Our Team Lead I

Impact level
Team/Company

You have a strong technical background combined with fantastic communication, leadership and teamwork skills. You lead by example and have a natural ability to empower your team members. You truly enjoy spending a significant amount of your time guiding people (mentoring, defining/approving growth plans, appraisals, 1:1’s, recruiting, etc.). You understand that the journey of leadership is long, you are still exploring and figuring out what works best for your team and seek guidance from the CTO when needed. You support Technical Guides and Senior Developers in defining technical stacks and contribute to Research and Development for the company. You also play a key role in defining Way of Working and Quality Assurance. You can lead a team, as well as the development strategy within a project if needed. You are sometimes involved in business level decisions and can step in for another Team Leads when and if needed. You provide relevant input for the planning, for example, with respect to availability and preferences of your team. You also help solving planning challenges.   You are involved in employee promotion/compensation discussions together with Human Resources and management and work closely with them to evaluate team members. 

Required competence
levels for this position

Listening
4
Oral & Written expression
4
Timing
4
Sensitivity
4
Communication
Helping
4
Approachability
3
Adaptability
3
Feedback
4
Reliability
4
Empathy
4
Working with others
Growth Mindset
4
Knowledge
3
Quality Orientation
3
Craftsmanship
Planning & Organisation
3
Creative problem solving
3
Pragmatism
4
Resilience
4
Commercial Awareness
3
Effectiveness
People Management
2
Process Management
2
Strategic Thinking
2
Self Leadership
2
Leadership

Core competence
expectations

Communication
Listening
4

1) Refrains from immediate judgment and criticism creating an open atmosphere for people to freely speak their minds.
You are silent when needed and open to hear your colleague’s story and ask clarifying questions to better understand their viewpoint.
You notice when people don’t take part in a discussion and you pro-actively ask them for their opinion to make sure everyone is heard.

Oral & Written Expression
4

1) Can argue a complex decision that involves many sides.
Someone in your team was underperforming and negatively impacting others, you can speak with them directly, if needed escalate the issue and own the responsibility for your actions.
2) Proactively experiments with different communication platforms and makes a proposal to introduce them within the company.

Timing
4

1) Communicates on important, sensitive and/or pressing company-wide news in a timely manner, understanding how important the timing of communication is.

Sensitivity
4

1) Adapts communication style and message to a wider audience while keeping in mind and staying true to company values.
2) Is very sensitive to non-verbal and verbal cues and consistently responds adequately. Inspires their team and the organisation in this matter.  
3) Is a go to person on sensitive matters.

Working with others
Helping
4

1) Effectively resolves conflicts.
You effectively mediate between the conflicting parties in order to find a good solution. People come to you for help in difficult situations.

Approachability
3

1) Is approachable and makes others feel comfortable to discuss anything.
You create space for people to approach you and discuss (personal) situations that may impact their work.

Adaptability
3

1) Encourages and enables adaptability within the team.
Generally, you embrace positive change and show contagious enthusiasm for initiatives that benefit the team/company.
2) Understands the requirements of different situations and effectively adapts their behaviour even when under stress and pressure.

Feedback
4

1) Encourages a culture of giving feedback and shares knowledge on how to best give/handle feedback if necessary.

Reliability
4

1) Creates a culture of accountability and leads by example.

Empathy
4

1) Encourages and facilitates inclusive behaviour company-wide, inspires inclusion and diversity.
You speak up when you hear a discriminative comment being made – even if you know it was not meant in such a way.
You console and comfort your colleagues in challenging times at work even when it’s not explicitly expected from you, you truly try to understand them.

Craftsmanship
Growth mindset
4

1) Creates a culture where mistakes are allowed.
When your colleague makes a mistake, you focus on what can be learnt from it rather than holding it against them.
You allow people in your team to experiment, even if the outcome is uncertain. 2) Experiments with new developments and shares interesting findings to the whole organisation.
You give a talk or presentation at a Meetup or conference.
You share your mistakes and learnings.

Knowledge
3

1) Masters various aspects of their work.
2) Shows passion, inspires and is a reliable source for advice, an example to others.
You are the go-to person in the team when there are questions related to your field.

Quality orientation
3

1) Creates great quality output independently.
2) Reviews the quality of other people’s work.
Provides insightful remarks during PRs and encourages team reviews.
3) Can review team’s overall work quality and suggests high-level effective improvements.
During a project implementation, you take a step back to see if the work is still on the right track and if it will still meet the desired quality standards.
4) Can make suggestions to improve the overall work quality at Elements.
When you see that the skeleton project is no longer up to date, you suggest relevant changes.

Effectiveness
Planning & Organising
3

1) Defines the project/work goals and is unafraid to challenge and adapt it.
2) Can oversee the project planning and adjusts it when necessary.
Your planning reflects team members on-boarding and handovers.
You check EMIS to see the planning for your project and the team. 3) Can delegate in such a way that goals are achieved.

Creative problem-solving
3

1) Can break down complex problems into manageable components.
You are the go-to person when a problem arises.
2) Can find solutions in complex situations, weighing the solution against the impact and resources.

