Lead and Serve Others: Focus on the Team, Not Individuals

Have you seen these problems? The organization wants to reward individuals. However, you know teams succeed when they work together. The organization focuses on manager- and HR-led performance management. You know that when you build relationships, you succeed with all that performance management. Your organization wants predictability. You want to encourage experimentation.

If you’ve seen these problems and you’d like to change your leadership practice, join Johanna Rothman as she discusses concrete options you can consider to change how you lead in the organization.

Learn to create an environment that frees people to do their best work with your leadership. Become a modern leader who leads and serves others—not controls or directs

Transcript

1. Johanna Rothman
   @johannarothman
   www.jrothman.com
   Lead and Serve Others:
   Focus on the Team, Not Individuals
   

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2. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
   @johannarothman
   Excellent leadership means serving
   the team, not individuals
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3. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
   @johannarothman
   Reward Individuals But Want Collaboration?
   3
   We focus on and reward resource efficiency:
   Everyone is busy all the time
   But, we need flow efficiency
   To optimize for the flow of value through the team
   

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4. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
   @johannarothman
   The Case for Flow Efficiency
   • Fastest way to create outcomes
   • Much reduced delays
   • Increased team learning
   • Makes agility easier
   4
   

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5. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
   @johannarothman
   How can you switch the focus from
   individual to team?
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6. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
   @johannarothman
   You create an environment where
   all people can lead
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7. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
   @johannarothman
   Lewin’s Equation: B= f (P,E)
   • Each person’s Behavior is a function of the Person and
   their Environment
   • Most performance “problems” arise from the
   environment
   • Environment is all of:
   • How the team works, separately or together
   • How safe the people on the team feel to discuss their
   concerns and challenges.
   • The physical location and how the person and team
   use that location.
   • How much trust the team members offer each other.
   • How organization policies and procedures help the
   team perform their work.
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8. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
   @johannarothman
   Environment is all about culture
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9. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
   @johannarothman
   Culture Creates Teams (or Not)
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10. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    Consider These Suggestions
    • Define the team’s (or workgroup) value.
    • Help the team visualize and coalesce around an
    overarching goal
    • Team-based leadership
    • Team-based feedback & coaching
    • Experiment to learn and manage risks
    • One-on-ones
    • Create an environment where people can succeed
    • Move out people who prevent success
    • Focus on reinforcing feedback
    • Stand up for your team
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11. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    1. Define the Team’s Value
    • What value does the team offer the
    organization?
    • Start with product or service
    • Define the overarching goal that aligns
    with that product or service
    (outcomes)
    • Move from only individual goals to
    partly team-based goals and
    compensation
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12. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    2. What’s the Overarching Goal?
    • What outcomes does the team need
    to provide?
    • Avoid outputs, such as interim
    milestone complete by date
    • Focus on what customers can do with
    the product/service
    • Customers can
    by
    • I no longer advocate OKRs, but those
    might work for you
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13. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    3. Coalesce Around Goal
    • Learn together (flow efficiency)
    • Technical excellence
    • The more the team checks itself as
    they proceed, the faster they can
    finish
    • Technical excellence makes
    everything much easier
    • How can the team create small
    experiments and learn from them?
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14. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    4. Team-Based Leadership
    • Team learns how to offer feedback
    and coaching to each other
    • You “teach” feedback and coaching
    • Meta feedback
    • Meta coaching
    • Offer “labs” during work hours:
    • How to offer feedback and coaching
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15. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    People Need Frequent Feedback
    • Feedback is about observable behavior
    • Peer-to-peer feedback:
    • Create an opening
    • Describe behavior or results
    • State the impact
    • Make a request
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16. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    Coaching and Meta-Coaching
    • Not just teaching, offering options
    with support
    • You create an environment in which
    everyone coaches everyone else
    • Not inflicting help on others
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17. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    5. Regular One-on-Ones
    • Every week or two, depending on the
    kind of work you do
    • Once a month is too long
    • Build trusting relationships
    • Learn what each person wants/
    needs
    • Check in on career development
    • Listen for bad news
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18. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    Make Regular One-on-One Time Sacrosanct
    (You will have to protect your schedule)
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19. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    From Manager-Led One-on-Ones to Person-Led
    • First Structure:
    • Greeting
    • Review your action items for the person.
    • Ask for obstacles, etc.
    • Ask if they want help, feedback, coaching
    • Placeholder for career development
    • What do they want to discuss?
    • Action item review
    • Second Structure:
    • From Greeting to a Checkin
    • They take the responsibility to create an
    agenda
    • Include:
    • Obstacles
    • Help, feedback, coaching
    • Career development
    • Action item review
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20. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    Minimal One-on-One Structure
    • Check-in
    • Do you need anything? (Not just from
    you, anything at all.)
    • Is anything getting in your way?
    • What can I, as your manager, do to
    help?
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21. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    Regular One-on-Ones Allow You To…
    • Offer reinforcing feedback often
    • Learn more about the team’s
    environment
    • See the team’s system/environment
    • Avoid performance reviews
    • Which don’t work anyway
    • Evaluations are about managing money,
    not performance
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22. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    Change-Focused vs Reinforcing Feedback
    • Make it a point to offer reinforcing
    feedback every week:
    • Something people do right/well
    • Supports other people
    • Offer change-focused feedback when
    it’s behaviors they can change
    • I am always going to be blunt and
    direct. I can learn to choose words
    that people can hear
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23. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    6. Create an Environment Where All People Succeed
    • Collaboration over cooperation
    • Weed out non-jellers or people who
    can’t do the work
    • Hire for people who can work as part of
    a team
    • Sufficient cultural fit (see the culture
    slide) not necessarily comfort
    • Hire for diversity of thought and
    experience
    • Reinforcing feedback
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24. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    “The Culture of any organization is shaped by the worst
    behavior the leader is willing to tolerate.”
    — Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker, School Culture Rewired, ch.3
    (2015)
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25. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    7. Back/Support Your Team (Especially to Others)
    • “The buck stops here”
    • Take the ultimate responsibility
    • Why managing yourself is so
    necessary
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26. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    Move From Individual Theory to Team Practice
    • Experiment
    • Apply
    • Engage
    • Realize results
    • Choose where you will experiment
    and learn more
    • Practice new behaviors first. (Beliefs
    arise from behaviors.)
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27. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    Culture Drives Behaviors
    • How does your environment create
    behaviors?
    • We often behave to maximize our
    rewards or minimize punishment
    • What does your organization reward?
    • Individual work (resource efficiency)
    • Team-based work (flow efficiency)
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28. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    Lead and Serve Others
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29. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    Let’s Stay in Touch
    • Pragmatic Manager:
    • www.jrothman.com/
    pragmaticmanager
    • Please link with me on LinkedIn
    • Modern Management Made Easy:
    • Bundle at https://leanpub.com/b/
    modernmanagementmadeeasy
    • Everywhere you buy books
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