Leading Tech Teams Through Crisis

Leading High Performance Tech Teams Through Crisis

A top executive discusses ways to motivate staff and influence people

SEEMA STAFF Charisma Glassman is a technology executive at an International Fortune 500 financial institution, having led product technology departments for internal and external customers. With more than 14 years of experience in promoting hundreds of products, from small to multi-million-dollar technology offerings, she has learned the best ways to develop and motivate high performing teams.

How do you create high performing teams?

I always strived to learn and grow as an individual. I have a deep held belief that everyone from the clerk to the most talented programmers, everyone wants to be part of something bigger and grow as individuals. The underpinnings of my success at developing high performing teams revolves around six key leadership points.

What would be a key leadership point from your view?

Point 1 would be to drive action by having every actor in the organization state clearly their business outcomes and objectives. I believe people like clarity with their goals. So, my first point is to have leadership from manager to executive to clearly state business outcomes and objectives. Over the span of my career, I have led teams with managing, developing and integrating complex system designs and digital products that bring and save millions for the organizations. As a leader, I try to align outcomes and deliveries with the skills on my teams and pair talent with complementary skills so that there is not only business continuity but also an understanding that all of us can learn something from each other. There is also high value in clearly explaining the “why” as to why it is important to the business and the value it will bring to the organization. If the team is talented the tactical roadmaps, features and delivery execution is much smoother if you continue to form the right culture as a leader.

So, where do you take it from there?

That would take naturally us to Point 2: Take time to clarify business outcomes and gain consensus to those goals from everyone on those products from small ones to large corporate initiatives. There is always resistance to getting people to commit to a certain corporate objective because, as humans, we don’t like change. Consequently, I always push my product leaders to clarify business outcomes by answering several rounds of questions from their teams, and then getting oral commitments from team members over joint conference calls. At virtual meetings, it can make it harder to see facial expressions and collaborate the way one can in person, so it is important to slow down the pace of these meetings to allow for clarification. Funny thing is, when people agree to something there is a switch in their brains that goes off making them more motivated to meet those goals. Some psychologists call this a “need for consistency.” Another thing is that when others hear their colleagues committing and get an overall consensus it makes it easier to get a buy in.

POINT 1, DRIVE ACTION BY HAVING EVERY ACTOR IN THE ORGANIZATION STATE CLEARLY THEIR BUSINESS OUTCOMES AND OBJECTIVES.

What would be the next step from here?

Point 3: Empower teams and keep them accountable to agreed outcomes. In this modern day we have so many tools to keep organized – schedules, Gannett charts, roadmaps and so on. At the end of the day I feel that holding people accountable helps drive organization and execution more than any tool. Understanding responsibility and keeping accountability in mind drives teams to perform and select the appropriate tools to drive execution.

What would be your role after things get rolling?

Corporations have their own defined incentive methods but one thing that is often overlooked is delivery of feedback mechanisms. The tough guy attitude of the industrial revolution is over and done with. The current generation likes to be motivated, coached and given constant feedback that makes them feel like they are part of a team.I always coach and mentor my teams to drive and improve results as with the right direction one can really form high performing teams and organizations. That would also be point 4: complimenting teams when they achieve milestones, coach them about ways to improvise constantly, and doing retrospectives as required. This is vital to driving learning across the organization.

How do you spur idea-generation in your organization?

“Ideas” and “openness to ideas” are key in high-performing teams. That’s Point 5: Drive innovation across the organization by training managers to listen first to ideas, reserve judgment, and promote the contribution of ideas across all teams. Technology companies need a constant stream of ideas to drive projects. If you shut down people when they suggest new ideas, you are effectively saying that you do not value their contributions. Being open to new ideas requires

patience. You need to let people talk, and then to listen as a leader. Some organizations also have think-tanks and incubators to enhance innovation.

Would Point 6 be about being more agile in changing times?

I am constantly monitoring the performance of my teams and motivating them to achieve higher goals. Point 6 says that all actors in the organization, from VPs to line managers, must be trained to distribute responsibilities. Limiting decision-making power to single points create rigidity and stagnation. The military command-and-control system that corporations inherited does not really work. Flat organizations are a start, but you need to give managers and leadership the ability to empower team members with responsibility, the ability to make changes, motivate others and so on. We have to empower team members to distribute responsibilities lower in their organization, and then hold them accountable. FLAT ORGANIZATIONS ARE A START, BUT YOU NEED TO GIVE MANAGERS AND LEADERSHIP THE ABILITY TO EMPOWER TEAM MEMBERS WITH RESPONSIBILITY, TO MAKE CHANGES, TO MOTIVATE OTHERS

So, which of these is the most important lesson for you?

Organizational culture is a result of layers of behaviors and processes. My model is similar to a pyramid. When you build a pyramid you have levels, each supporting the next. For me the foundation of the pyramid is the talent in the corporation. Here, management skills complement the team’s abilities to make a talent pool that can drive action. The next level is to clearly empower the teams. So we need clear outcomes and objectives, getting consensus on goals, empowering the teams, engaging in constant improvement, and allowing for a distribution of responsibilities. Finally, the top level of the pyramid is accountability, rewarding high performance. The world today is changing at a rapid pace. For example, Covid compressed changes that normally would occur in a decade into a single year. Thus, core corporate behaviors can help drive massive changes in record time, and in a sustainable way. Charisma Glassman, more info on www.CharismaGlassman.com

Maison de Papillon’s Spring/Summer catalog consists of sustainably sourced textural variations from around the world. Heavily inspired by the surrealism era’s lush landscapes.

With a continued focus to be driven by redefining the modern woman’s day-to-night wardrobe each garment is designed to be timeless without sacrificing ease nor versatility.

Elevated, sustainable luxury has now become a reality. Join us in reimagining the future of fashion.

www.maisondepapillon.com