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It’s true in Agile, it’s true in Leadership. The quality of your tribe is everything. How do you build a tribe of top-grade players who are competent and committed? You set a high bar for quality. Excellence. Vision. Dedication. Ethos. To do any less is to guarantee the dilution of the tribe’s effectiveness. But how do you find people like that?
Here’s my philosophy – if you want to be agile, if you want to transform a team or organization, and if you want to change the world – start with the willing. Bring in the people who show the most passion. Find the guy who puts his hand up and says I want to be a part of whatever you’re doing. Forget experience, forget qualification, forget grooming. I’ll take passion.
What Passionate People Will Do
Passionate people will bring the following benefits to your tribe:
1. They’re engaged and willing. You don’t have to convince, motivate, discipline or any of the things we shouldn’t be doing anyway.
2. They are natively willing to learn and grow. What they lack, they will get, and they will get it way faster than people who are not passionate because they eat and sleep this stuff.
3. They will be massively creative. They’ll always bring ideas to the table.
4. They will infect others with their passion. They lead naturally.
5. They will be massively productive. They don’t waste time on things that don’t roll up to their passion and vision. They don’t gossip, backbite, whine…they’re laser focused on mission success. You won’t have to worry about trusting them…they will prove their ability to make decisions and be accountable every single day.
Finding Passionate People
So how do you find people with all these qualities? Too often people will apply for jobs, roles, positions because they want to work. They want a raise. They want a promotion. The job sounds cool. The company has great benefits. None of these things are even based on service mindset, much less passionate or visionary. To find passionate people, ask them these questions:
1. Why are you an Agile Coach, Scrum Master, etc. If you aren’t one, why do you want to be one, and how did you come to be what you are right now?
2. What value do you think you can bring to (this company, this team). Why do you want to work here specifically? If people don’t know their unique value, I can guarantee you they won’t be passionate about much.
3. In general, try to figure out what constitutes job success in terms of the tough challenges and core competencies and ask questions that demonstrate they have done that work. Ask for their opinions on how to do those things successfully.
4. Watch for confidence issues. Passionate people are happy to take risks and will admit when they’re not comfortable or inexperienced, but they will never shake or pass out in an interview no matter how phony they think they are. They will feel like something brought them here.
The Risks and How To Handle Them
One of the biggest risks is that your passionate tribe member will be full of salt and vinegar, but be completely incompetent. Even willingness to learn might not make up for a lack of experience or maturity. When you meet people, structure your questions to find out the following: Of all the Scrum Ceremonies or Agile Principles, which one do YOU find is the most important? Why?
What About Young People?
Simon Sinek says that millennials are lazy, entitled and spoiled. They’re not lazy. They get lazy because of the promises we make with media, entertainment, products, and services that we sell. But no-one is born lazy. Everybody has a built-in drive to produce, to create, to serve. It’s in our DNA. Simple as that.
All you have to do with millennials, is give them an opportunity to make a difference. That’s all they want. Can you blame them for not wanting to sit in a grey cubicle that looks exactly like the one next to it? They want to be different. So give them an opportunity to make a difference. Create something special and offer them an opportunity to be part of it.
How To Keep Passion
First of all, have the team arrive at a creed. A set of true shared values that they’re passionate about. Make them stretch goals. Aim high. Don’t settle for “show up to meetings on time”. Put forth your intention to be world-class, first position, champions – tougher, faster, better, smarter than anyone else you’ve ever seen. Don’t dictate. Collaborate on this.
Next, you’re going to have to lead them and create a culture of openness, excellence, cross-functional collaboration, learning and improvement.
I’ll be controversial and say safety is the wrong focus. If you want to help people be the best, let them be part of the best. The best idea wins. I find that when you have visionary, passionate and service-based teams, safety takes care of itself. Ethical leaders are in control of their thoughts, emotions and words so they never say things that demoralize, offend or devalue others. With that said, if the best ideas win, and it’s not yours, learn how to come up with better ideas, and be glad to play supporting roles if someone else is more qualified to lead this time. There’s no time in elite tribes for catching the tears of people who came in 8th.
A responsible leader is comfortable in their own skin. People who create cultures of fear and maintain the lead by making others small, weak and scared are not leaders. How you treat others is a reflection of how you are. If you make others feel small, weak and scared, that’s where you’re coming from. If you yourself feel safe and confident, you will treat others so that they feel safe and confident too. Once you realize that, you will never see a dictator the same way and your perception of what a leader is will change forever.
It is up to you to create something special that people will want to be part of. It will be up to you to prove through your actions, not your words, that you will create opportunities, that you are accountable for helping them live their passion, that you will take their passion and help them convert it into contribution, success, growth, and victory.
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