Monday, November 19, 2012

Captain Derek Silvercloud, Hero, Team Leader Extraordinaire

I'm a fan of science fiction. I love the way future technical, social and myriad other possibilities can be woven into stories that tell us about who we are and who we might be. But I've never been much of a fan of the fantasy side of science fiction. You know, with all the magic and elves and such.

I recently found myself reading just such a science fiction/fantasy novel, though. Actually, I started reading it once and, as soon as I encountered the elves and the magic, I put it aside. I am so glad I came back to it. Otherwise, I would have missed a fun reading experience centered around an almost perfect (he's only human, after all) example of a great team leader.

The book is Voidhawk by Jason Halstead and is available on Amazon in hard copy or as an eBook. It's the story (actually Book 1 of 4) of the captain and crew of the good ship Voidhawk as they sail the Void seeking a livelihood and finding plenty of adventure to go along with it.

In project management, servant leadership is a powerful concept for developing and leading a powerful project team. Captain Silvercloud  epitomizes that concept. Some examples (based on principles detailed in Absolute Beginner's Guide to Project Management,also available on Amazon) are:

  • He always seeks to find what he can do to help his crew be successful at their jobs. He understands that he can't sail the ship on his own.
  • He is always willing to listen to his crew. He shows remarkable patience with them, whether he agrees with their comments or not. He's smart enough to know that he may have to deal with the situation suggested by the comment regardless of how he feels about it.
  • He puts himself in the others' situation and tries to understand how to make his interests also serve their interests.
  • He accepts responsibility for the team's results. He takes initiative and steps into action when situations develop that are a threat to his team and their mission.
  • He encourages collaboration and trust in all team members. Each team member is empowered to take action when they feel it is required for the success of the team.
  • He fosters growth and improvement in every team member. Each individual is encouraged to find and use the unique skills that they can bring to the team.
  • He seeks input and feedback from the team and any others whose interests are associated with the interests of the team. While he accepts the responsibility for making the decisions, he solicits team input to his decision making process.
  • He finds ways to gain acceptance and action from team members and other's through influence and persuasion. Manipulation is avoided (except on the bad guys, of course, he's not perfect).
  • He brightly illuminates a principle of strong integrity and uses his power in a strong but ethical way.
Following these principles, Captain Silvercloud takes a collection of leftover and salvaged equipment and people gathered from some unlikely sources and melds them into a ship and crew that is fiercely loyal to one another. The story illustrates that, in a collaborative and encouraging environment, even the least likely candidate can express a special talent that is of enormous value to the team.

It may not be classic literature and it does have a few problems, mostly editing. For instance, I think someone could have easily caught some of the typos with just one quick reading of the book. From what I've seen, this is a problem shared with many newer publications, but I still don't think it should be acceptable.

If you are a project manager (or not!) and you are looking for a fun read with a little magic and adventure, then here is a great choice  Add in consideration of the relevant pointers on leadership and team building and I think this would be a very enjoyable combination of diversion and educational experience.

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