Photo credit: “Lemmings” by Sascha Kohlmann, CC BY-SA 2.0

Your teams are smarter than you think

My professional wish for 2019

No matter the industry, department or background of the teams I accompany, again and again I discover the same patronizing micro-management and as a result the same fear-driven behavior and frustration. But what is even more astonishing to me is how well aware the people within these teams are of the systemic problems and how creative, energetic and productive they can get, when somebody simply starts treating them as adult human beings and encourages them to go beyond the artificial boundaries they are subjected to.

Dear leaders or managers, if there is one thing that I have learned this year and beyond from working with your teams it is this: they are more responsible and forward-thinking than you believe. In this fast changing world it can no longer be your job to control their actions or tell them what to do. Your job is also not to be better or know more than them because that is impossible. Your job should be to foster their imagination and help them become the very best versions of themselves.

I have formulated the following principles based on my past experiences with helping teams to become more self-organized and human-centered. They are not particularly original or groundbreaking. But in my opinion they are the foundation of building a great workplace culture with happier and therefore more productive teams. If you are the leader of a team or several teams, please read them open-mindedly and consider to follow at least one of them as a New Year’s resolution. Trust me, you will not regret it.

Sincerely,
a continuously enthusiastic,
frequently amazed and
sometimes frustrated coach

10 principles for helping teams to become more self-organized

1. Provide them with a vision, not a task list.
2. Encourage them, don’t control them.
3. Build them guardrails, not walls.
4. Treat them as humans, not resources.
5. Help them grow, not serve.
6. Don‘t fight their criticism. Use it to learn.
7. Let them run experiments.
   Praise them when they succeed.
   Support them when they fail.
8. Speak unambiguously, but …
9. … listen more than you speak.
10. Be humble. Admit when you were wrong.