A test leader doesn’t just lead their testing teams, but builds fine institutions out of those teams.

An institution is a gathering of persons who have accepted a common purpose, and a common discipline to guide the pursuit of that purpose, to the end that each involved person reaches higher fulfilment as a person, through serving and being served by the common venture, than would be achieved alone or in less committed relationship
(Greenleaf, 1977)

Test teams and project teams aren’t just groupings of people among a shared function or project respectfully, but sisters and brothers-in-arms where members help and support each other, and by working together, achieve a greatness beyond the sum of their parts as individuals working alone or in silos. The responsibility of test management is to create a model institution out of testing with culture, environment and community, to be a fine example of quality management and doing things that are good and right. As testers serve the rest of the organisation, the testing institution serves its members to grow, both professionally and personally, and in turn make model institutions out of their project teams:

Can you make yours an institution in which the conditions of life in that institution raise all of those involved in it to a higher achievement as fulfilled persons than if they did their own things without the benefit of those conditions? Can you devise a disciplined participation that raises people’s sights to nobler purposes than they would embrace if they were not constrained by that discipline?
(Greenleaf, 1977)

To create a model institution (Greenleaf, 1977):

1. Goals & Concept: Create a concept with a vision, mission and goals towards creating a serving institution for its members.
2. Discipline: Create a process for members to follow to achieve that goal and concept.
3. All: This must be for everyone involved who choose to follow the discipline; no-one can get left behind.
4. Servant-Leaders: Everyone is part leader, part follower, with main leaders, usually seniors testers and above, becoming the best servants lifting up those around them.
5. Structure: The main leaders work together as a council with a  first among equals, rather than a single chief.
6. Trustee: Those who sit outside the normal operations of the testing team to provide oversight, leadership and accountability. This maybe a senior test leader removing themselves from the day-to-day of the testing team to maintain critical distance needed to fulfil this role, or another member outside of testing itself.

Citations and Further Reading

• Greenleaf, R. (1977) Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness. 25 An. Ed., Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, pp. 250-254