Many of us are not great at managing teams

There has never been a better time to get better at it.

There are a lot of people managers that have never been exceptionally good at leading teams. They simply haven’t developed the skills. In some cases, they don’t even like leading teams, but their career trajectory has depended on them doing so.

Fortunately, we have a chance to improve our ability to lead whether we are highly skilled or less than so.

In a time of unprecedented need, there is an opportunity to, at the least, support leaders of teams with guidance that could be critical for business continuity now as a generation-defining event runs its course through global history. As well, increasing capacity now will be very significant later as we recover from and create new ways of being in the “post” (not to indicate it is going away, but rather that we will learn to live with its reality) #Covid19 world.

There are many behaviors and skills managers can develop at this time. Below are three that I think could go a long way.

1. Listening: First, a humongous understatement: Most people don’t listen well.

Humans generally think about themselves and whatever others say tends to be interpreted through a Me-centered lens. Whether this is a result of illusory superiority, some deeper neuroscientific phenomena, or the cultural value of individualism the tendency to focus on oneself is predominant. It is particularly active when we are in stressful situations because human evolution makes surviving our number one priority.

Given this tendency, listening openly to others is difficult. Nonetheless, I offer that in our current times too much self-serving motivation is more costly than ever. I particularly believe this to be so when it comes to leading teams.

The point of leading a team isn’t for them to wait for orders from a superior so that they can execute on tasks that contribute to a manager’s advancement. This, unfortunately, has been the modus operandi of many managers and many organizations (at least implicitly) who perpetuate this as normative. The problem is, it is ineffective and creates a cascade effect of this behavior.

While a manger’s career growth can be one by-product of their teams’ success, their main role is to listen to what their team is learning and work with them to create consistently outstanding results together.

Hoping to listen better? Great!

Listen as if it is you talking to yourself. And if you don’t like listening to yourself, listen as if you are talking to someone who you believe unconditionally.

All of your biases related to likes/dislikes can be reconsidered. This means that when you hear something that resonates, ask “Why?”. When it doesn’t resonate ask “Why?” twice. Then, ask your team members about their thinking/rationale behind a statement or insight if they haven’t provided it already.

You don’t have to agree, but you certainly have to be willing to be influenced (to action) by the so-called “other” [your people] and consider that what they are sharing is impacting work quality or workflow.

2. Caring: The notion of caring is not the touchy-feely space that most equate it with. I prefer to take the lead of philosopher Milton Mayeroff in his book On Caring. He states:

“To care for another person in the most significant sense is to help [them] grow and actualize [their]self.”

He continues,

“I can only fulfill myself by serving someone or something apart from myself, and if I am unable to care for anyone or anything separate from me, I am unable to care for myself.”

For some, this sort of caring is a radical notion; and, if applied to the workplace to many it is counterintuitive. Models of command and control have predominated approaches to management for decades. This, even when research has indicated that it does little to enable high-performance in contemporary economies.

Nonetheless, during times like these, this sort of caring asserts itself as not only more necessary than ever, but it can define who your firm desires to be. This goes beyond the individual, it goes to the heart of your culture and strategic aspirations.

While fear of loss can be a potent behavioral motivator, it is unlikely that it remains as such when competing with fear for personal safety or survival.

Companies large and small can ask their leaders and people managers to consider the following questions:

— Have I done everything I can to set my team up for success?

— Is there anything I am aware of that I haven’t shared that can impact the work or well-being of my team members?

— Have I asked my team members if I can do more to help them be successful? And, if they are needing something that I may have missed sharing with them or need to find out to be helpful to them?

3. Communicating: In extraordinary times, transactional approaches to management falter more than in times of so-called normalcy.

People vacillate when presented with transactions in times of uncertainty mainly due to issues of trust. Transactional exchanges (when predominant) between a superior and subordinate decrease trust.

In my opinion, transactional exchanges are the basest form of human communication. They have value, but only in the moment of the exchange and in any objects exchanged, but by nature they are limited. They add very little to the trust accounts of the actors in the transaction.

For many managers developing trust has never occurred to them as central to their jobs. Similar to caring, trust is fostered by consistent, relational investment in the so-called “other”.

Stephen M.R. Covey in his classic text The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything, says:

“The first job of a leader — at work or at home — is to inspire trust. It’s to bring out the best in people by entrusting them with meaningful stewardships, and to create an environment in which high-trust interaction inspires creativity and possibility.”

Communication and trust go hand in hand. The integrity of how someone communicates verbally and non-verbally is a hygiene factor that, if negatively compromised, can quickly erode overall performance. It is not that people won’t do solid work. A lack of trust due to inconsistent communication (i.e. what’s said ≠ behaviors) for example, can slow down a team as the team members are uncertain about whether their deftly executed work is what is expected or if they missed something. They wonder if the outcome will be punitive. Fear of job loss is always stress-inducing. In a constricting economy, it creates even more stress than it typically would.

If your people don’t feel like you are trustworthy for reasons of not sharing information, sharing too much negative information about team members, not showing interest in or dismissing their sentiments; their work will occur as if they are slowing down or seem of lower quality. This may be the case.

A less skilled manager will take work slowing down as a sign of poor performance. The manager with well-honed communication skills has established relationships with their team members. They respond with #empathy and a desire to see a shift towards what gives a teammate the greatest chances for success. It doesn’t always end up that the person is successful in a current role. Sometimes people are in a job that is not best suited for them.

In any case, the skilled manager has established an open line of communication that allows them to share what is working and what is not going so well. The result is that even if someone has to be let go, the manager does so with care and still communicates their desire to see a person be successful in their next role.

In current times, communication in all digital and analog forms is precious. Don’t take it for granted and if you as a manager don’t feel equipped to handle it, now is not the time for ego.

Now is the time to ask your manager, your peers, your team about how you can best serve them, care for them, engage, and communicate with them.

Discover what your people need. The return on investment is exponential and most likely will be seen a good deal of time after we have all done our part and have #FlattenedTheCurve.

#InspireTheExtraordinary in extraordinary times.