From mid last year, I have been playing a junior architect
role, transitioning out of the technical lead role I was playing. It has been
an interesting ride so far with many obstacles and many more to come I’m sure
which makes it even more interesting. Taking the plunge to the new role
required a change in the mindset. As a technical lead, I was predominantly
focused on the technical aspects related to the product/project I was working
on whereby the quality aspects of the code was the primary concern. With the
switch to an architect, though most of those responsibilities still remain,
there was an additional aspect which I had overlooked during the initial
period. In the capricious environment we
usually work in, things do get overlooked which if left unattended will hinder
the performance of your team and in turn affect the organization you work for.
Though I considered it to be a project management aspect, I
came to figure out that this aspect was a responsibility of mine with this new
role. So what is this overlooked aspect you ask? The management of the people
aspect. Although you as an architect will not be involved with other project
management aspects such as budgeting, schedule planning (though you need to
assist on this one), goal setting, emitting CO2 with managerial meetings with
no agenda (no pun intended of course), you do have the most important aspect of
it all to manage, which is the people aspect. Though technical leadership and direction
is your primary focus, you cannot overlook the fact that your team and the team
morale is the determinant success factor of your team.
As an architect, you are now directly responsible of the
career progression of your team. If you have a few under performers in your
team, it does not mean you should corner them out and report them to
management. On the contrary, you have to understand the individual’s issues, the
reasons for under-performing and setting up a plan for that individual to focus
on making the wrongs right. Most of the time, the under performers have a
reason for their current predicament and understanding that will enable you to
help that person out of the difficult situation. This is the time the team as a
whole should drive the required productivity of the team until the
under-performers do come up to the required standard. Constant feedback will
help the people to understand their weakness and improve on it.
The catch here is that sometimes you figure out some people
just do not take constructive feedback well. You cannot take this personally as
this is the idiosyncratic behavior of some people. You can help someone as much
as they want to be helped.
Learning to give feedback was another skill I had to obtain
with this new role. Giving feedback is not the hardest part, but giving it in a
way where the receiver does not go into a defensive mode is the harder part.
Again, though I see this as a project manager’s responsibility, I believe as an
architect, you are still responsible for the growth of your team and should
give them feedback in order for them to grow. Feedback will include both the
positive and the negative. “Good job with the XYZ module” is not a positive
feedback. “Good job” works only if you are Hancock (you have to watch the movie
to get that one). You have to be very specific regarding the accomplishment of the
individual. “The new automation build script you setup for the team helped us
to give regular internal releases whereby we were able to get feedback early on
the features the team was working on”. Now that is a very specific positive
feedback attributing what the person did and aligning that to the company’s
goals of reducing operations costs and turnaround time.
Even though technical leadership still remains as the
primary focus for you as an architect, you should not forget the most important
people factor which will help you succeed as a team and move forward adding
value to the organization you work for.
In the next post I will focus on the changes I had to make
especially in the thought pattern transitioning from being a glorified geek.
Thank you for reading people, and as always your feedback is
much appreciated and do please leave by a comment if you have anything to say,
the good, the bad and the ugly.