Pragmatism
4

1) Actively reminds people of pragmatism and how this can translate into concrete behaviour(s).
You see when people have too many meetings and are not approaching things in a pragmatic way. You give them feedback about this. Instead of dwelling on things forever, you take “difficult” decisions to resolve pending issues or long-lasting discussions.

Resilience
4

1) Keeps a healthy work-life balance and reminds others to do the same.
2) Sets an example and contributes to a culture of positive atmosphere and resilience in the team. 
3) Helps others to feel better and supports them. 
You see a colleague is having a hard time, you help them gain perspective and plan actions accordingly. 

Commercial awareness
3

1) Is a partner of the client, always thinking with them but at the same time unafraid of a confrontation.  
You regularly check-in with the client for feedback about the work we do.
You arrange videocalls or face to face appointments to manage client expectations and satisfaction with what we do. 2) Has a commercial eye, always knowing how to achieve commercial goals in a way that benefits both Elements and the client, therefore ensuring a long-term relationship.
3) Can successfully represent the company externally (with clients, networking events, etc).

Secondary competence
expectations

Leadership

Leadership at Elements is about setting an example and being an inspiration. It’s about living the company values. Leaders at Elements are self-aware and understand how their behaviour impacts others. They take a step back and consider the bigger picture, act according to the company vision and play to their strengths to be effective in guiding teams. Leaders are thinking strategically but also very pragmatically to help move the company, teams and individual team members forward while considering both human and business factors.  

Key Sub-competences
Self-leadership, People Management, Process Management, Strategic thinking

Self-Leadership
2

1) Shows determination and dedication and continues to self-motivate even when times get difficult.  
2) Is brave in confronting themselves in order to truly grasp their aspirations and remain in control of their own development in a way that feels fulfilling.  
3) Takes preventive actions to compensate for their pitfalls.  
4) Is unafraid to ask for help when they lack time, knowledge or simply in need of being heard.  
5) Understands how to organise their work in a way that allows them to be both effective and motivated.  
You know that you have more energy and a sharper mind in the mornings, so you try to keep it free of meetings and focus on challenging tasks.  
When it’s necessary you are open to doing overtime, but you also understand that it’s important to take rest and recover after (you know your balance).   6) Knows how and when to ask for things that are essential for them to feel empowered and supported.  
7) Is receptive to constructive criticism and uses it to gain more control over their performance.

People Management
2

1) Has a structural approach to peoples’ personal development.  
You keep notes on what you discuss in one-on-ones and have a clear approach on following up.  
You set up monthly one-on-one talks with your team members.  
You keep track of key points from performance evaluations and use this information as a base for determining growth path, training goals or other relevant follow up actions.  
You determine performance issues and motivate the employee to make a development plan based on these issues to mitigate challenges.  2) Establishes good interpersonal relationships and puts effort in maintaining them.  
You include people in relevant discussions.  
You respect and appreciate people’s work and the way they approach it.  
You understand the value of having strong professional relationships.  
You can troubleshoot people conflicts within a team.
You ensure a happy vibe in the team.  3) Reviews appraisal reports and leads meaningful conversations.  
You try to truly understand what the person’s aspirations are.  
You take time to hear out people’s career growth concerns and challenges.  
You bring company values into the discussion, to help the person see the bigger picture and stay aligned with the company culture and/or the common goal.   4) Delegates in line with peoples’, projects’ and company’s needs.  
You encourage initiative and autonomy by assigning work that is in-line with a person's aspirations.

Process Management
2

1) Can help with challenges in the planning, by knowing the different skills, ambitions, and availability of their team.  
2) Creates the conditions that enable the team to perform at its best (e.g., setting clear direction, providing appropriate structures and processes, getting the right people).
You provide the resources and tools for teams to complete their tasks.  
You take a step back and can fully understand how the tech implementation works and support the team accordingly. 3) Analyses whether a change in strategic direction will impact existing processes and adapts them accordingly.
4) When needed, can argument and negotiate project-related tech and/or process related agreements in a way that favour the team, client, project’s outcome as well as the company.

Strategic Thinking
2

1) Challenges strategic goals and makes suggestions for improving/adapting them.  
When you see that opting for less interesting projects causes demotivation in your team, you bring it up in the sales team and come up with an alternative solution.   2) Suggests improvements for the company vision and values.  
You notice that being inclusive is becoming more and more important in today’s society.
You make a proposal on how to reflect this in our vision, values and processes.    3) Distinguishes and addresses complex interests and internal tensions and offers suggestions to solve them.  
You notice the team is getting demotivated because they are working on a project with many repetitive tasks, still this project is of great commercial importance for Elements.
You find a solution for both the team challenge as the commercial importance. 4) Has a “business”-mindset and asks critical commercial questions.
You inquire about what steps have been taken to increase commercial success.
You sometimes propose project/business opportunity ideas to the management team.

Take control of your career path.

These definitions and behavioural examples must not be seen as a checklist, they are intended to serve you as a solid reference point to (1) take control of your professional path, (2) to assess your colleagues’ professional contribution and (3) recruit new teammates.