Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Who is a DBA Leader?

Sitting behind a big mahogany table, smoking Cuban Cigar, glaring at the person sitting across, one hand taking the receive of black phone to right ear, and the other hand getting the mobile phone off the left ear can be the image of a DBA boss in any white elephant government outfit, but it certainly cannot work in organization made up of professionals like database administrators. And if such image or similar image is working in any such company then that company is not great. It's as simple as that.






So who is DBA leader? The obvious answer is the person who leads a team of database administrators. Sounds simple enough, but it takes a lot to be a true leader. There are many DBA bosses at various layers, DBA managers at various layers, but being a DBA leader is very different. If you are a DBA leader, then you should be kinda worshiped. If you work in a team which has a DBA leader, then you are a very lucky person.

A DBA leader is the one who leads by an example. He walks the talk. He is the doer and not just talker. He inspires, motivates, and energizes the team members to follow him and then exceed his example. For instance, when client asks to improve that performance issue in the RAC cluster, the DBA leader would first jump in at the problem and start collaborating with team. He would analyze the problem, would present his potential solutions or at least line of action. He would engage the team and would listen to them. He won't just assing the problem to somebody, then disappear, and come back at 5pm asking about status. DBA leader is not super human, so he will get problems of which he won't have any knowledge. He will research the the problem with team and will learn and grow with them. That approach would electrify the team.

A DBA leader is a grateful person. He doesn't seem to thank his team enough for doing a great job. When under the able leadership of the DBA leader, team would reach to a solution, then regardless of his contribution, a DBA leader would make his team look awesome. That will generate immense prestige for the DBA leader at the same time, while making team looking great. Team would cherish the fact that solution was reached after deep insights of the DBA leader, and yet leader gave credit to them.

A DBA leader is the one who is always there. He falls before the team falls, and doesn't become aloof when things don't go well. Things will go wrong and crisis will come. In such situations, responsibility is shared and DBA leader doesn't shirk from it. In the team of DBA leader, there are no scapegoats.

A leader of DBAs keeps both big piture and ther details in perspective at the same time. He provides the vision and lives the vision from the front. He learns and then he leads. He does all of this and does it superbly and that is why he is the star and such a rare commodity, and that is why he he is the DBA LEADER.

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