Mr. Kimura, one of our sponsors, gave a presentation of basic Leadership, for which we are all thankful for.  Here is a summary of the information presented.  We hope you find it useful both in and outside of robotics. Despite being somewhat lengthy, this is a must read for all leaders.

What is “good” leadership?

• People respond well to good leadership
  • They expect to be told what needs to be done
  • Strong team spirit can develop, often leading to a willingness to work extra hard
• People respond poorly to weak leadership
  • Difficult to build effective, cohesive team
  • Can prevent reaching your goal or objective
• Good leadership is when a cohesive team exists that effectively works towards their goal
  • Cohesive: Where people feel part of a team with every person understanding their role and responsibilities
  • Effective: Where all work is well focused and resources (funds, time, effort) are used efficiently
  • Good leadership does not mean you will always successfully reach your goal; other reasons can prevent you from reaching your goal

Traits of a Good Leader

• Number One Rule:
  • Always show respect to your team members
• Some ways to maintain respectful attitude
  • Follow Golden Rule: Treat others as you would want to be treated
  • Never yell at, speak condescending of, or belittle someone
  • Be especially careful when you are under stress because it is too easy to say or do something disrespectful
  • Team leaders should help each other maintain respectful attitude – give feedback and watch out for potential problems
• Having respectful attitude affects how you lead, not your leadership decisions
  • You can still tell people what to do; it is how you tell them that is important
  • It also affects how you react to problems – should always focus on the problem and not the person
• Other traits of a good leader are:
  • Effective decision-maker
  • Sets the standard for others, has high expectations
  • Understands each team members’ strengths and weaknesses
  • Not afraid to delegate responsibilities – does not micromanage
  • Communicates well – ensures two-way communication exists
  • Has good organizational skills
  • Has a clear vision of the goal(s) and the pathway to reach them
  • Steadfast in determination, but flexible and receptive to other ideas
• All these traits require time and practice to develop in oneself
  • High school is a great opportunity to learn leadership skills
  • Do not have time to discuss all these traits in detail
  • First four traits probably have greatest impact on club

Effective Decision-Making

• Making decisions is often not easy because of lack of knowledge/experience, incomplete information, and uncertainties about the future
  • Knowing how to make decisions under these circumstance is the number one challenge of leadership
  • Fortunately, there is a decision-making process you can follow!
• Step #1: Define clearly what is the needed decision, why it is important and its potential impact, and when it must be made
  • Perform triage to determine importance of decision relative to overall effort
  • Helps define how much time you have to gather information and/or educate yourself before decision must be made
• Step #2: Decide on needed information/knowledge, means to obtain it, and people responsible for getting it
  • Make sure means are well focused so people minimize wasting time getting extraneous information
  • Set a time schedule for meeting again to discuss collected information
• Step #3: Evaluate usefulness of collected information
  • Does it provide enough information to make a decision with a reasonably high probability of being a correct decision?
  • If not, then decide on further information needed and repeat Step #2
• Step #4: If the answer to Step #3 is yes, then make your decision!
  • Worse mistake of leadership is not making wrong decisions, it is not making any decisions – don’t be wishy-washy!
  • Nevertheless, always adjust your decision depending on the level of confidence you have (see Step #5)
• Step #5: Be flexible and have a back-up option(s) whenever possible
  • Expect your decision may need to be adjusted or even abandoned as you gain more information or your decision does not appear to be working
  • Have back-up options ready – develop in parallel or in series depending on uncertainty of primary decision and available resources/manpower

Setting the Standard

• People instinctively look to their leaders as role models
  • Provides a powerful way to influence the “personality” of the team
  • The leadership sets the level of standards and expectations
• Do not be afraid to set high standards and high expectations
  • People want to be proud of their work and the team’s accomplishments
  • Setting high standards and expectations does not mean being a perfectionist
  • Go for “functional quality” – it works, and it works well and reliably, but it is not perfect and it does not need to be perfect
• High expectations also includes expectations on team member behavior and follow through on responsibilities
  • Demand appropriate behavior at all times, e.g., paying attention at meetings, finishing a job when promised (more later about dealing with problem members)
  • Of course, the leaders must always set the good example!

Understanding Strengths and Weaknesses

• Strength and weaknesses include
  • Technical knowledge and experience (e.g., electronics, programming)
  • Personality/behavior (e.g., procrastinator, introvert)
  • Special skills (e.g., works well with tools, fast learner)
• “Know thyself first, others second”
  • Assess your own strengths and weaknesses, and those of other leaders
  • Be honest, but not overly harsh – this is not a contest!
  • Find ways to use each other’s strengths to compensate for weaknesses
• Determining strengths and weaknesses of other team members is generally more difficult
  • May not know other team members as well
  • Learn to constantly watch out for strengths and weaknesses as you work with team members – make a mental note, share with other leaders
  • Use members’ strengths to help project, at same time avoid giving tasks that would rely on members’ weaknesses

