Dictator or doormat?
When you are working in a team on a project how do you balance between being a dictator and trusting your team?
There is a great deal of literature out there that talks about how trusting your team is important. How a good leader enables their team and gives them the freedom to work.
The reality is that this isn’t always possible. Sometimes we inherit a team that doesn’t have the capabilities to work without close supervision. If given time we can work with the team in a way that builds their capabilities.
But what happens when you get dropped into a project that has an immediate deadline and an incompetent team?
This is a challenge that I am sure many of us have faced. It is a situation in which somebody is going to lose. Either the project, the team members or you:
- The project suffers because the team aren’t capable of delivering
- The team suffers because you micromanage everything
- You suffer because you don’t want the project or the team to suffer so you end up doing everything yourself
I want to build the capabilities of my colleagues, but sometimes you just have to get things done.
I tend to end up suffering. Obviously I can’t let the project suffer. I don’t want the team to suffer because most of the time they are nice people. They just don’t have the skills required and often it’s not their fault.
In the long term I am all for helping them grow but in the short term the bottom line is that we have to deliver. I can’t go to the stakeholders and say we failed because of the team. Ultimately as part of the team I must hold some responsibility.
Should I learn to be harder with people? Should I be more prepared to be more direct with my team mates? I see other people do it and for some people it works and for others it fails. Horribly.
I guess I need to find more of a balance. Being more direct without being an ars*h*le about it.
04 June 2016 PPP
Progress
- Blog post
- Memrise Swahili lesson
- Memrise Malay lesson
Plans for tomorrow
- Memrise Swahili lesson
- Memrise Malay lesson
Problems
- I wanted to do Javascript today but I ended up at work for a few hours which meant I had to change my plans.
If you like this post then please do hit the heart below to recommend it to others. Or share it via Facebook or Twitter. Thanks :-)
Read
What is the Discipline of Action?
What 52 things will Hiong do this year?
