Johanna Rothma n @johannarothma n www.jrothman.com Lead and Serve Others: Focus on the Team, Not Individuals

© 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Think back to your “best” and “worst” managers . What do you remember? 2

© 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman People remember how they felt. That’s the power of leadership. (Good or bad) 3

© 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Excellent leadership means serving the team, not only individuals 4

© 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

© 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman How can you switch the focus from individual to team? 6

© 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman You create an environment where all people can lead 7

© 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

© 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Environment is all about culture 9

© 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Culture Creates Teams (or Not) 10

© 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

© 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

© 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 by • I no longer advocate OKRs, but those might work for yo u • Avoid individual goals that cascade down from something else. 13

© 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

© 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

© 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

© 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

© 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman What Kind of a Team Do You Lead & Serve? 18

© 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

© 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Make Regular One-on-One Time Sacrosanc t (You will have to protect your schedule) 20

© 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

© 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

© 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

© 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

© 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

© 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

© 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

© 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

© 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

© 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

© 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