, rewards, and promotions are likely on their way to both you and your team.

Success requires a good mix of tech company leadership & following

To summarize, no organization can succeed by just striving to hire and grow leaders, or followers, either. A mix of both skills is required to conduct business. Ideally, both skill sets are found in most of your employees, especially the key company management. You can’t just hire all “alpha dog” style leaders, or you have anarchy. If you hire all passive followers, decisions tend to be made far too high in the organization, and progress often grinds to a halt. Successfully leading and following in a tech company are both subtler and more nuanced than the average manager realizes.

Those are my rather esoteric thoughts on leadership at software or hardware tech companies. How well do they match up with your views? Post a comment below to share your own attitudes and experiences on this topic.