Team Building, Leadership, Working Styles, Goal Setting, Virtual team

March 24, 2017

Give Your Team Both Collective and Individual Rewards

As a manager, it’s your job to foster and encourage team identity. Research shows that even selfish individuals become cooperative — and possibly altruistic — when they feel that they’re part of a group. So how do you strengthen your team’s identity? Reward behavior that advances the goals of the group, rather than the individual. Offer your team bonuses, recognition, raises, flexibility, and opportunities based on the entire group’s performance. To avoid free-riding, individual rewards should be given to individuals who make important contributions to the team’s success. This rewards indispensable team members — the unsung heroes who work late, cover for colleagues, and enhance the success of the group. Combining individual and collective rewards ensures that individual members are encouraged and motivated to pursue the team’s goals and help the team succeed.

Adapted from “The Problem with Rewarding Individual Performers,” by Jay Van Bavel and Dominic Packer

March 21, 2017

Support Your Learning with a Community

We’re all born with a natural curiosity. We want to learn. But the demands of work and personal life often get in the way. The solution is to make learning a lifelong habit, and to do that, you need to be proactive. Start by articulating the outcomes you’d like to achieve. Are you looking to master a specific subject? Read books on new topics? Picking one or two outcomes will allow you to set achievable goals to make the habit stick. Next, find or create a group that has goals similar to yours, to make achieving them more fun. It may be a book group to discuss what you’re reading or a writing group where you edit each other’s work. You could also join an organization focused on a topic — a foreign policy discussion group that meets monthly or a woodworking group that gathers regularly to trade notes. You might even consider a formal class or degree program.

Adapted from “Make Learning a Lifelong Habit,” by John Coleman

March 20, 2017

Rework Bad Ideas Instead of Dismissing Them

Successful entrepreneurs rarely dismiss bad ideas outright: They rework them in the hope that there’s a gem yet to be discovered. After all, the best opportunities aren’t always self-evident. Instead of killing ideas and initiatives when they seem problematic, challenge yourself or your team to push further, reframe the problem and solution, or explore adjacencies. By bringing new thinking to seemingly bad ideas, you may end up with a breakthrough. Listen to all stakeholders regularly, and don’t stop, even once you’ve decided on a course of action. Pay special attention to new information and edge cases as you go — they often hold clues to move you toward better versions of your idea.

Adapted from “Embracing Bad Ideas to Get to Good Ideas,” by John Geraci

March 23, 2017

How to Handle the Transition from Peer to Boss

Being promoted over your coworkers is a tricky situation. It’s important to get off on the right foot with your former peers and to make the transition as smooth as possible. Ideally, the team will learn about your promotion from someone else. But if you have to make the announcement yourself, be modest with the wording. This isn’t the time to toot your own horn. Don’t let people make assumptions about what your new relationship will be like — show them. Meet with each team member one-on-one. If you competed with a peer for the job, pull them aside to say you value their contributions. Take a specific action to back up your words, such as assigning them to an important task. And don’t introduce any sweeping changes right away. No matter how good your plan is, hold off until you’ve established your credibility as a manager.

Adapted from The Harvard Business Review Manager's Handbook: The 17 Skills Leaders Need to Stand Out

March 22, 2017

To Build Your Legacy, Think About Your Predecessors

As a leader, leaving a great legacy is arguably the most powerful thing you can do in your career, because it enables you to have influence well into the future. To make sure you’re keeping your legacy in mind as you go about your everyday work, think about your predecessors and how their actions have affected you. What resources did they leave behind for you? How did they change the organization to provide you with opportunities? How did they shape the company’s culture? Research shows that when we know we have benefited from someone else’s legacy, we think about what we want to leave for future generations and we tend to make better long-term decisions. While you can’t repay the deeds of the former generation, you can pay them forward by helping the next one. A generation from now, maybe someone will be looking to your example to shape their own legacy.

Adapted from “How to Think About Building Your Legacy,” by Kimberly Wade-Benzoni

March 17, 2017

Tell Your Boss You Have Too Much Work Without Looking Like a Slacker

No one wants to come across as lazy, uncommitted, or not a team player, but when you feel snowed under, you really should let your manager know. Have a candid conversation. Start by stating the organization’s shared objectives to ensure you’re both on the same page. Next, explain what’s getting in the way of you accomplishing those goals. Be as specific as possible. You might say: “This assignment requires a lot of research, which is time-consuming” or “Now that I am managing a team, I am spending more time planning, and I have less time for day-to-day work.” But don’t stop there — offer three ideas for addressing the issue. You might suggest that certain tasks be done quarterly instead of monthly, that colleagues step in to assist you on a particular project, or that the organization hire a temp to lighten the load. Identify projects that can be delayed, delegated, deleted, or diminished without compromising your team and organizational goals.

Adapted from “How to Tell Your Boss You Have Too Much Work,” by Rebecca Knight

March 16, 2017

Set Goals That You Actually Want to Accomplish

It’s unlikely that you’ll make progress on your professional development goals if they feel like a chore. Instead of focusing on things you “should” do, choose one or two areas of focus that align with what really matters to you. Ask yourself:

• If I could accomplish just one major professional development goal this year, what would it be?
• When I think about this goal, do I get excited about the prospect of working on it as well as achieving it?
• Am I motivated to achieve this goal because it’s interesting and important, or is it something that I think would please other people?

Use the answers to come up with a shortlist of goals that truly match your personal ambitions.

Adapted from “Stop Setting Goals You Don’t Actually Care About,” by Elizabeth Grace Saunders

March 15, 2017

Set Clear Ground Rules for Your Virtual Team

All workplaces need ground rules, but they’re particularly important for remote work. When a team is spread out among branch offices, coffee shops, and hotel lobbies, people may have wildly different ideas about what’s expected of them. Make clear what kind of latitude and independence team members can expect, what resources will be available to them, and how much team members will be expected to travel. If people work in different time zones, it’s critical to set ground rules around working hours, too. Managers should think about these questions:

• What times of day are team members expected to be available?
• How will you schedule meetings to accommodate each person?
• What should people do if they find their responsibilities require them to work overtime or outside their scheduled hours?

Giving the team this kind of guidance up front will help them work more effectively.

Adapted from Leading Virtual Teams (HBR 20-Minute Manager Series)