But… Wasn’t I The Best Manager Ever??

Every week I get the opportunity to evaluate systemic issues; from the micro-culture that is the office environment, to the macro-culture that is our government. Looking for the gaps in human interaction really makes me tick.

With a sufficient knowledge base – an undergraduate degree in communication, a master’s in leadership and organizational communication, and now an in-pursuit doctorate in business leadership, I must be able to walk-the-walk, right?

To answer the question: I most definitely was not the best manager ever.

Self-Assessment & Reflection

If you want to be a leader or manager (find out the leader/manager relationship here), the first step is knowing yourself. It might seem most reasonable to ask a friend what they think about your management capabilities, but that’s not going to cut it. Fortunately, behavioral psychologists and researchers before me have realized self-assessments act as a foundation for changing behavior; and change doesn’t occur without awareness.

In retrospect, revisiting personality or interpersonal leadership style assessments – and truly understanding them – would have proved quite useful before entering management. Here I was thinking I knew myself. In fairness, I was aware of my downfalls, but never took steps to address them… Yeah, that’s a problem.

Let’s see, in 2012 Stratton Consulting identified my interpersonal leadership style as Director, with a correlating perception of flexibility as Rigid. In 2013 the DiSC pinned me in a classic Inspirational Pattern. In 2014 Gallup Strengths-Based Leadership Report coined me as an Executor. And in 2016, Myers-Briggs reiterated my INTJ status. Now without context or experience reading these reports, the aforementioned classifiers aren’t particularly telling.

What I can tell you is I had (and have) blind spots. I’m critical and judgmental. I’m opinionated and persistent. I’m competitive and discontented. And yet, I truly believe people are at the core of functional businesses, and that the purpose of management is to serve their people, not to serve themselves.

It wasn’t until that clicked – until my team’s success meant more to me than my own – that I truly started to change my behavior.

I think of times a team member asked me to review an email or edit a deck. Each and every time I was nitpicky. I have no doubt I drove my team nuts. It was likely cringe worthy!

Did this empower them? No, it showed them that I thought my way was better. If something is flat out wrong, I’m not saying you shouldn’t inquire and help them get to the correct answer (key word help, not enable) but don’t assume your way is the only one. 

Out of all these personality tests, leadership assessments, and the like, there’s one thing I know for sure: any perceived negative attribute I’ve possessed over the years has to do with ego. And the moment we let our egos get in the way, is the moment we lose sight of the value in our human capital.

If you’re like me, you’re hoping I will get to the point here soon. The point is this: self-reflection is a path to leadership development. I encourage you to ask yourself two things:

1. Why do you want to lead?

2. What is the purpose of your leadership?

If the answers are power, money, and prestige, you are at risk for relying on external gratification for fulfillment. I’d be delusional if I said you can’t lead with the desire to serve others, and simultaneously earn influence, prestige, or wealth. But – and this is the big but – be cognizant of underlying motivators.

If there’s an area you’re hoping to improve and you’re looking for literature or some support, you know how to reach me.

For the solo high-performer who wants to remain as such: It’s OK to be a stellar individual contributor and never manage a team. The point here is not to change who you are – it’s to own it and maximize the hell out of it!

Virtual Conflict: Prepare and Succeed

Teams are integral to accomplishing tasks. From concept to execution, a well-functioning team can make the difference between a poor deliverable and an exceptional one.

Teams fascinate me. They are comprised of humans… And humans are complex. Each person’s belief system is varied; our construction of family beliefs, acceptance to social norms, and religious influence all effect how we communicate.

There’s a never-ending number of variables when dealing with people, which makes it understandable interpersonal conflict is a frequent visitor. In the context of work, employee conflicts can be poisonous. Morale crashes, productivity plummets, and key projects very well may suffer.

I am continuously asked how to manage conflict. One person’s resolve is another’s nightmare. I’ve talked about conflict before. First, you need to know the primary types of conflict.

Then, it’s helpful to know what your options are for handling conflict. But what about the benefits of handling conflict? Do you ever wonder what you’re working toward?

The beauty in conflict is that well-managed conflicts can increase trust, respect, and intimacy among employees within and across teams.  The challenge arises when conflict is occurring amidst virtual teams. Do not underestimate the helpfulness of face-to-face time. Personal interaction increases empathy. Without that human touch, task-based conflict can become personal conflict. Remember: use video chat features whenever possible!

If you find yourself managing a virtual team, it will help you to be cognizant the probability of task-based conflict turning into personal conflict is high. How do you prepare to support virtual teamwork?  

Prior to online learning, I would not have found this solution so powerful, but in looking at the research from Ann Majchrzak who has studied virtual projects at many organizations, she found successful teams use one important tool: a discussion board. 

A discussion board demands a shared virtual workspace. In our global and connected workforce, a virtual workspace is easy to come by. Here are the advantages in implementing a discussion board for your virtual team:

• Just like Slack, IM, or any chat feature, communication is often instant. That regularity in communicating creates a norm that accepts on-demand Q&A, regardless of a scheduled time to speak with the team. What this does is empower the team to ask questions while simultaneously offering visibility to the rest of the team. Others may share the same concern. Rather than let an issue fester – waiting for the opportune time to broach the topic (and then you find out it isn’t an issue to begin with!) – the discussion board forum allows transparency as well as communication frequency.

