Leadership in Open Source

Leadership in Open Source

scott.wilson@it.ox.ac.uk@scottbw

What I’ll be covering in this session

1. What is leadership in an OSS project?

2. Leadership attributes, character and styles

3. Mentoring

4. Leadership communications

1. What is leadership in OSS?

Leadership is really just common sense. Which is why its so difficult.

John Quincy Adams

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader

What is leadership?

• Leadership is a characteristic that can be demonstrated in any role, in any function, and at any time

• Leadership is about the tone of our behaviour, not a set of rules to be followed

• Leadership is not about doing everything yourself

Management is not leadership?

Managers Leaders

Follow Rules Follow Instincts

Focus on getting things done

Focus on getting the right things done

Side with safety Side with risk

Focus on delivering today Focus on articulating tomorrow

Mark Anderson: The Leadership Book

Does OSS need leadership?

“… what is leadership in open source communities? It's accountability. It's shouldering the responsibility for making sure work gets done. Largely that means making sure that those who want to do work can do it - that there are no roadblocks for those doing the work. It may also mean doing the work yourself if no one else steps up. Sadly, many people don't realize this and work towards attaining leadership roles ... This almost always fails in a community ... In short, if there's a change you want made, and you aren't participating in making it happen, then you aren't doing it the open source way.” - David Nalley

Cooperation vs. Collaboration

The genius of open source has been to break projects into chunks where people can go and work in isolation.

Then bring it back and fold it into the project.

This is what makes projects efficient.

Always be thinking about how you can make problems into co-operative problems, rather than collaborative problems.

David Eaves

Management in cooperative work is through leadership

- communicate the vision, tone and norms- ensure appropriate division of work to

prevent deadlocks and stalling- minimize overlaps that can cause conflict- facilitate communication over shared

concerns and overlaps- shepherd occasional larger-scale strategic

refactoring

In summary…

OSS projects are social capital: leadership is about growing and

directing that social capital

2. Leadership attributes, character and styles

Leadership Attributes

Standard Bearers

Establish the ethical framework of an organisation

Set the tone of work by their demeanor

Set the norms of work through their behaviour

Developers

Help others through teaching and mentoring

Take opportunities both to learn and to teach

Integrators

Orchestrate the activities of the organisation

Articulate the vision of the future

ACTIVITY

Think about one OSS leader who you've worked with in the past. How much did they act as standard bearer, developer (of people) and integrator?

Did they pay too much attention to one and ignore the others, or did they balance out these attributes?

Leadership Character

Leadership Character Traits

Demeanor

Visibility

Messaging

Communicating direction

Approachability

Listening

Fairness

Performance mgt

Personal development

Open to innovation

Respecting diversity

Principles

Honesty

Respect

Fairness

Clarity

Openness

Collegiality

Decisiveness

Humility

(Respect for) Diversity

Bravery

Mark Anderson: The Leadership Book

Even more lists!USMC:

Justice

Judgment

Dependability

Initiative

Decisiveness

Tact

Integrity

Enthusiasm

Bearing

Unselfishness

Courage

Knowledge

Loyalty

Endurance

TPG:

Honest

Competent

Forward-looking

Inspiring

Intelligent

Fair-minded

Broad-minded

Courageous

Straightforward

Imaginative

Tanya Prive, Forbes:Honesty

Ability to delegate

Communication

Sense of humour

Confidence

Commitment

Positive Attitude

Creativity

Intuition

Ability to Inspire

OK, so..?

Don’t be too concerned with the lists..!

Take a process approach: appraise your strengths and weaknesses, and devise strategies to address what you see as problem areas

To be a better leader, you need to take your own personal development seriously

Questionnaires and self-tests can bring useful insights, even when they are complete nonsense

Self-analysis

To develop leadership character you should be reflective and self-aware

ACTIVITYReflective thinking is important for leaders - you need to calibrate and take an outside view of your leadership behaviour and demeanour.

Ask yourself:

Am I fair?

