$30 off During Our Annual Pro Sale. View Details »

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

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

Johanna Rothman
PRO

January 12, 2021
Tweet

More Decks by Johanna Rothman

Other Decks in Business

Transcript

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

    View Slide

  2. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    Excellent leadership means serving
    the team, not individuals
    2

    View Slide

  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

    View Slide

  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

    View Slide

  5. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    How can you switch the focus from
    individual to team?
    5

    View Slide

  6. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    You create an environment where
    all people can lead
    6

    View Slide

  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.
    7

    View Slide

  8. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    Environment is all about culture
    8

    View Slide

  9. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    Culture Creates Teams (or Not)
    9

    View Slide

  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
    10

    View Slide

  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
    11

    View Slide

  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
    12

    View Slide

  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?
    13

    View Slide

  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
    14

    View Slide

  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
    15

    View Slide

  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
    16

    View Slide

  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
    17

    View Slide

  18. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    Make Regular One-on-One Time Sacrosanct
    (You will have to protect your schedule)
    18

    View Slide

  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
    19

    View Slide

  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?
    20

    View Slide

  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
    21

    View Slide

  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
    22

    View Slide

  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
    23

    View Slide

  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)
    24

    View Slide

  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
    25

    View Slide

  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.)
    26

    View Slide

  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)
    27

    View Slide

  28. © 2021 Johanna Rothman
    @johannarothman
    Lead and Serve Others
    28

    View Slide

  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
    29

    View Slide