Fair doesn't mean treating everyone the same. Help people play to their strengths.
My daughter's primary school teacher taught me this. She understood that every child learns differently:
- Some children needed physical materials to understand maths.
- Some needed more time.
- Others were getting bored and needed more challenge.
She didn't use one approach for everyone. She looked at what each child needed and adjusted her support.
I realized this applies directly to leadership.
When I joined my team, I spent my first weeks listening and observing. What motivates each person? Where do they feel confident? How much freedom works well for them?
Some people thrive when I give them a goal and plenty of freedom to figure out the way themselves. Others do better with clearer expectations and more frequent check-ins. Some want to spend more time coding, others are energized by strategy or leading a project.
So we adjusted responsibilities, and in some cases swapped roles, to better match people's strengths and development goals.
Months later, I heard from other teams how well some of them are doing in their new roles.
How do you experience this? Should we focus more on strength or on things to improve?
This is part of my "100 Days of Year One" series. Follow along as I share what I've learned in my first year as Head of Data and Cloud.