I have had the opportunity to work with many outstanding leaders that have made a huge impact on my career. Some of them had manager titles, and some of them did not. Their leadership has allowed me to accomplish so much more than I ever dreamed, and I will pay it forward. I wrote this story to say thank you to leaders everywhere.
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
-John Quincy Adams
Debbie joined the company about 2 months ago, and she was still getting lost on the 3rd floor. Her new company sold several web based software products that were used in the financial services industry, and her team was working on one of their highest selling products. It was exciting! In addition, she believed in this product, because it had great functionality. Also, the product was going to get even better with the new features that Debbie’s team was working on.
Debbie always enjoyed programming, but this company was amazing. It had an innovative culture that encouraged people to try new things. It made her enjoy her role as a Java developer even more. Also, this company was focused on providing the most value for the customer, and this was something that resonated with Debbie. She wanted to create products that she would actually use herself. Working for this company was a dream for her, and it showed. She smiled so much that her nickname at the office was “Smiley.”
The company created a strong competitive advantage by continuously improving their software products. They did this by paying attention to customers requests. Also, they used data to drive decisions about innovations. Unquestionably, the company’s products had best in class design, features, and performance.
Still something was troubling Debbie, she felt like there was a way to next level the process for creating the software. In other words, she wanted to decrease the overall time it took to create a new version release, so her customers would have the opportunity to use all of the cool new features sooner.
Also, she had a plan. She wanted to reduce the overall time it took to create a new version release by 50%, so that would be her goal. The team had already begun to decrease the batch size of the code, but they were still finding issues in testing. She wanted to expedite the time it took to find the issues, and the best way to do that was to create smaller pieces of code. In other words, the fastest way to find a needle in a haystack is to decrease the size of the haystack.
In addition, there was another process improvement that would help her team deliver even faster. Debbie wanted to build a CI/CD pipeline, so her team was able to expedite the integration and delivery of the code. Similarly, she wanted to automate more of the unit test cases for an additional time reduction. Also, this innovation would decrease the amount of manual work, so it would improve the quality of the overall process.
Below is a quick recap of Debbie’s plan:
- The goal was to reduce the overall time of a version release by 50%.
- Further reduction of the batch size of the code, so issues would be found faster.
- CI/CD pipeline implemented.
- Increased percentage of unit test case automation.
It was a solid plan, but Debbie knew that the process change would create an initial increase in time. She needed to make sure that she factored that into the planning, so she would still be able to decrease the overall time of the version release by 50%. Also, she wanted to enlist some help. She ate lunch with 2 developers that used DevOps practices, and they had built CI/CD pipelines for other teams. She asked them to coach her team while they implemented the process improvements.
Next, she had to present her plan to her Manager, Dave. Debbie was a little bit nervous, but she already knew that he would be supportive of the opportunity to improve the process. Dave said, “This is great Debbie! What can I do to help?” Debbie replied, “Will you ask the team to start working on the continuous improvement project?” Dave, who was typically relaxed, got a serious look on his face. He said, “Debbie, this is an amazing initiative, and I empower you to lead the team on this. Will you work with our team to gain their support?”
Debbie had never considered herself a leader before, so she began to let the idea roll around in her head. She always wanted to be a leader someday, but could she be one today? It was almost as if Dave was reading her thoughts, and he said, “Debbie, you became a leader when you took the initiative to put together this plan to improve the process. You were thinking about other people, and that is what a leader does. You wanted to bring the product to our customers sooner, and you wanted to reduce the amount of manual work that our team had to do to deliver the product. The next step is to communicate your plan to our team, so they can execute it. You created this plan for them, because you believe in them. That will come through when you communicate it to them, and then they will know that they can execute it.”
Debbie answered, “But we have never done this before. How can I tell them that they can do it?” Dave replied to her, “You will get them to believe in themselves, because then they will be able to accomplish anything. Also, take this opportunity to learn. You will learn how to execute the process better. If things don’t go 100% according to plan, then you will be able to take those learnings into the next iteration.” Debbie felt apprehensive, but she knew that it was the right thing to do. She turned to walk out of Dave’s office, and she heard him say, “Debbie, you can do this. You are a leader.”
That was what Debbie needed to hear, because it gave her confidence. Debbie asked the team to work with her on the continuous improvement plan. At first, they had the same concerns about the timeline. Debbie remembered what Dave said about getting them to believe in themselves, and she realized that Dave was right. He had gotten her to believe in herself, and she was leading the team! Debbie told her team, “I believe in you, and I know we can hit the goal.”
Her teammates were onboard, and they were working through the process. As always, there were a few adjustments that needed to be made to the plan, and there were a few things that needed to be learned along the way. The overall time for the version release was reduced by 55% on the first attempt. This was a huge success, and Debbie knew that they could reduce it even more on the next iteration. Also, there was an opportunity to scale this process to the other products in their portfolio. In addition, the positive customer reviews that they had received on the release confirmed that they had made a huge impact.
Debbie was smiling, as usual. Her team had completed a challenging task, and it created a large amount of business value. Also, Debbie realized that she could be a leader, because being a leader wasn’t something that was only reserved for people with manager titles. It was something that everyone had the opportunity to achieve, and the starting point was wanting to do something of value for other people. For example, she wanted to bring her team a process improvement that would add value for them, and it would add value for the customer. In addition, she believed in her team, and she made sure they knew it. Debbie remembered what Dave had told her, “You will get them to believe in themselves, because then they will be able to accomplish anything.” She knew that this was true. He had gotten her to believe in herself, and this gave her the confidence to be a leader. Most importantly, it had helped her redefine leadership.
Technology and Optimizing Processes 