Do I listen to others?

Do I take responsibility?

Do I care about other people?

Am I honest?

Am I willing to debate?

Do my colleagues trust me?

Where do I excel as a leader?

What are my weaknesses - where do I know I could do better?

Common mistakes by leaders

Lack of contact

Inconsistency in messaging

Unfairness in decision making

Taking feedback badly

How to Receive Feedback

Leaders need to analyse feedback rather than just react to itavoid temptation to be defensive, or dismissiveavoid dwelling on negative feedbackthank people for feedback - even negative. show you are listening - don't just respond automatically, but demonstrate that you take feedback seriously and are thinking it through

Common problems experienced by leaders

Feelings of isolationDwelling on mistakesBurnoutArroganceDoubt

Are you a leader, or just acting like one? How could you tell the difference?

Leadership Styles

Autocratic

Participative

Delegative

We’ve given you a leadership styles questionnaire so you can find out what your preferred leadership style might be

3. Mentoring

Why should I be a mentor?

Mentoring is a key part of leadership

Leaders are often the beneficiaries of mentoring

Leaders pass on their expertise and develop their community through mentoring

Leaders support their own self-development by mentoring others

Mentoring vs. Coaching

Mentoring is an indefinite, relationship based activity with several specific but wide ranging goals…over an extended time period. The agenda is open and continues to evolve... seeks to build wisdom – the ability to apply skills, knowledge and experience to new situations and processes

Coaching involves ... meeting very specific objectives within a set period of time … mainly concerned with performance and the development of certain skills… there is usually a planned programme with a much shorter timeframe than in mentoring, so the learning goals are usually determined in advance.

(However, often used interchangeably, e.g. GSoC is probably “coaching” rather than “mentoring” according to this definition)

CIMA: Mentoring and Coaching Topic Guide

What is mentoring for?

Developing knowledgeworking with mentees to build their skills and knowledge, either of the domain, or project-specific knowledge

Developing attitudesworking with mentees to develop their demeanor as a community member

Reinforcing normsworking with mentees to encourage specific behaviours

Building commitmentencouraging deeper participation in the community

Key considerations for mentoring

Frequency of contactrealistically, how much time can you spend?

when do you want to be available?

Method of contactf2f, skype, email…

Duration of partnershipdo you want to set a limit? Or continue as long as you’re both happy to?

Key considerations for mentoring

ConfidentialityConsider how you will handle confidential communications; for example you may need to discuss difficult situations in the community with mentees

Setting expectationsBe clear about what you are offering, particularly time and contact commitments

Experiential learning

Adapted from David Kolb’s Learning Cycle

Giving feedback

Giving feedback is a crucial part of mentoringFeedback should be frequent and timely Be as specific and relevant as possible

I.e. “your method names should be more self-explanatory and have comments to help other developers” not “your code is sloppy”

Always acknowledge achievements and progressKeep it simple and concise

Getting started

Nurturing early contributorscan start at any time, just identify a new contributor, and offer to work with them

Mentoring in formal programmesjoin an established programme, or start one up for your project. Established programmes have a support network and processes

Mentoring programmes

Google Summer of Codehttps://developers.google.com/open-source/soc/

VALS Semester of Codehttp://semesterofcode.com/

Outreach Programme for Womenhttps://live.gnome.org/OutreachProgramForWomen

4. Leadership communications

Leadership communication acts

SummationParaphrasingAcknowledgingDecisionsReframingUnblockingIndividual follow-ups

ACTIVITY

Reflect on your communications with your project - can you identify an example where you have used one of the communication actions we've listed?

Questions

Resources

• Mark Anderson, The Leadership Book (Financial Times Series)

• David Nalley, Leadership in Open Source Communities http://opensource.com/business/11/2/leadership-open-source-communities

• David Eaves, Wiki's and Open Source: Collaborative or Cooperative? http://eaves.ca/2007/02/05/wikis-and-open-source-collaborative-or-cooperative/