At Develop Brighton last month, Criterion General Manager Charity Joy gave a talk on the art of leading people who lead other leaders themselves, and shared the tools she's acquired over her career in game development.
Joy emphasized the importance of curiosity, trust and clear communication when it comes to supporting managers, and provided strategies for providing effective feedback and connecting people across the organization – especially when leading people in areas of expertise you might not otherwise have.
Curiosity
As a leader, it is important to have a curious nature and the ability to be open and ask questions. But Joy noticed that a “sense of knowing” can get in the way of that curiosity.
“We bring expertise and experience to our roles, so we know a lot of things,” she explained. “The problem with 'knowing' is that it closes you off from learning. And 'knowing' is dangerous when it comes to leading people who have different expertise than you, and it closes you off from opportunities for understanding.”
Joy encouraged finding peace with not knowing and being comfortable not being the expert in the room.
“It's okay not to know—in fact, it can be really fun not knowing, because then you're actually curious,” she emphasized. “Finding out is a joy, and the main tool of curiosity is the tool of questioning.”
“It's a joy to find out, and the main tool of curiosity is the tool of questioning.”
The ability to ask questions as a leader is key, specifically the ability to ask things in certain ways to get the best out of your team.
“[In asking a question]you should find out what's beneath the surface and be open to what you might find,” Joy said. “If you're really curious when you ask a question, you might be surprised, and surprise is good. You may not like the answer either, and that's okay too. If not, you can ask more questions.
“The curious people around you are curious about ourselves,” she added. “This is an integral skill when you lead a leader.
And when questions are asked of you as a leader, take a moment to pause and think before you provide an answer.
“Even if you think you know the answer, go a little deeper, see if there is any nuance, so that the answer you give is thoughtful, useful, appropriate and not a monologue.”
Communication
Joy emphasized the need to align vision and clear communication when leading leaders, and that there is inherent power in clear and simple messaging to maintain consistency within a team.
“The reality, especially in leadership, is that when we're confused at the top, that confusion is compounded,” she noted. “If there is no clarity at the leadership level, there is no clarity at the team level either.”
“If there is no clarity at the management level, there is no clarity at the team level either”
Joy pointed out a trap that managers can often fall into – believing that the people they supervise are experts in their particular field who know what they're talking about and shouldn't need guidance.
The other side of that coin, she says, is to avoid sharing bad news with your team because you don't think they can handle it.
“We might think it's empathy, but we're actually assessing the maturity of our team and their ability to manage their own emotions,” Joy explained.
“Thinking that you know what people should know, or that you know how people will react, puts you in an elevated position of not knowing where you belong. It also deprives you of the ability to understand what your team will do, how they will react, what they will say.”
It all comes back to being able to step back and trust your team, stop and think.
Coaching
Coaching is an important aspect of leading people for joy, especially in the ability to provide impartial support.
“Your role as a coach is to ask questions, to provide frameworks, to guide them on a journey of discovering what those answers might be and what might work best for them,” she explained.
According to Joy, it is much easier to train someone outside of your area of expertise. She took Criterion's head of technology as an example.
“I can't advise them on anything technological, but I can coach, I can ask questions,” she said. “If it's something I know, it's more dangerous because I'm going to get into it [this headspace of]“Well, this is what I would do.
Joy emphasized that coaching is all about facilitating and providing support and fostering “the belief that the person in front of you really does have the right answers.”
Facilitation
As a manager, you should strive to be a good facilitator, Joy said, and a key aspect of this is knowing when to lead and when to follow.
“There will be times when you will purposely want to step back and follow,” Joy noted. “Sometimes it's the best way to let go [your team] to shine is to get out of their way.”
“Give [your team] space to hear and give yourself space to be surprised”
As a facilitator, Joy suggested that managers should be the last to speak, but should also “elicit ideas” from the rest of the group, not dominate the conversation and “not express their own opinion, but get the rest of the team to express theirs. “
“There will be times when you want to intentionally step back and follow, and we talk a lot about what it means to be a good leader when we're in leadership positions.”
Joy added: “At the end of the day, you're probably going to be the one making the decision, so don't rush the inevitable. If it's shameful and you hate it, you can change it. But give them space to be heard and space to be surprised.”
Confidence
Trust is key in any workplace, but figuring out why you don't trust someone can be difficult. As a result, Joy created a framework that she uses to guide her leadership team to make it easier to solve the underlying problem.
This framework revolves around three pillars: capability, reliability and motive.
“I encourage my teams to use this if they have a problem with a stakeholder or a team member and ask, 'What are you struggling with this person? Is it something about their ability, reliability or motive?' When we break it down like that, it's easier to talk and go ahead and solve the problem,” she explained.
Joy also encourages her team to use this framework in the feedback they receive and to consider how they are perceived as a journey of self-reflection.
Trust can also be used to speed up processes in an organization. Joy noted that there are often “big laws and little laws” in companies, with the big laws being overarching principles such as being on time and being on budget.
But when a big law is broken, little laws are added to try to prevent the problem from happening again, which can slow things down.
For example, if the team is under budget, smaller checkpoints such as more forecasts and meetings can be introduced.
“The solution to so many things in our organizations and teams seems to be to add another meeting or process,” Joy said. “But is increasing speed and trust really what's going to solve the problem?”
Instead, she proposed that by subtracting these small laws, rather than adding processes, they would increase efficiency and trust in the organization.
Consistency
Joy emphasized that consistency and authenticity are key to leading managers because they build trust and reliability.
“We can choose who we want to be and how we want to show up,” Joy said. “Because you're a leadership leader, you should be intentional about what it is.
She added that these senior leaders can “often find themselves doing that” rather than thinking about how they present themselves, such as being clear, credible, reliable and consistent. For Joy, it's all about remembering who you are so that it can lead to action.
“Each change, promotion, pivot in your team, and each phase of your project may require you to perform differently as a leader.”
Joy recommended asking yourself who you should be and who your team needs you to be at that moment.
“Through every change, promotion, pivot in your team, and every phase of your project, you may need to show up differently as a leader, and that's okay. As long as you're aware of how you're showing up.”
As with any craft, the key to maintaining consistency is practice.
“We have to practice showing up the way we want to show up, that we set the tone and how we want to set the tone, that we lift up and support our leaders, that's how I want to do that,” Joy said.
Joy suggested two ways to do this – using mantras and “I Am” statements. For example, one of her mantras is “my mood is not my master”.
“When I walk into the meeting room, I reset,” she explained. “I planted cues to get out of my head, get into my body, and be in this room.
As for the “I am” statements, they can be as simple as: “I am a coach, I am a facilitator, I am a big supporter of my team.”
“It's through this takeover of being that my doing can come and it's such a good reminder for me,” Joy concluded. “Is it perfect? No, it's practice, it's a constant evolution.”