Where did you learn to be a leader?

Over the course of my career, I have found few if any people who took leadership training, then became a leader. Often is the case someone rises from the ranks of an organization and is bestowed a title of leadership, such as manager. Does leadership training follow? I’ll just say that it didn’t for me, and most everyone else I know.

So then, how does one learn leadership? For myself, it was from the numerous examples of leaders I had over the years – some good, some not so good – and from them I developed my own leadership style. Other sources included indirect leaders and stories from others about their leaders.

Could one of those sources for leadership learning be a dog?

This is the theme of Lead Like a Dog by Lori Thomas. A leader that I have had the pleasure to work with first-hand, she wrote this book as a leadership resource, tying human leadership principles to examples reinforced by her dog, Ginger. Could someone already in a leadership role like me, though not a dog owner, take away something from this book? Certainly.

Agile principles apply to everyone – Lori is a Certified Scrum Product Owner, and much of the book talks to Scrum and Agile principles. However it is also very relatable to leaders – or anyone – who do not work with Agile. The idea of working in short sprints, and making adjustments, applies to dogs as much as it does to people and projects.

Leading a team is all about individuals – Where one would think “one-size-fits-all” applies to all people on a team, it does not (especially not for hats and people with big heads like me, but I digress). Understanding who people are, what motivates them and bringing out their best should be the job of every leader. This is something I know Lori does well, and in the book she talks to her experience with it.

You CAN teach old dogs new tricks – Whether a leader or not, anybody is capable of learning and continuously growing. This was more of a reaffirmation for me than something new, as I am doing it myself as are other “old dogs” I know and work with do on a daily basis. Where these days companies are looking for a 1,000% match in skills, perhaps instead they should be hiring for the capacity to learn those skills?

Lead Like a Dog is a great, uplifting read that I recommend not just for any seasoned leader but as well someone newly thrust into the role, whether they are a dog and/or pet owner or not. The wisdom that Thomas shares here, from her own experience, is evergreen and relevant today, especially in the current climate of staff reductions and negative opinions of Agile and Scrum.

Where I typically give away the copies of books I read, occasionally I hold onto a few and this is one of them. As the author is a colleague and friend, I will keep it until I next see her and have her autograph it.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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