The Art of Delegation

• Delegation of responsibilities can be a dichotomy
  • Sharing work load gets more work done and is usually faster
  • But, people can screw up causing more work and problems
• The steps for delegation:
  • Determine number of people needed to perform task
  • Before delegating task determine strengths and weaknesses of each individual – if you do not know, ask them!
  • As a group decide on how task will be done and time line – leader is responsible for informing group on time constraints
  • Decide on next meeting time with leader – avoid leaving tasks open-ended
• The art of delegation
  • Leader should frequently monitor person’s or group’s progress – can be through informal or formal meetings
  • Make sure everyone is staying focused on task, help them set priorities
  • Avoid micromanaging by not insisting on how they do something – make suggestions, give feedback, help provide resources

Robotics Club Special Needs

• Because of deadline for contest, staying on schedule is imperative
  • Not enough time to do everything you wish, therefore, must prioritize
  • Work on basic requirements first, embellishments second – leaders must decide what are basic needs and what are embellishments
• Team members cover wide range of capabilities, experience, and maturity levels
  • Leaders need to be sensitive and adapt accordingly, i.e., you cannot treat everyone on the team the same
  • However, those same team members are your greatest asset, so treat them well and use their abilities wisely
• The club leadership also has a wide range of experience leading others
  • Process already in place for senior leaders mentoring junior leaders
  • Do not be afraid of making mistakes!
  • Just remember, it is easy to correct a mistake with a thing, it is hard to correct a mistake with someone’s feelings

Strategies for Staying on Schedule

• Build up schedule in steps working from gross level down to fine level
  • First define major tasks, e.g., decide on basic design approach, design components, fabricate components/systems, assemble robot, test/debug
  • Allocate blocks of times (e.g., number of weeks) for each major task
  • Be sure to add, if possible, buffer time to accommodate delays
  • Within each block of time, allocate smaller blocks of time for subtasks
  • Review schedules with affected team members
• Leaders’ job is to maintain schedule and keep other leaders informed on progress
  • Monitor progress regularly, more frequently if problems arise
  • Encourage team members to notify others of problems ASAP because it gives you more time and options to correct the problem
• Expect to rebaseline the master schedule more than once
  • Rebaseline as major tasks are completed and/or serious problems occur
  • Leaders must decide when to forgo something in order to stay on schedule

Building a Winning Team

• Your club consists of ~15 highly active members (Type A), ~10 semi-active members (Type B), and ~15 with marginal commitment (Type C)
  • Use Type A to manage working groups with Type B providing support
  • Encourage Type C to participate with hope that they will change to Type B
  • Best way to get participation is to ask someone to do something; do not wait for the person to volunteer
• Subgroups consisting of 3 – 5 people is a good size for working groups
  • 1 – 2 people is okay for very small tasks, but on larger tasks there is risk of work overload and/or task failure that holds up everyone else
  • Greater than 5 people can be harder to manage and more difficult getting everyone to meet together when necessary
  • Subgroups should have mixture of Type A, B, and C
• Perforce many will be members of more than one subgroup
  • Use this to help communication between subgroups
  • Nevertheless, all subgroup leaders should meet together regularly

Working With All Kinds of People

• Working with “difficult” people requires application of some psychology and a GREAT deal of patience!
  • Everyone likes to feel appreciated – use to encourage change in behavior
  • Everyone likes to feel in control – use to insist on follow through with promises/commitments
• Be patient, but firm with less mature members
  • Insist they act more mature – predicate full involvement with club activities on consistent mature behavior
  • Genuinely interested members
    will change their behavior to stay in club; those not genuinely interested will drop out
  • Changing meeting format may help, e.g., remove distractions, rearrange seating, working more in small groups
• The fun activities of the club is the “carrot stick” that motivates team members
  • Leaders must make sure avoidable problems, such as chaotic meetings or miscommunication, do not spoil fun for everyone
  • Leaders should help each other in working with difficult people

Develop an Effective Leadership Plan of Action

• Leaders should meet to discuss ways to improve leadership of club
  • How can we make the management of the club better?
  • What are things you like; what are things you do not like?
  • How can you reinforce the things you like and correct the things you do not like?
  • Be open to new ideas including reassigning members to different responsibilities and changing procedures
• Lack of procedures can ruin the best leadership plans
  • Procedures ensure everyone is “dancing to the same tune”
  • Procedures help ensure important steps are not forgotten
  • Examples of relevant procedures are:
    • Approval of purchases
    • Communication protocol
    • Design review and approval

Self-Evaluation and Fine-Tuning

• Leadership training is an on-going, dynamic, life-long process
  • Expect to develop your own style that fits your personality
  • Learn by looking at others – other club leaders, your teachers, etc.
  • Ask what do you like about their leadership style, what would you do differently?
  • Adjust and fine-tune your own leadership style accordingly
• Club leaders should periodically meet to discuss progress on plan of action to improve club leadership
  • Is the plan being implemented effectively?
  • Make adjustments to the plan as necessary

Closing Remarks

• Leading and managing people can be the most rewarding thing you do and the most frustrating thing you do
  • Being a good leader does not require super-intelligence or a thick skin
  • It does require being sensitive to people and learning how to accurately “read” people
  • And, as with any skill, it requires practice and more practice