Bob Patrino
Consultant/Senior Technical Project Manager| Tamazari
Newport, KY, United States
Inspire two way trust
Two way trust? What does that mean? Well, you can say you trust your people, but can they trust you? Trust is a two way street and you can’t really expect it to be any other way. If you want your team to go into battle with you, you need to go to fight for them when they need you. What does this look like in the real world? Do you support your team when they aren’t around or do you talk about them to your boss and peers? You say you trust your people but do they have to get your approval for every decision they make? Micro-management isn’t about trust, it’s about fear.
Coach them up, don’t tear them down
Nobody is perfect and mistakes will be made. As a leader, how we handle our team’s failures is very important. We have to find ways to allow our team to take prudent risks, knowing that in order to do that sometimes things don’t go as planned. The coaching part is providing a structure to plan, giving guidance and support through the process, and encouraging learning from both the team’s success and failure. You will find that as you instill a culture of learning and risk taking, more good will happen than bad.
Share success, Own Failure
Here is a common scenario. Your team is responsible for a critical project implementation. Things don’t go as well as expected, there are some roadblocks and parts of the project aren’t working. How does a great leader handle this?? The great leader falls on his sword and accepts the blame for the failure. After all, it happened on their watch. The flip side of this coin is when the team knocks one out of the park, they shine and really made good things happen. This is where the good leader turns into a cheerleader for the team, you sing their praises to whoever is willing to listen, and you tell your boss how fantastic they are.
Be approachable and responsive
If you say you have an ‘open door’ policy, then have one. Don’t run at the first sign of trouble and hide behind your door or your voice mail. Better yet, if you are co-located with your teams then get out of your office and get some face time with them. Remember the old concept, MBWA, management by walking around? I might be dating myself, but it worked. Set aside some of your budget to visit your remote team members, and extend your approachability. Personal contact is a great way to learn about and develop rapport with your team. You would be surprised how much you will learn by asking one simple question, “how are things going”….be quiet and listen.
Look for people doing things RIGHT
We have all had bosses and organizations that seem to thrive on finding people making mistakes, and punishing them for it. How did that make us feel? And what did that do to our willingness to make decisions and take risks. If you were like me you ended up just putting your 8 hours in and going home. Making waves and speaking up was just too damn risky. I submit to you, that if we spend more time looking for good things, that we will end up finding more success than failure.
Saving Changes...
|
|
|
Community Champion
