Leadership at VSHN
Our organizational culture is based on the philosophy of distributed responsibility and leadership. This decentralized model enables us to tap into our team’s collective intelligence and potential, fostering an environment of innovation, shared responsibility, and effective problem-solving. Importantly, it mitigates the mental burden that usually falls on a single team lead, promoting a balanced distribution of responsibilities. This ensures that no single person is overwhelmed with the need to know everything, solve every problem, or drive progress alone.
The act of being aware, identifying what is needed, and insisting it gets addressed. We empower everyone to do so.
Leadership at VSHN is not limited to a specific role or rank. It’s seen as the act of recognizing what is needed and ensuring it gets addressed, whether proactively or in response to current issues. This involves bringing people together, fostering a common understanding of what is needed, and persistently driving progress until the need is adequately met. It’s about mindsets, skills, methods, and how you engage and inspire people — all of which can be learned, trained, and practiced. When people drive things forward and make happen what is needed, this is leadership in action.
Each individual’s personal leadership style is defined by how they navigate these challenges. Some roles may necessitate more explicit leadership on certain topics, ensuring that crucial decisions are made.
Developing Leadership
To develop a leadership mindset, it’s essential to cultivate awareness, communication skills, empathy, and initiative. We encourage our team members to be curious, seek understanding, and anticipate the needs of our projects and colleagues. We believe that anyone can foster these skills with practice and intentionality.
Although leadership is distributed at VSHN, some roles may necessitate more explicit leadership in specific areas like in the People (Overview and Governance), Product Manager, or Product Owner role. That being said, having such roles doesn’t meant that others can’t or shouldn’t lead certain things as well.
At VSHN, we invest in nurturing the leadership potential of our team members through continuous learning opportunities and supportive feedback mechanisms. We recognize that leadership styles can vary greatly among individuals and that each person’s approach is shaped by their unique experiences, strengths, and challenges.
Leadership in Action
Leadership at VSHN is not an abstract concept; it is a living thing that is seen in action every day. Leadership is what you can see and observe, when things happen, when people solve problems, achieve goals together, do what is needed. Whether it’s an engineer taking the initiative to solve a complex problem, a team member suggesting a process improvement, or an employee standing up for an important cause, leadership permeates every aspect of our work.
We acknowledge, that there is a lack of leadership in some areas of VSHN and that this often manifests especially in big opportunities or problems not being addressed, felling like in Decision Making at VSHN is the cause, while it’s likely missing leadership.