10 | 2024 Olli Laine, Kipinä Co-founder & CEO
Have you noticed how certain team members not only execute their assigned tasks and tickets, but also deliver genuine added value and elevate the performance of the entire team? Organizational psychologist Liz Wiseman calls these individuals 'Impact Players'. They stand out by taking an active role, solving complex problems, and creating value well beyond their formal job descriptions.
Liz Wiseman's insights at the latest Nordic Business Forum regarding the impact of 'Impact Players' on successful outcomes resonate deeply with us at Kipinä. Perhaps precisely because those very same concepts form the foundation of what our experts and catalysts build as Kipinä's Senior Tech Leadership. It is not a separate service, but rather the collective service attitude and mindset inherent to Kipinä's experts.
Our team's 'player-coaches' embody the 'Impact Players' described by Wiseman, whose mission is not only to master technology, architectures, and coding, but to genuinely support and empower our clients' teams, colleagues, and ways of working.
We dug deeper into the idea of the 'Impact Player' and identified five situations highlighted by Wiseman that are also recurring in IT development. So we decided to tackle these situations from the perspective of the Kipinä Senior Tech Leadership model.
1) Messy Problems
When responsibilities are unclear, expectations come from many directions, problems often become confusing and tasks fall by the wayside. Ordinary workers naturally stick to their roles. In these situations, 'Impact Players' step in and tackle the confusing problem, even if it is not in their job description. Such complex and ambiguous challenges are a feature of IT development, and Kipinä's experts have developed into true problem solvers. By taking an active role and taking responsibility - caring - in solving the problem and bringing in the right people, 'confusing situations' can be resolved. No important task is left undone just because it is not part of someone's role.
2) Unclear Roles
When leadership is unclear, it is natural for people to wait for instructions. 'Impact Players' naturally take leadership without being asked. For Kipinä experts, leadership is not a title, but a way of doing things. Especially at critical stages of projects, when decision-making is slow due to unclear lines of responsibility, we boldly take the lead to clarify roles and responsibilities to get the team back on track.
3) Unforeseen Obstacles
When problems arise, some team members tend to simply pass them along. An 'Impact Player' naturally takes ownership, finds solutions, and drives the project to completion with tenacity and determination. We recognize this as the 'finishing gene', meaning that at Kipinä, we are not accustomed to backing down from challenges. These obstacle-surmounters take responsibility for issues and work persistently toward a resolution. At times, this may also require convening a broader crisis meeting or ensuring proper escalation.
When a critical bug emerges in the production environment, a Kipinä expert ensures that troubleshooting progresses, organizes the team's response, and guarantees that the issue is resolved as swiftly as possible, minimizing any disruption to business operations.
4) Moving Targets
In changing conditions, some hold on to the familiar while the pressure of change disrupts their focus. "Impact Players" adapt quickly, ask the right questions, and adjust their operations to stay aligned with objectives. To adapt our operations and technical solutions to meet evolving business needs, we at Kipinä actively monitor industry trends and technological advancements.
Often, project requirements simply change mid-development. In such cases, our task is to rapidly assess the new situation, adapt the plan, and ensure the team understands the changed circumstances so they can remain motivated and focused on the new objective.
5) Unrelenting Demands
As workloads and demands increase, some people experience anxiety and may make the work heavier for others. "Impact Players" find ways to ease the workload for themselves and their colleagues, bringing positive energy and focusing on what matters. In the most challenging digital development projects under tight schedules and heavy workloads, our Senior Tech Leadership service mindset involves prioritizing tasks, automating repetitive processes, considering the big picture and team dynamics, and supporting team members. Difficult tasks are much more productive to tackle when stress remains under control and work progresses smoothly. A major part of our mission is to act as a workload-streamlining catalyst for our clients, just like an Impact Player, enabling the team to work more efficiently and with a positive atmosphere centered on the essentials.
The True Potential of Teams
Liz Wiseman's core message regarding the value of "Impact Players" in teams is clear: an average contributor keeps their head down, focusing solely on their own tasks. An Impact Player also takes on responsibilities outside their job description that simply need to be done. This is the mindset embodied by every member of our team—an attitude and approach that takes digital development to the next level.
We care. We act as a catalyst.
Senior Tech Leadership is not a standalone service, but a critical component of every Kipinä expert's mindset and operations, empowering our clients' teams to achieve more than before, particularly in scenarios such as:
Ensuring controlled scalability for growing companies.
Driving digital transformation.
Minimizing risks in complex projects.
Modernizing core business operations from legacy systems to the present day.
Maintaining competitiveness in rapidly changing markets.
When you want to elevate your team to the next level, the Senior Tech Leadership model is the key to unlocking full potential!
Olli Laine, Kipinä Co-founder & CEO
The author is a visionary in the future of Finnish digital development, a passionate advocate of data-driven management, and one of the co-founders of Kipinä Software. In addition to his role as CEO, he wears a strong orienteer's headlamp and holds the credentials of an avid cross-country skier.