3 things teams need right now
No matter your title, if you’re in Corporate America, your job is complicated. This isn’t the 90s anymore. It’s not even the early 2000s. Corporate jobs are different now.
For strategically-minded employees, navigating the personalities, anticipating potential problems, and making critical connections can be a rewarding challenge, and some employees live for this. But I strongly believe we need to acknowledge that while work has changed drastically in the past 30 years, most managers haven’t adjusted their approach to help teams thrive within today’s reality. They are playing a different game than their employees, and it’s one of the biggest reasons work is painful for teams right now.
If you’re a manager, here are 3 things your team doesn’t need you to do anymore:
Just assigning projects and leaving teams to fend for themselves without sharing the larger context and giving them full access to stakeholders
Correcting employees about what they did wrong without asking questions to understand the complexities of what they’re dealing with
Assuming team members should be able to deliver A-level quality on 4, 5, or 6 simultaneous projects
In contrast, here are 3 things they do need from you right now that won’t just help them with their jobs - they’ll help you with yours.
And honestly, it’s so much more fun and energizing for everyone to work like this:
Trusting employees with broad access and context to strategy and key players in order to understand the full picture and make wise decisions
Coaching people on how to improve by asking open-ended questions and assuming good intent and then workshopping a new approach together
Freeing team members to deliver “good enough” work on most of their projects and helping them deliver A-level quality on the one project that matters the most
Teams often work longer hours and have many more projects to juggle. They have more politics and shifting priorities to contend with. As a result, they need more support and more consideration, and they need managers to show them the path and give them energy around a vision. They need context. They need leadership. You can be that leader for them. Honestly, it’s easier than you think. If you have questions about this, get on my Calendly for a complimentary 30-minute consult!
