The thing about SDM - organization leader

In this post I will talk about SDM as organization (org) leader. They might be called General Manager (GM) or Director in large software companies. But the title is not important. The cornerstone of an org leader in most context is they have to own a product end to end with significant customer value. The three keywords for a SDM as org leader are: vision, people and culture. First, about vision. An organization typically owns at least one customer facing product. What will the product be like in 3 years? That is vision. Vision is about direction, it is the future. It is up to the org leader to define the vision of their org and convince the rest of the org to follow them. Second, people. Once the vision is set, an org leader will have to find the right people to move from now to the vision. The judgement and the charisma of the org leader on people will be crucial for the org to function well. No matter how well defined the org’s vision is, putting wrong people into crucial leadership positions will be disastrous to the org. At the same time, failing to identify and grow future leaders within the org, or hire the right leaders externally are also the cardinal sins of an org leader. An org leader needs to be just and fair, opinionated and open minded. They promote the right people to the right position at the right time, while assertively and swiftly remove the wrong people from critical positions. Org leaders’s main leverage are their people skills. Finally, culture. If an org is a rose garden, the process is the schedule to water, trim and all the gardening routines; the org structure is the layout of the garden and the space between roses; then the org culture is the soil and weather, all the subtle environmental elements that influence the garden’s health. Culture is the common belief of the org members about what is accepted and what is expected. It is the story they all believe. And the story defines the org. When an org becomes dysfunctional, it usually means it has lost its story. In KMS, our org leader (GM) incepted the org with the story 8 years ago, that “we are a tier-0 cryptography service that must be secure, durable and available; with operational excellence that is indistinguishable from perfection.” Every new team member is told this story and they pass on the story. So security, durability and availability, with relentless high standards on operational excellence, become KMS’s culture.