Elastic Leadership and Adapting to Different Team Modes

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Elastic leadership encompasses three leadership styles tailored to the evolving states of a team: survival mode, learning mode, and self-organizing mode. A team's current state is assessed based on its capacity to cope with challenges. In survival mode, teams may feel overwhelmed, especially when facing unfamiliar tasks under tight deadlines; in such cases, kinetic control leadership is essential to provide guidance and structure. Conversely, self-organizing teams thrive with autonomy when tasked with familiar projects, requiring clear objectives rather than direct management. Learning mode is crucial yet challenging, as it necessitates time for skill acquisition and mistakes, often requiring significant investment in time and effort beyond superficial training. Transitioning from survival to learning mode involves evaluating and adjusting commitments to allow for this necessary growth. This framework emphasizes the nuanced understanding of team dynamics and the importance of context in effective leadership, something often overlooked in traditional management discussions. It underscores the significance of adaptability and reality-focused methods rather than predefined frameworks like Scrum or Agile.

“As a team leader, you will become more successful and valuable if you are no longer a bottleneck for the people who are working with you and under you."

Roy Osherove is the author of “Elastic Leadership” and “The Art of Unit Testing”. In this episode, we discussed leadership insights from “Elastic Leadership”. Roy first shared how he came up with the concept and described what elastic leadership is. He explained the different leadership styles based on the 3 team phases (survival mode, learning mode, and self-organizing mode) and advised how leaders can adapt and transition their leadership style from one phase to the other to lead effectively. Roy also shared about the Team Leader manifesto and the Line Manager manifesto to provide guidance on how leaders can grow their teams towards self-organization and self-sufficiency.

Listen out for:

Career Journey - [00:06:45]
Writing “Elastic Leadership” - [00:11:31]
Team Leader Manifesto - [00:17:57]
There Are No Experts - [00:23:23]
Survival Mode - [00:30:49]
Slack Time - [00:37:52]
Self-Organizing Mode - [00:39:21]
Learning Mode - [00:41:18]
Line Manager Manifesto - [00:45:47]
3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:48:13]

_____

Roy Osherove’s Bio
Roy Osherove is the organizer of the CD/XP Israel meetup group. He’s the author of “Art of Unit Testing”, “Elastic Leadership” and the upcoming “Co-Ops: Pipeline Driven Organizations”. He has been working in the software industry for over 20 years in most types of technical & testing roles, and these days is working as a freelance consultant & trainer on-site for various companies across the world.

Follow Roy:

Twitter – @RoyOsherove
LinkedIn – https://linkedin.com/in/osherove/
Website – https://osherove.com/
5 Whys – https://5whys.com/

Our Sponsors

Mental well-being is a silent pandemic. According to the WHO, depression and anxiety cost the global economy over USD 1 trillion every year. It’s time to make a difference! Learn how to enhance your lives through a master class on mental wellness. Visit founderswellbeing.com/masterclass and enter TLJ20 for a 20% discount.

The iSAQB® Software Architecture Gathering is the international conference highlight for all those working on solution structures in IT projects: primarily software architects, developers, professionals in quality assurance, and also system analysts. The conference takes place online from November 14 to 17, 2022, and we have a 15% discount code for you: TLJ_MP_15.

DevTernity 2022 (devternity.com) is the top international software development conference with an emphasis on coding, architecture, and tech leadership skills. The lineup is truly stellar and features many legends of software development like Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin, Kent Beck, and many others! The conference takes place online, and we have the 10% discount code for you: AWSM_TLJ.

Like this episode?
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/110.