Turn Your IT Org Chart Upside-Down

These are some pieces of advice that I picked up by observing all different types of leaders.   

First, I learned that leadership is a responsibility, not a perk. As the leader, I believe you are there to empower your people and to remove barriers for them. Many of the best leaders I had the privilege to work for operated as if the org chart was actually drawn upside-down. I always admired that and I try to be the type of leader who supports the people who are closest to the work. It's been my experience that organizations that are led in this way typically achieve better results.
 
Second, I learned to balance confidence and humility. You don't need to be the smartest person in the room to be a good leader. Being a leader is about being willing to do the things that make your team better and sometimes that means subjugating your own ego in the process.

Third, I don't believe that you need to be a subject matter expert in a particular discipline to lead that discipline.  And even if you are an expert in a particular discipline, I believe that you will get different and better results by embracing the role of the "leader of subject matter experts" rather than the "lead subject matter expert."  I don't believe it's best to lead subject matter experts by telling them the answer. I've had more success when I help the answer emerge instead.

Now this is easier said than done, but like anything else it is a skill that can be developed over time with practice. This is not about abdicating responsibility -- far from it. It's about understanding a business issue and figuring out who needs to be in the room to work through it.

Leading with Questions

An important part of this is being able to "lead with questions."  It's about asking questions and resisting the urge to provide the answers. I will tell you that whenever I do this, the answer that emerges from the team is better than what I would have come up with myself.
 
But to "lead with questions," you need to be honest with yourself about your motivators. We all have egos and we all feed them in different ways. There is nothing at all wrong with that, but it is helpful to look at yourself in the mirror and determine how much you need your ego fed in the workplace. Many of us got to where we are now because we were really good at being the one who could come up with the answer. I would suggest that it can be just as personally gratifying to be the one who leads the process that helps the answer emerge.

-- Doug Myers, CIO of Pepco Holdings