CES3: Technical Leadership mapping for common situations

Situations we experience

Ambiguity
High levels of ambiguity in customer scope or ISE focus. Lack of alignment to customer's strategic goals
Misalignment
Challenges gaining required customer resources, time or dependencies. ISE mistaken for staff augmentation
Resistance
Experiencing resistance to change from customer or reluctance to adopt new approaches

Our responses

  • Proactively devising engagements that align to the "bigger picture"
  • Dynamically adapting to opportunities.
  • Reorganising teams to seize oppos.
  • Not waiting to be told
  • Respectfully but firmly negotiating for the outcomes needed using SteerCos including senior stakeholders.
  • Protecting & driving the ISE & customer opportunity
  • Resolve conflict where needed
  • Creating (co-ideating) compelling propositions
  • Evidencing alignment of technology capabilties to business & commercial value for customer and MSFT
  • Engaging stakeholders to drive buy-in, commitment and adoption
  • Remaining resilient both as a team and personally
  • Generating positive energy
  • Adapting where needed, remaining focussed on the outcomes

The TL skills we use

Empowerment, courage & negotiation
The ability to marshal personal or team resources to act, particularly in the face of ambiguity, confusion or disagreement
Empowerment & Courage Negotiation and influenceing , especially in challenging situations
Communicating and storytelling
The ability to convey complex or challenging ideas in a manner that enables others to understand and act upon the ideas
Creating compelling propositions (link to be added)
Creating clarity
the ability to provide a constructive plan or direction for others, in spite of a lack of data or guidance
  • Navigating Ambiguity - Course 51 mins from LinkedIn Learning on unlocking the ability to work with and through ambiguity
  • What to Ask : How to Learn What Customers Need but Don't Tell You Book This book delivers a cognitive-based method for discovering hidden customer needs, converting them quickly into differentiators, and avoiding the pitfalls of traditional research.
  • Communicating with Emotional Intelligence - Course(43 mins) Emotionally intelligent communication can be essential to find clarity from ambiguity.
  • Radical Candour - Audio book You don't have to choose between being a pushover and a jerk. Using Radical Candor you can be kind and clear at the same time. As recommended by your peers. Also available in summarised audio or book
  • Leading Clarity - Book Leading Clarity takes you beyond understanding the strengths and weaknesses of individuals and teams, and guides you through a dynamic process that unveils what is most critical and most enduring
  • Who Rocked the Boat? - Audio book(38 mins) The FranklinCovey Change Model provides the structure necessary to orient, ground, and gain clarity about change.
Resilience, adaptability & generating energy
The ability to create an environment (personal or team) that provides energy, especially through challenges
Creating an environment (personal or team) that provides energy, especially through periods where there maybe significant challenges Adaptability
  • How to Be an Adaptable Employee during Change and Uncertainty - Course (46 mins) In the rapidly evolving job market, adaptability is not just a skill but a necessity for survival and growth for all individuals. I
  • Increase Your Flexible Thinking Skills - Course (32 mins) The ability to switch mental gears quickly and efficiently isn't just a boon for workers needing to pivot after a setback. This facility—also known as cognitive flexibility—is critical to everyone’s mental and physical health.
  • Nano Tips To Improve Adaptability and Flexibility - Short Course (10 mins) Lorraine K. Lee shows you how to improve two of the most requested skills from employers—adaptability and flexibility—by defining the terms and their use, and by offering strategies and frameworks to guide you.
  • Adaptability - The art of winning in an age of uncertainty - Book abstract (5 mins) Organizational success and failure can be reduced to one thing, or so argues management consultant Max McKeown in his scientific and cultural look at adaptability around the globe and through the ages. If groups can’t change and adapt appropriately, they can’t succeed

*Innovation, curiosity & business value
The ability to align to a business strategy and create environments & teams in which new ideas can be conceived and proven (especially when aspects of those ideas maybe challenging)
Innovation and generating business value Curiosity & innovaton
  • Using Questions to Foster Critical Thinking and Curiosity - Course (14 mins) The one trait many successful leaders share is their natural curiosity and desire to learn. We are all innately curious—so why is it that some people seem to discover more answers and lead a more empowering life than others?

  • Applied Curiosity - Course (51 mins) Applied curiosity is the application of curiosity to do specific things like increase influence, inspire innovation, and prepare for competitive shifts in the global economy
  • Curiosity - Audio book (1h 48 mins) Curiosity is a powerful tool for leaders. It can help you cope with complexity, learn from challenging conversations, build trust, and discover new perspectives. This book provides the expert research and advice you need to break free of your assumptions, strengthen your relationships, and see the world differently.
  • The Workplace Curiosity Manifesto - Book abstract (5 mins) Curiosity is good for business. Learning expert Stefaan van Hooydonk offers a concise and lucid guide to building productive curiosity for professionals, in teams and in organizations.
**Collaboration, creating change, influence w/out authority
the desire to deeply understand, especially in the name of better understanding a relationship or potential set of actions  
tbd Influence without authority
  • Leading When You're Not in Charge - Pdcast style course (30) Have you ever looked at your work situation and thought about how things might be different if you were the one in charge? In reality, it’s possible to lead from a spot of influence rather than a position of authority.
  • Leading without Formal Authority - Course (1h 9mins) An introduction to tools for leading with authority
  • Influence - Book abstract (5 mins) This excellent leadership guide by Allan R. Cohen and David L. Bradford offers a classic, necessary set of prescriptions for anyone working in a flat, team-based organization. That is to say, it is a guide that will prove useful to almost everybody employed at a contemporary organization.
  • Nano Tips for Leading with Influence with Kim Kaupe - Short course (10 mins) Here, Kim Kaupe shows you how to lead with influence. Kim explains the difference between influence and authority and busts the myth that without a senior title, you have no control over what happens in the office.
  • Give and Take - Audio book For generations, we have focused on the individual drivers of success: passion, hard work, talent, and luck. But in today’s dramatically reconfigured world, success is increasingly dependent on how we interact with others
  • Elevate - Audio book In Elevate, Robert Glazer reveals four life-changing principles - or capacities - that will allow you to overcome self-limiting beliefs, establish positive habits, and find your "why."
Tools to drive change