I've seen a lot of posts recently on LinkedIn about leadership. Some have been insightful; most have tried to be insightful. All have them have got me thinking about my own role, for better or worse.
While I find it rather self-serving (not to mention just a bit solipsistic) to talk about “leadership” as if I have some unique insight on the matter, I find myself living a daily life where I need to make decisions - almost all of them unpleasant to someone. When you are the Chair of organizations like Ultra Ethernet Consortium or SNIA it's part of the job people hopefully never see.
‘Running’ an industry organization is probably one of the worst misnomers I can think of. It’s far more like, “Herding” an organization. There is no ‘true’ hierarchy, as there would be found in a corporation. There is no requirement for people to work; they don’t get paid. They’re volunteers and while there may be interest from their companies to have them involved, it isn’t as if the Chair has any financial (or even political, really) influence over them.
Still, people look to you for decisions. Guidance. Vision.
It’s an adage that I hold to be axiomatic: People feel like they’re in control when they know what is going to happen next. It is the Chair’s responsibility to lay that vision out – not unilaterally, but create a consensus and build the trust so that, as a group, everyone involved knows what’s going to happen next.
That involves persuasion, not coercion. It involves communication, not compartmentalization. It involves “we” discussions, not “I” discussions.
Anyone who has spent any time in industry organizations, whether standards-creating or not, has seen leaders who fall into the latter camp more often than the former. If they were to have a motto, it might be, “Through collaboration, my vision shall be achieved.”
I’ve always felt this to be in error, and grossly short-sighted. It underlies more than just a cynical view of the collaboration efforts. It implies that the volunteers have no actual contribution to the work or success and are merely functionaries to bring that vision to fruition.
Being a leader, to me, is like being a lighthouse. You are a guiding light to help move forward and move safely to your destination, but the lighthouse itself should never be seen as the destination. You want to guide the organization beyond the light.
To me, then, the proper way to think of that saying might better be thought of as, “Through collaboration, my vision shall be transcended.”
It is tempting to read these missives about leadership as if there is a paint-by-numbers key to success, but I’ve never really resonated with them. I’ve found that “leadership,” as far as I’ve been in such a role, is about responsibility and accountability. This is true not just for my own actions, but to the people who have put their faith in me to steer their efforts towards fruitful outcomes.
After all, very, very few people get the recognition they deserve. You all have NVMe devices in your computers, Hard Drives in your storage, USB in every device known to man. But how many people outside of those organizations (NVM Express, STA and T10/13, USB, respectively) can name 5 people who worked on them? Two? One?
However, those projects were successes, though they weren’t guaranteed to be when the men and women who started them began work. That took concerted effort, time, and dedication. Those who have participated in the leadership of those organizations over time had tremendous pressure to reach success, however that may be defined at the time. (I’m very proud to say that I’ve known – and worked with – most of them over the years).
I believe it’s safe to say, however, that the success of those efforts transcended the original vision. In the years following, no one will remember my name as a Chair of Ultra Ethernet nor SNIA, and that is how it truly should be. There are no awards ceremonies hosted by Ricky Gervais for tech industries (though, if he wants to, he can certainly call me!). To assume that someone will automatically assign credit to the success of any technology or organization to its leadership is a fool’s errand at best, and woefully narcissistic at worst.
So, take this for what it’s worth: an observation, not advice.
If you find yourself in a position of leadership, such that it may be, remember that the lighthouse does not bring the ships to itself. (This is the polite way of saying, “it’s not about you!”). It only helps guide people past the light and into the destination beyond.