Inheriting a Team? Don’t Be a Headless Chicken
While inheriting a team, making hasty changes without a thorough assessment can lead to chaos.
Managers tend to make changes quickly when they inherit a team from another manager.
It will lead to chaos and frustration among the team members.
When the team members are anxious about the manager change, any other changes will only lead to panic rather than outcomes.
Hence, a holistic approach is needed to understand the team’s strengths and weaknesses. This will help to make informed decisions about the changes.
So, as a manager, while inheriting check the following 4 areas before making any changes in the team.
The 4 Areas
The 4 areas that you must evaluate are Culture, Process, Tools and Structure.
Area#1: Culture
Culture plays a vital role in how the team functions day-to-day.
It tells you how every team member approaches given tasks or problem statements.
Without understanding the current culture of the team member, if you bring changes it leads to confusion.
Hence, understand the culture of how each team member takes responsibility while completing assigned tasks, views on innovation, continuous growth and transparency about issues and risks.
Area#2: Process
The team's processes may have bottlenecks. It is critical to know, whether the process can scale up for the changes you are planning.
While evaluating the process, understand whether it can be adapted or needs to change.
The process should help in improving productivity, and collaboration.
Hence, understand how the current process is helping the team to operate and whether it is streamlined.
Area#3: Tools
Tools are vital in ensuring the team’s productivity and track progress.
While evaluating understand whether the current tools empower the team to communicate effectively and complete the assigned tasks efficiently.
And whether the current tools can adapt to the change you are trying to bring.
By aligning tools with team needs, a manager can enhance workflows, reduce friction between team members and enable seamless project execution.
Area#4: Team Structure
Team structure provides clarity on roles and responsibilities.
A well-organized structure helps prevent overlaps and gaps between team members.
It is important to understand, for the change you want to bring whether the current team structure will continue to prevent overlaps or it leads to overlaps.
A clear structure of the team will help you achieve a balanced distribution of tasks among the team members.
Final Thoughts
In summary, don’t jump to make changes in an inherited team.
First understand the current culture, processes, tools and team structure.
Once you understand the bottlenecks and impact of change in the four areas, plan the change.
The change should be implemented gradually. This will give team members, enough time to adjust and operate efficiently.
This will avoid the chaos that could have been created.
Gradual change will also build trust in team members as they will feel that decisions are not made in a hurry.
Happy Management!
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