About 8 years ago, I was faced with a situation when the Tech Lead of my team was facing a burnout and needed a break. At this time, as the Manager, I was responsible for product deliveries and for resolving the issue of leadership.
I performed a preliminary assessment of the Team Members and found that there were more than 1 eligible candidates for the Tech Leadership Position. If I chose one over the other, there would be dis-satisfaction and going ahead, there would be a power struggle and politics. There was a risk of disintegration of the team which I was not prepared to take.
It was here that I came up with the idea of "Leadership on Rotation".
I had 2 ongoing projects, and 4 more in the pipeline. I assigned one of the "eligible" candidates - Jack, as the Tech Lead for Project X and the other "eligible" candidate - Jamie, as the Tech Lead for Project Y.
The rule was that Jack was a Tech Lead for Project X and was also having a certain responsibility as a Team Member in Project Y. On the other hand, Jamie was a Tech Lead for Project Y and was also a Team Member for Project X.
This way, both Jack and Jamie were getting to be the Leader and the team member at the same time.
For a new Project Z, both Jack and Jamie were team members to a new Tech Lead John.
I had a reasonable amount of success with this concept - in deliveries and in creating a pipeline of future leadership in the company.
Here's a list of advantages of this approach:
- Those who want to lead, get an opportunity to do so.
- Those who get the opportunity to lead, understand & know that they have to be team members in their next project - this brings about a sense of empathy to fellow team members and solves the "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely", problem.
- Some team members who always have awesome ideas on leadership and how to run projects got to implement their ideas.
- We had a pool of leaders in the making.
By implementing this concept, I was able to identify "Adaptable" leaders, those who could Lead and Be Led. It was an eye opener for a few individuals who thought they could lead but unable to do so.
The implementation needed close monitoring and a lot of effort investment, but that is a small price to pay for the long term goals of the organization...
