Google has spent more than a decade and a significant amount of money determining how to create high-performing software teams. Incredibly, they have published their findings in a free document called the DORA report, which I have leaned on heavily in writing this article.
There is a huge difference between high and low performing teams, for example the highest performing teams have 127x faster lead time and 8x less change failures on average compared to low performing teams. One fantastic bit of news is that teams can change performance; Google found in the DORA report that teams become elite through continuous improvement and most elite teams started as average teams. To me this is very encouraging because we can take an average team and turn them into an elite team, thereby gaining multiples of speed improvement and huge reductions in deployment failures.
Not only does Google’s DORA report tell us that teams can make huge performance changes over time, but it also gives us some hints as to how leadership can promote these changes.
Fundamental Pillars of Effective Leadership
Vision – The leaders must set a direction and clearly layout goals
Inspirational Communication – Effective leaders make team member proud that they are part of that team through maintaining positive communication about the team and it’s direction.
Intellectual stimulation – Leaders present the team with new challenges and encourage the team to continually consider new ways of looking at old problems.
Supportive leadership – The best leaders have empathy and consider the feelings of those around them.
Personal Recognition – They publicly recognize superb work.
Each of these pillars is a deep topic in its own right, full of practical techniques and common pitfalls. That’s why, over the next few posts, I will be publishing a deep-dive on each one, turning these concepts into a concrete action plan for you and your team.
To ensure you don’t miss this series, follow me on LinkedIn. Or on my website at matw.me I’ll be starting next week with a deep dive into creating a team Vision that actually inspires.
Which of the five fundamentals do you think is most overlooked by leaders today? Let me know in the comments!