ms2126

The Sunday Times ran an article yesterday titled Technical staff get built into leaders that I was interviewed for.

 

When Steve Clayton moved within Microsoft from a technical role helping customers understand software products to leading a team, he found the transition testing.

“My success had been entirely down to me until that point – then it was entirely down to other people,” he said.

While Clayton was in charge of two teams, he was selected for a high-potential programme, which gave him the support he needed.

“It took me a while to realise some of the nuances that leadership involves, such as diplomacy and dealing with difficult situations,” said Clayton. “But being successful through other people was ultimately what I enjoyed most.”

Six months ago, he moved back to a technical role, working on strategic thinking with a group of senior colleagues. However, Clayton expects to be back in a leadership role again in the future.

 

It was about a 20 minute interview with the Steve Farrar and it really got me thinking about the changes and ways I’ve adapted as I’ve moved through recent roles in Microsoft.

I’ve always been a bit of a techie (aka geek) and shied away from the classic route of taking a management job to climb the corporate ladder. Microsoft has always told me I don't need to become a manager to "get on" as we value what we call individual contributors or IC's. Despite that, you get to a point in your career where you realise that some management skills are a core skill if you really want to progress - inside or outside of Microsoft. For me, this coincided with a desire for a new challenge - I'd spent 7 years honing my technical skills on IE, Proxy Server, Site Server, Exchange, Windows Mobile and more. I wanted a new challenge to see if I could lead a team and help them be successful. I ended up leading two teams with different skillsets and a wide range of talents and here are a few things I learnt along the way.

 

  1. Identify what motivates the individual
    What many managers figure out quite quickly is with a wide range of talents come a wide range of motivations. That was one big lesson for me - learning to motivate people is a deeply individual thing. For some it's money, for some it's recognition and for others simply a pat on the back at the right moment. Oh and they change...sometimes within moments! Learning the intricacies of your team and treating them each as an individual was a big lesson and a hugely rewarding one.

  2. Don't get hung up trying to make everyone like you
    The detail here is that it's not important that everyone likes you. I spent too much time at the start of my management career trying to get all of the team to like me. I thought liking would make them likely to follow. It was a mistake. In a team of a reasonable size I think it's very hard to get everyone to like you. There will be different values, opinions, reservations and egos. If most people like you, that's good enough - they're your core, the ones you go to for your energy. That's not to say I chose to ignore those that didn't seem to like me, I just didn't worry about getting them to change their mind and focused on getting the best out of them. Another way of saying that is like and respect can be mutually exclusive in management.

  3. Listen to your friends
    Related to the point above - I was fortunate to have friends, one in particular, who took me aside and told me when I was being an ass. The wording was quite a bit stronger than that :) They taught that change doesn't always start me with - I could drive change but it didn't necessitate me changing.  It's too easy to embody the change yourself and in doing so change your own uniqueness in a quest to force that change too quickly. I'm not sure I explained that very well but I guess I'm saying is be true to yourself and over the long term, people will respect you for it - even the ones who make it tough for you. 

 

There is lots more I learnt from my management stint at Microsoft and I like to think I took more of a leadership than management approach. I am far from a polished leader or manager and made lots of mistakes along the way. I tried to learn from others and from experiences but also looked at a few books. The one I would recommend hands down above others is First, Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham. There are lots of other good books I read but this one stood out for me.

Whether the teams I led agree with I don't know. If they ever read this, for those who feel I failed them, I'm sorry I didn't listen enough. For those who enjoyed the ride whilst I led, thanks for being great. You know who you are. 

I suspect I will go back in to a leadership role at Microsoft at some point and will continue to learn. If you're a geek like me thinking you never want to do management, feel free to drop me a line or call. I'd be happy to share my experiences and tell you why I think it's a great thing.