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?

Glen,

> > Generally, I use the word "leader" to refer to the person who
> > has emerged as a natural leader of the team. This person has
> > a role that basically serves the rest of the team in trying
> > to accomplish its goals. I find that teams and their leaders
> > can learn to think of it this way and that it's up to
> > management to avoid seeing the leader as some sort of a
> > junior boss on the team.
> > 
> > So I do have team leaders... but they don't do things
> > like make work assignments, evaluate people or make
> > decisions about the direction of the project. They do
> > present the view (or views) of the team to the manager
> > who does need to make some sort of a decision.
> 
> [>] Does this separate leadership from management? There is likely to be
> good leaders who are poor managers, as well as very good managers who
> are not leaders.

At this level - I was taking this thread to deal with the hands-on 
leader of a team of about half a dozen developers - I think separating
team leadership from management is a good idea. In part, I suppose
I've arrived at this position by watching a few good managers trying 
to lead and doing it poorly.

Groups at this level are sometimes saddled with a full-time person
who "manages" as well as leads. I have seen this fail more often
than succeed, so I like to avoid it.

Obviously - to me anyway - management skills are needed somewhere
up the line. From what I've seen, a good manager can handle five
or six projects like this - each with their own team leader. It
helps of course if the manager also has good leadership skills, 
but it seems to be less important when dealing with teams this
way as opposed to directly.
 
> > Obviously, such a person can't really be appointed,
> > they have to arise from the situation. But in practice,
> > the /recognition/ of such a leader has not seemed to
> > be that difficult: often everyone on the team would
> > name the same person if asked - although sometimes
> > not the actual leader.
> 
> [>] This is the "leader" from within. We have those folks here, but also
> we have appointed leaders as well, doing just a good a job. 

Do you try to appoint those with leadership ability, or do they receive
it as a side-effect of their appointment? ;-)

Charlie Poole
[email protected]
www.pooleconsulting.com
www.charliepoole.org





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