So, What Is Leadership, Really?

This week on the Programming Leadership podcast, we’re diving into the theories and definitions of what leadership means and looks like (and even what it doesn’t look like)! Even if you wouldn’t call yourself a “natural born” leader, Marcus encourages you to remember that leadership is a process, requires learned skills and everyone has the building blocks to become a great leader. So, what are you waiting for? Tune in to find out how you can start building your leadership skills today.

Show Notes

• Leadership is a process, something we can improve over time as there’s no ultimate goal or right/wrong way to do it.
• Leadership outcomes is not about controlling people, it's about creating an environment that affords everyone the ability to work on solving the most important problem at hand, because we all want to work on solving these problems.
• Leader’s don’t have to have the title, “Manager.” They’re often those people on your team who care; who believe that it's better when everyone contributes and that the job gets done smoother.
• Marcus breaks down the two camps of leadership theories: entity theories and dyadic theories.
  • The entity theory asks, makes a leader so great? “It’s the idea that we look up to these leaders, admire them, and if we ever find ourselves in a leadership or management role, let's try and become like them. Let's model them.” [00:13:19 to 00:13:30]
  • Dyadic theories study the relationship between the leader and the follower. “The quality of relationship that people have with their boss is a predictor of how good their performance is and how satisfied they are.” [00:16:59 to 00:17:07]
• Everyone has the building blocks to be a great leader.
• If you’re new to a leadership/management role, Marcus suggests to reduce your coding time and increase your people time. In other words, start delegating more.
• Time management is one of the most difficult things in the transition from programmer to manager.

Links:

• Book recommendation: Becoming a Technical Leader by Gerald Weinberg
• Book recommendation: The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
• Herzberg's two-factor theory of motivation
• Hackman's job control [characteristic] theory
• Sponsor: GitPrime