Re: Teams Leaders what are they, and do we need them? - Extension from Re: Re: Do C-Level managers, and business drivers really need to know about XP?

Scott Worley wrote:
> I DO NOT HAVE TEAM LEADERS
> When you have a dev project, and a team of people working on it, 
> by selecting someone upfront to lead it, you automatically force 
> that person into a responsibility position, and normally would 
> choose the best person of the team for that project.

I think it was Gerry Weinberg who said that the term 'Leadership' is a misnomer and it should more rightly be termed 'Followership'. The point being that trying to lead developers is more than a little like trying to herd cats. 

In a team setting there will always be occasions when a decision needs to make or a direction set and it is unlikely that one individual will be able to make the optimum choice  on every occasion.

If an individual is appointed as 'leader' there is an implied authority that goes with the appointment and other members of the team will either respect or resent that authority. Either attitude will cause problems.

However, a 'good' team usually has an understanding of the relative skills of each of its members and, when a  particular problem is encountered, knows which member of the team is best suited to solving that problem and will defer to him. 

In this way leaders 'emerge' from team. Usually just for the duration of the problem and deferring to the next 'leader' at the next problem.

So Scott, you do have leaders, teams will always have leaders but your leaders are emergent rather than appointed.

Dave P