DevOpsDays Boston 2014 - Commanders, Communication, Context, and Convoys - Leadership Lessons from the Marine Corps

12 Leadership Lessons from the Marine Corps
applied to the Real World. (Presented at DevOpsDays Boston 2014)

Transcript

1. Commanders,! Communication,! Context,! and Convoys 12 Leadership Lessons from the Marine Corps applied to the Real World @gwaldo @CommerceHub Waldo from CommerceHub, I’m an Ex-Marine, And I’m hear to talk about Leadership. Specifically some lessons that I’ve taken from the Marine Corps
2. No, not this kind of leadership. No Cheslocking today… Easy to understand that you might be skeptical that this bearded beauty was once a Marine, but assure you that it is true…
3. There was a time… But I didn’t come here for nostalgia. I came to share some common wisdom from the Corps, because much of our tech leadership is inexperienced.
4. Marine Corps Leadership Objectives: 1. Mission Accomplishment! 2. Troop Welfare These are in order. Do the job, then take care of your people. Sometimes your people come at the expense of the job. This is very heavily caveated & should be rare. People are not expendable.
5. When the Job is finished, Take Care of your People Reward your people. Easiest way is to Thank Them. Congratulate Them. Sometimes, send them home early if you can. There will always be more work.
6. Gratitude! and Rewards Gratitude is the easiest reward you can give your People. And most overlooked. More trust and responsibility, too. Sending home early is nice, because…
7. There will be Bad Days. There will be harsh demands. Or ridiculous deadlines. It’s also important to keep perspective on what a “bad day” is.
8. But you can’t send them home early all the time. For obvious reasons. Coddling can have disastrous effects.
9. “Troop Welfare” ! also means ! “Sweating Now! so you don’t! Bleed Later” Run Disaster Drills. You cannot have a highly-functioning operational team without doing this. Dylan Richard's VelocityConf 2013 Keynote "Gamedays on the Obama Campaign"
10. This doesn’t just happen. Drill. Refine. Repeat. If this sounds familiar, we’ve been talking about OODA Loop.
11. Details! Matter Try to Instill Attention to Detail. How many configuration details go into each of our apps? Sometimes it only takes one mistake.
12. Clear and ! Concise Communication Sometimes you won’t have time to say it twice. Say it once well. Even if it takes longer. Be as clear and explicit as possible, as briefly as possible.
13. Encourage! Initiative If someone shows an interest, you must encourage that. Grow your people. They’re telling you that they’re interested. Try to guide that interest to something you need.
14. Commander’s Intent This is the idea that along with most orders, everyone knows where their job fits within the scope of the whole. Allows decentralized decisions while still aligning at goal. Another word for this is…
15. Context Everyone in your org has the potential to see pitfalls and solve problems. Provide them with context to their role so they can make better decisions.
16. Failure is a Team Event You may have weaknesses in your team. You must prop them up. You still have to find a way to win. You go to Prod with the team you have…
17. Humility != Timidity Know your strengths and weaknesses. You don’t know everything, but you can still be confident. “This is the right thing to do. Now.” When proven wrong, you change your mind or direction.
18. Have a Confidant This is someone that you can be candid with. Probably not your Significant Other. Someone with context of the problem space, but perhaps not directly involved.
19. Camaraderie A shared experience, especially diversity will bring a group together. But don’t create unnecessary problems. Sabotage has a smell.
20. @gwaldo You are part of your people. Take care of your people. We often forget that. Thank you very much.