• It’s not helpful to have five different resources to communicate through. Thus, if you are working with a virtual team, set expectations for how inquiries should be conveyed. Don’t leave the team to guess if they should be communicating via email, phone, chat, discussion board (or anything in between!).

• Having an open forum for team collaboration and discussion will elicit honestly and varied perspectives. Set time to review each composition – you want your team to be heard (and let them know that they are!).

• The primary perk in having a centralized location that supports discussion, questions, and collaboration, is to build trust. When used appropriately (make sure to set ground rules for communication!) the discussion board will become a safe space. Each person will have the opportunity to share their insights or opinions. By requiring everyone to share their input in an educated, professional manner, professionalism will evoke healthy disagreements, not uncivil ones.

Test it out. Need help setting it up? Happy to help.

Remember: There's a Person Behind that Screen!

It’s been a burning question – and coincidentally one I have been hearing more from HR generalists at growing tech companies. “How do you create an effective virtual team and digital culture?”

Expectations.

Set them. Even if you have a laissez-faire approach to management, your team needs structure. (In fact, structure can help you be more effective with your day.) Expectations get a bad rap… But think about quarterly/annual reviews. It’s unfortunate we structure these formalized reviews in such a way that enable a once-in-a-while conversation to assess – and often critique – performance. Instead, shouldn’t performance, and correlated expectations, be fluid? If your employee receives a lackluster review, but you never speak with them about their professional shortcomings, do you think that’s their weakness, or yours?

Expectations are all the more essential with a virtual team. There’s something about being able to see a person each day (or even, each week). That eye-to-eye lock, the handshake, the 3-D elements that make us human. Yet, as I shared with you last week, this whole virtual management thing can be done (and done well). Our technology has caught-up to enabling virtual employees. We just need to know how to effectively use it.

As an expectations example, and to demonstrate the ripple effect it has, let’s say it’s important for you to hear from your virtual team members during Monday-morning meetings. Unfortunately, you’re left feeling frustrated because the virtual members often don’t contribute to the conversation.

Ask yourself:

1. Are you using technology conducive to their inclusion?
2. Did you convey that you want each virtual member to speak-up? In what capacity?
3. Have you shared the value with your on-site team members that there is in hearing from their virtual colleagues? (And even more essential – have you requested the onsite members be cognizant, and considerate, of those “present but not physically present”?)

If you’re frustrated by an absence of engagement, it’s probable the situation isn’t a one-way street.

Setting expectations, especially with thorough communication, results in behavioral change – and it’s those behaviors that construct (or reconstruct) culture. With expectations, there’s minimal ambiguity; this aids in communication efforts as well as accountability.  

Transparency.

Is the ethos of your team to be candid, forthright, and truly honest? Technological advances allow for just that. Take pay grades, for example. Historically this is a very sensitive topic. But what if it wasn’t anymore? What if there was a resource for earnings, and calculated measurements of justification (e.g., education, experience, etc.).  

Transparency doesn’t have to start with such grand gestures i.e., above... But, it should be omnipresent. We have social tools, chat functions, video technologies, and the like, to communicate. Is there a new release? Is there a policy change? How will that information be disseminated? Coming up with guidelines (yes, the notorious expectations) for how information is communicated, and how often it’s communicated, will ensure consistent transparency, even amidst rapid change.

Your People.

I realize you may not always be able to choose your team. However, when you can, take this into consideration: effective virtual team members typically have higher-than-average emotional intelligence, writing aptitude, and strong communicative tendencies. Yes, there are always some challenges (hence this list of guidelines) but this type of individual will likely not cause a lot of virtual headache.

Open Door Policy + Trust.

Without fostering trust among your team you’ll have a much harder time achieving resolve (and results). Practice a true open-door, honest exchange, policy. Actively put forth effort to engage the virtual team member.

A couple ideas:

• Ask them for a 60-second tour of their work space so the team can envision what their day-in-the-life looks like.
• Implement a five-minute “pre-business” discussion about anything other than work, on weekly calls.
• Initiate the distribution of surveys to measure team inclusion.
  • If the team feels disconnected, or there’s a defined line between the in-group and the out-group, change is needed!

It’s particularly important to significantly invest in your team early on in working together. That’s when the foundation is built for trust, rapport, and an exchange of ideas. Put aside your task-based leadership brain (temporarily), and engage the relationship-based leader!

There are a lot of helpful technological tools we have access to; but have you ever thought how you use them may affect the intended outcome? “Is this a Skype, Slack, Video chat, email, or phone type of conversation?” I recently published a cheat sheet for one of the largest privately held companies in the U.S. on the topic. Interested? I’ll gladly share it with you.

[OH! I almost forgot. Make sure people know how to use the technology that you’ve implemented. Whether that’s through company-wide training or one-on-one sessions for those who need a little time to adjust, do it without anyone needing to ask. Having resources at an arm’s reach will not only support adoption, it will encourage a culture that lacks apprehension to learn new things.]