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

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 them.

Transcript

1. Johanna Rothma n @johannarothma n www.jrothman.com Lead and Serve Others: Focus on the Team, Not Individuals
2. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Think back to your “best” and “worst” managers . What do you remember? 2
3. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman People remember how they felt. That’s the power of leadership. (Good or bad) 3
4. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Excellent leadership means serving the team, not only individuals 4
5. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman The Case for Flow Ef fi ciency • Fastest way to create outcome s • Much reduced delay s • Increased team learnin g • Makes agility easier 5
6. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman How can you switch the focus from individual to team? 6
7. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman You create an environment where all people can lead 7
8. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Lewin’s Equation: B= f (P,E) • Each person’s Behavior is a function of the Person and their Environmen t • Most performance “problems” arise from the environmen t • Environment : • How the team work s • Psychological safety for mistakes, concerns, challenge s • How people use their virtual and physical location s • How much trust the team members offer each other. • How organization policies and procedures help/hurt the team perform their work. 8
9. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Environment is all about culture 9
10. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Culture Creates Teams (or Not) 10
11. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Our Agenda 1. De fi ne the value the team provides . 2. Team-based leadership . 3. Regular one-on-ones . 4. Create an environment where everyone can succeed. 11
12. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman 1. De fi ne the Team’s Value • What value does the team offer the organization? • Start with product or servic e • De fi ne the overarching goal that aligns with that product or service (outcomes ) • Move from only individual goals to partly team-based goals and compensation 12
13. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman What’s the Overarching Team Goal? • What outcomes does the team need to provide? • Avoid outputs, such as interim milestone complete by dat e • Focus on what customers achieve with the product/service (outcome ) • Customers can <solve this problem> by <this date > • I no longer advocate OKRs, but those might work for yo u • Avoid individual goals that cascade down from something else. 13
14. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Coalesce Around Goal • Learn together ( fl ow ef fi ciency ) • Technical excellenc e • The more the team checks itself as they proceed, the faster they can fi nis h • Technical excellence makes everything much easie r • How can the team create small experiments and learn from them? 14
15. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman 2. Team-Based Leadership • Team learns how to offer feedback and coaching to each othe r • Promotes psychological safet y • You “teach” feedback and coachin g • Meta feedbac k • Meta coachin g • Offer “labs” during work hours : • How to offer feedback and coaching 15
16. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman People Need Frequent Feedback • Feedback is about observable behavio r • Peer-to-peer feedback : • Create an openin g • Describe behavior or result s • State the impac t • Make a request 16
17. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Coaching and Meta-Coaching • Not just teaching, offering options with suppor t • You create an environment in which everyone coaches everyone els e • Not in fl icting help on others 17
18. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman What Kind of a Team Do You Lead & Serve? 18
19. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman 3. Regular One-on-Ones • Every week or two, depending on the kind of work you d o • Once a month is too lon g • Build trusting relationship s • Learn what each person wants/ need s • Check in on career developmen t • Listen for bad news 19
20. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Make Regular One-on-One Time Sacrosanc t (You will have to protect your schedule) 20
21. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman From Manager-Led One-on-Ones to Person-Led • First Structure : • Greetin g • Review your action items for the person . • Ask for obstacles, etc . • Ask if they want help, feedback, coachin g • Placeholder for career developmen t • What do they want to discuss ? • Action item revie w • Second Structure : • From Greeting to a Checki n • Other person takes the responsibility to create an agend a • Include : • Obstacle s • Help, feedback, coachin g • Career developmen t • Action item review 21
22. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Minimal One-on-One Structure • Check-i n • 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? 22
23. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Regular One-on-Ones Allow You To… • Offer reinforcing feedback ofte n • Early warning signals of larger problem s • See the team’s system/environment • Avoid performance reviews • Which don’t work anywa y • Evaluations are about managing money, not performance 23
24. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Change-Focused vs Reinforcing Feedback • Make it a point to offer reinforcing feedback every week : • Something people do right/wel l • Supports other peopl e • Offer change-focused feedback when it’s behaviors they can chang e • I am always going to be blunt and direct. I can learn to choose words that people can hear 24
25. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman 4. Create an Environment Where All People Succeed • Collaboration over cooperatio n • Weed out non-jellers or people who can’t do the wor k • Hire for people who can work as part of a tea m • Suf fi cient cultural fi t (see the culture slide) not necessarily comfor t • Hire for diversity of thought and experienc e • Reinforcing feedbac k • Drucker calls this the “harmonious whole” 25
26. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman “The Culture of any organization is shaped by the wors t behavior the leader is willing to tolerate.” — Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker, School Culture Rewired, ch. 3 (2015) 26
27. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Back/Support Your Team (Especially to Others) • “The buck stops here ” • Take the ultimate responsibilit y • Why managing yourself is so necessary 27
28. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman 7 Principles 1. Clarify your purpose (you, team, organization). 2. Build empathy with the people who do the work. 3. Build a safe environment. 4. Seek outcomes and optimize for the overarching goal . 5. Encourage experiments and learning. 6. Catch people succeeding. 7. Exercise your value-based integrity. 28
29. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Move From Individual Theory to Team Practice • Experiment • Appl y • Engag e • Realize result s • Choose where you will experiment and learn mor e • Practice new behaviors fi rst. (Beliefs arise from behaviors.) 29
30. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Culture Drives Behaviors • How does your environment create behaviors ? • We often behave to maximize our rewards or minimize punishmen t • What does your organization reward ? • Individual work (resource ef fi ciency) where every individual is bus y • Team-based work ( fl ow ef fi ciency) where the team focuses on the work 30
31. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Let’s Stay in Touch • Pragmatic Manager: • www.jrothman.com/ pragmaticmanage r • Please link with me on LinkedI n • Modern Management Made Easy : • Details here: https:// www.jrothman.com/mmme • Everywhere you buy books in ebook and print 31