He asked me 'Will he move out? He is the one who has
built this team from scratch to where it's now.'
I tried sensing emotion behind the question. Was it a
feeling of attachment, of fear, or of discomfort?
I thought it was a combination of all emotions.
The person who was moving out was struggling with his own
emotions. He asked me 'Is this a message to me? Am I not doing well?'
I felt for him. But I sensed the need for a change of
guard.
He had built the business to a certain size. He had
'seeded' an industry at its nascent stages. He had made saplings sprout and
overseen their growth to a healthy and beautiful plant
There was enough opportunity now to make plant grow to a
tree. Essentially, market was poised for explosive growth. But same skills that
had held him in good stead in ramp up stage threatened his success in explosive
growth stage.
Soon a new leader came in. His style was diametrically
opposite to previous leader.
No more was there space for experiments and pilots.
Everything had to be done on a large scale. Feedback style changed to more direct
and less encouragement.
It felt less like a lab/playground and more like a war
machine.
We knew what we wanted to achieve and we will get it!
Did we succeed? We seem to be on the right path.
Was leadership change necessary?
Well. I don't know.
At this time, I am left with a few observations/questions:
Do we typecast 'preference' as 'strengths'
and exclude possibility of leader being able to use learned (non-preferred)
behavior too?
Plant and Machine are roles appropriate to
different growth stages of a team/business. Different roles can be played by
same person. But at times it may be necessary to change leadership too.
I relate more to a plant than to a machine. At same time I feel there is a lot
to learn in the machine mode.
Sometimes a leader is impatient to make an
impact. It is important to guide the leader's energy in right direction. It's
possible that when one has a hammer everything looks like a nail.
-
Sourav
