Winning the heart and mind of the team members?

“God gave us minds to think with and hearts to thank with. Instead, we use our hearts to think about the world as we would like to have been, and we use our minds to come up with rationalizations for our ingratitude. We are a murmuring, discontented, unhappy, ungrateful people. And because we think we want salvation from our discontents…”- Douglas Wilson.

Every leader wishes to identify this secret and want to gain from this.

Every leader tries their best to obtain it.

I also have worked with a few such leaders, and when I glance back, I can learn from them.

It 2003, we were joined fresh in the software company. We were in a startup company. We were thrilled that after several years of struggle we could get into the software development job! An outstanding accomplishment for us! None of our core competence was computer science, but we acquire all the applicable knowledge by performing many means!

But after joining, at the same time, we were depressed that we do not have any project. Projects were stopped coming owing to slow down. We were VB6 developers, waiting for the assignment. Our leaders were earnestly seeking for an assignment.

“When people go to work, they shouldn’t have to leave their hearts at home.” — Betty Bender

We were 10 new joiners; some were developers, and few are test engineers. Our leaders were few senior individuals. Very respectable people managers. Always caring and supporting us. Assuring us, encouraging us and engaging us by offering us various tasks to understand and hone our skills.

One day one assignment came. It was a C++ project. Very big program but granted to pilot with one module. We recognized that we do not have the competence to solve that immense problem. Leaders had encouraged us to engage with this project. We received a team leader from a different program and a few senior developers as a mentor for our program.

We had a routine schedule call about the program and exploring to solve the problem offered to us by the client to demonstrate that if we have the appropriate framework of thought and competency to solve that problem available with us or not.

We were working on 10–15 hrs. At that time, to figure out and crack that problem, we were also giving different Brain bench exams and C++ tests to strengthen our knowledge.

All the 10 team members were giving 70–80 hrs. In a week.

The leaders were invariable with us, accompanying us, mentoring us, and with our learning journey. We never felt that we were working so hard! We were part of the whole gang where we are working out a complex problem in our life!

6 months we struggled to build the prototype system.

We lost the project!! Leaders were contending to grant us something to the client. We received an agreement. Few of our team members were allowed to travel to the customer place and work with customer teams to build the system.

“The mind forgets but the heart always remembers.” — Anonymous.

And 60% of our team members will do the Unit and system testing for that solution. In rotation, after 6 months, a couple of us will accompany the team on-site for development.

Three years we have worked for that large system development in C++ and embedded OS, once that team was 40 individuals. In one of the dominants profit-making entities at that time for our startup company wing!

“As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” — Bill Gates

We all were giving 120%, all the time, without objection. The leader was smiling and constantly inspiring all of us. We were functioning as a team like glue.

We did not have any issues working for that program.

When I look back what was the bonding the leaders have established among the team members?

Leaders have established a compelling vision for all of us. If we do not have that project, we as an individual, as a department, will lose everything.

We stretch ourselves for knowledge to know C++, to know the domain, to know software architecture, etc. to establish a complete system.

We formed an appropriate team to by collaborating among ourselves, to take care of ourselves by sharing and caring for each other.

We all had to go on site, learn from all the strong software experts to develop a complex software system.

The leader was sharing how team members were growing, getting acknowledgment from clients, expanding our project, who is traveling for the next assignment, complete transparent communication, and trusting environment.

All the leaders were excellent listeners and mentoring all of us about how to overcome conflict, challenges.

Our mentors were remarkable, as they were gaining and teaching us, and we used to share our challenges with them and was receiving guidance.

Our leaders empathized with all of us, and we also strengthen that empathy culture.

Our leaders used to travel to the client place every 6 months and share the uplifting story and support us to strengthen ourselves, they choose to establish people will travel, come back and share stories about new challenges and share success among all of us. Over a period of time, we all have developed into an excellent storyteller.

We all had a shared purpose and all of us were passionate to accomplish the same.

All credit goes to those leaders, they win our hearts and mind, we never understood that!!

“People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.” — John C. Maxwell