Pcordick@gmail.com

I’d have to say the budget. It drives the SOW and the schedule.

I've been asked about this countless times. I wrote a post about this on LinkedIn. You'll have to substitute Leader for Producer throughout the article. I’ve often been asked what I look for when I interview and hire producers. It’s actually pretty simple. I look for what I call the six pillars of a producer: intelligence, the ability to effectively communicate, the ability to take responsibility, the lateral thought process, an indomitable attitude, and a need for organization. Skills involving process and methodology can be taught. I’m looking for the foundation and support structure upon which I can build a producer and leader. 1. Intelligence – Are they intelligent intellectually as well as emotionally? A producer must be both. Situations need to be understood, implications ascertained, and decisions made. If a producer isn’t intelligent, they may not read a situation correctly or fully comprehend its implications, and ultimately they may not make the best decision. It’s hard for people to trust someone they don’t feel is intelligent, since they don’t have confidence in the decisions that producer might make. 2. Communications – Can they effectively communicate? A producer needs to be able to get their point across in a clear manner. The other half of communications is the ability to listen and understand what's being said. A producer needs to be able to use those communications skills to help maintain momentum and to motivate the team to achieve its goal. 3. Takes Responsibility – Can they step up and take responsibility when things go very, very wrong? Every project needs to have someone who can take ownership or responsibility for it. If a producer can do this, it builds respect and trust from both the team and the stakeholders. 4. Lateral Thought Process – Do they have the ability to improvise, adapt, modify, and overcome? A producer needs to be able to think their way around a situation when all the traditional solutions have been exhausted. The best plan never survives the first contact with the enemy, or so they say. I know that no plan ever survives the first day of production. 5. Attitude – Are they going to maintain a positive attitude when things are at their worst? A producer must be a positive force within the team and the company. They need to have an unshakable faith in the project’s success. 6. Organization – Do they feel driven to organize? A producer must have an innate need to bring the light of organization to the darkness of chaos.

@Brad Pepers if I were pressed to define leadership, I’d have to say: Leadership is the ability to motivate a group of people to complete a common goal.

It's important to build leaders, who understand the principles of leadership, and how to effectively apply them. The people on the floor in the software industry are your most expensive and important resources, I would never hire someone, to be a leader for people I'm responsible for, if they didn't understand the principles of leadership and how to apply them. Hiring someone into a leadership position who didn't know and apply the principles of leadership, I would be doing my people, and the company I work for a disservice. Would you put your most valuable resource, your people, in the hands of an incompetent?

No. 1 on my list is always listen. That's how you start off a solid mentoring relationship. Remember, even if leader isn't your main job function, you will influence other leaders and emerging leaders by how you conduct yourself. Listening opens the way to deeper more impactful conversations, and building trust with the people you're responsible for.