The Real Deal

An opportunity to see management in action isn't uncommon at many (dare I say most?) organizations.   Reams have been written about various practices and methodologies for managing a project to completion; indeed, with the increasing number of people adding "PMP" after their name, one might get the idea that the project management profession is on par with the medical or PhD communities in terms of stature and status.     In contrast, seeing someone demonstrate real leadership is uncommon enough to warrant stopping for a moment and marveling at the effect it has on those around them.   This is probably the best way to identify real leaders, for real leadership rarely decorates itself with titles, prefixes, or suffixes.

I recently had the opportunity to observe one such example of leadership along with both the immediate and delayed effects.   A co-worker who is leading the design of an internal system was asked to summarize the progress for a larger group which included the organization's leadership team.   This particular individual is working with several other people to realize the system and has been a key driver behind the design.     While this might have been the perfect opportunity to describe his efforts on the project, he chose not to do so - most people over five years old aren't foolish enough to stand up and proclaim "I made this" to a larger group of people who know better.   He could have spoken blandly about the facts of where the project was at, problems they had encountered, as well as the next steps they would take.   In fact, he did describe their progress and challenges - but he went further.    One of the other people working on the same system happened to be in the room, and he took the opportunity to praise her work on the project in front of everyone.   It wasn't just a generic "she did a good job on this" comment - it was specific, concise, and sincere.

The immediate effect was that she smiled broadly and then quickly tried, unsuccessfully, to return to a straight face.   I'm not sure how many people in the room noticed it, and the longer term effect was probably even less noticeable to the rest of the organization.   To someone who happens to work in close spatial proximity to the team, however, the effect has been wonderful to watch.   This team works to support the goal and each other, and exudes a positive, "can-do" attitude that is infectious.     Such behavior inspires others and is something that is not widely taught or easily learned.

It was a small but impressive display of a specific quality of leadership; so much so that I couldn't help but tell the individual how neat it was that he'd compliment and encourage his teammate like that so publicly.   His response was essentially that praise is what gets passed onto his team; criticism is what he reserves for himself.      His response was not an example of management-by-PMP or leadership-by-numbers; it was the real deal.  

It was Leadership.

Have you had the opportunity to observe leadership in action?   What did it look like?