Leading by Listening (Part 2)

 

Continuing from Part 1, here are more tactics for being a leader without moving a muscle, just listening. This is active, focused listening, though. You are seeking two pieces of information critical in any widespread disruption: useful information about your project status and state of mind of your team members. With these two pieces of information you will be able to manage your project and appropriately show empathy so that each team member will feel more comfortable with the situation, even in chaotic circumstances. 

Focus on Recognition

When there is some type of global event that disrupts your project, it is difficult for your team members to get routine work done in a routine way. As you listen, look for opportunities to increase the positivity of the work environment by making sure you recognize work that has been completed.

• Explicitly thank the team member for things that you might not normally recognize people for. Be sensitive that even a basic task being completed could have taken heroic efforts on the part of that individual or team.
• Talk to the team members about what was done to complete a task so that you can get the full story. Then you can relay the story to the rest of the team. This reinforces the fact that you understand that it is difficult to get work done and everyone can enjoy the story and relate to it. It also gives you detailed information you need for monitoring and controlling.
• Set the tone for continued recognition among members of the team. Recognition might be one of the very few positive areas that people experience in any typical day during a major disruptive event.

Build Confidence

As you ask questions to determine state of mind, you will likely identify opportunities to build the confidence of team member who may be questioning whether they can complete work in such a difficult work environment. You want team members to understand that they can apply their judgment where they have expertise to get work done but may simply need help to manage through the unusual circumstances resulting from the disruption. A couple of examples:

• Their expertise may be in Design, but their obstacle is that their interactions with the internal client representative has suddenly become uneven, good participation followed by long periods of silence.
• Their expertise may be in Testing. But an obstacle may have arisen with the behavior of the target application testing environment which is not updated as usual or stable any more.

You can build confidence by explaining that team members do not have to be anxious over the constant new obstacles but can use guidance from you and others to understand the new circumstances creating the obstacles. In turn, team members can better identify and communicate obstacles that are keeping them from progressing. Additional benefit for you:  This will improve the information you get about work progress, risks, and issues even during a major disruption.

Loosen Control

While listening to team members, look for signs that you may need to "loosen the reins" of controls on individuals in project work. That is, if disruption creates more difficulty for teams to get work done, there are more obstacles and less progress. Less progress means less to report in a standard reporting period. Less reporting means less need for routine monitoring.

• Reduce the rate of meetings. For example, prior to a routine team meeting, you can ask if there are updates. If not, cancel the meeting. This will eliminate the awkward meeting where many participants must report “no progress” which under normal circumstances in bad, but in the case of widespread disruption, is common. This is another way to show empathy. It also leaves you more time to talk to individuals about their state of mind.
• Ask if it would help to allow team members make more decisions in the field, without necessarily having to coordinate as much with you as usual. If the organization is in flux, team members, being "closer to the obstacle" may know better the specifics of the unique obstacle's causes and be better situated to resolve it.
• Log obstacles as risks. Does reducing meetings or giving teams leeway sound risky? If so, manage it as a risk. For instance, you can log a risk for the difficulty in completing tasks on time due to the widespread disruption effects on stakeholder participation or test environment stability.

Conclusion & More Help

Being a good listener is being a good leader. In a time of global disruption, a good leader having a firm grasp on his/her project, knowing the state of mind of team members, and showing empathy is rare and needed. With these listening skills you will be able to show yourself as a valuable member of the organization and improve your career prospects. Be sure to document these successes for future positions applications.

Here are articles I have written related to change interactions:

https://www.projectmanagement.com/articles/295709/Communication-Before-Big-Project-Change--Part-1-

https://www.projectmanagement.com/articles/297019/Communication-Before-Big-Project-Change--Part-2-

https://www.projectmanagement.com/articles/263095/Control-Techniques-for-the-Workforce--Dealing-With-The-Unsaid-