What Does a Leader Do With Visibility?

 

Visibility can be a double-edged sword. In other words, it has the potential to cut both ways depending upon how it's used. Although it is a very effective tool to help a savvy project leader motivate and maximize the value of the team, it can also be used as a stick to micro-manage and beat down the team (an ineffective at best, demoralizing tactic at worst). Having experienced both uses of visibility myself, I'm not only opposed to using the power of visibility in such a small-minded way, I'm amazed that so many organizations insist on doing so.

With that in mind, let me share with you some of the ways a project leader could use visibility to benefit the team:

1. Visibility can give everyone on the team a clear understanding of what they should be doing: I know this sounds simple, but sometimes it's easier said than done. When people have to spend time figuring out what they should be doing, it wastes time. When Visibility is available to everyone on the team, project leaders and individual team members, they have a complete understanding of what needs to be done, who needs to do it and whether or not things are on track.
2. Visibility makes it possible for project leaders to see how the team is doing and where they can provide help, facilitate collaboration or remove roadblocks: It doesn't make sense to force project leaders to spend time struggling to figure out what everyone is doing, when it could be readily available. Visibility into what team members are doing makes it possible to facilitate a productive work environment (this is one place project leaders need to avoid the temptation to micro-manage).
3. Visibility makes it possible to keep everyone focused on those things that contribute to the project and provide value: Many project teams are often pulled in different directions as scope changes or cross-departmental demands arise. If this doesn't happen in your organization, consider yourself fortunate. However, if it does, visibility into what's happening within project teams makes it possible to keep teams on track and focused.

I don't include it in the list (because it has the potential of being used as a really big stick), but accountability is what many businesses are looking for visibility to provide. I'm all in favor of accountability generally, and have found it to be very valuable in motivating team members. I'm a real believer that when team members feel ownership, or accountability, for something they tend to step up their performance. That being said, "cracking the whip of accountability" is another matter entirely (and possibly the focus of another post sometime in the future).

Do you have visibility into your projects? How do you use that visibility to motivate and lead the team?