Lead and Serve Others: Focus on the Team, Not Individuals-AgileBrigade

You’re trying to make your agile approach work, but your culture doesn’t reinforce agile behaviors. For example, your management:

- Focuses on a person’s outputs, not team-based outcomes.
- Wants predictability, but your team needs to experiment to deliver the right outcomes.
- Doesn’t clarify the value the team offers.

What can you do?

Change your leadership from leading activities to creating an environment where everyone can lead.

In this presentation, Johanna will discuss these serving leadership actions: the value the team offers, team-based leadership, how to reinforce that leadership with regular one-on-ones, and how to create an environment where everyone can succeed.

Learn to deliver the business outcomes your organization needs when you create an environment that frees people to do their best work with your leadership. Become a modern leader who leads and serves others—not controls or directs them. And as you do, deliver the business outcomes your management wants and needs to see.

Transcript

1. Johanna Rothman @johannarothman www.jrothman.com Lead and Serve Others: Focus on the Team, Not Individuals
2. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Think back to your “best” and “worst” managers. What do you remember? 2
3. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman People remember how they felt. That’s the power of leadership. (Good or bad) 3
4. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Excellent leadership means serving the team, not only individuals 4
5. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman The Case for Flow Ef fi ciency • Fastest way to create outcomes • Much reduced delays • Increased team learning • Makes agility easier 5
6. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman How can you switch the focus from individual to team? 6
7. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman You create an environment where all people can lead 7
8. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Lewin’s Equation: B= f (P,E) • Each person’s Behavior is a function of the Person and their Environment • Most performance “problems” arise from the environment • Environment: • How the team works • Psychological safety for mistakes, concerns, challenges • How people use their virtual and physical locations • How much trust the team members offer each other. • How organization policies and procedures help/hurt the team perform their work. 8
9. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Environment is all about culture 9
10. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Culture Creates Teams (or Not) 10
11. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Our Agenda 1. De fi ne the value the team provides. 2. Team-based leadership. 3. Regular one-on-ones. 4. Create an environment where everyone can succeed. 11
12. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman 1. De fi ne the Team’s Value • What value does the team offer the organization? • Start with product or service • De fi ne the overarching goal that aligns with that product or service (outcomes) • Move from only individual goals to partly team-based goals and compensation 12
13. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman What’s the Overarching Team Goal? • What outcomes does the team need to provide? • Avoid outputs, such as interim milestone complete by date • Focus on what customers achieve with the product/service (outcome) • Customers can <solve this problem> by <this date> • I no longer advocate OKRs, but those might work for you • Avoid individual goals that cascade down from something else. 13
14. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Coalesce Around Goal • Learn together ( fl ow ef fi ciency) • Technical excellence • The more the team checks itself as they proceed, the faster they can fi nish • Technical excellence makes everything much easier • How can the team create small experiments and learn from them? 14
15. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman 2. Team-Based Leadership • Team learns how to offer feedback and coaching to each other • Promotes psychological safety • You “teach” feedback and coaching • Meta feedback • Meta coaching • Offer “labs” during work hours: • How to offer feedback and coaching 15
16. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman People Need Frequent Feedback • Feedback is about observable behavior • Peer-to-peer feedback: • Create an opening • Describe behavior or results • State the impact • Make a request 16
17. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Coaching and Meta-Coaching • Not just teaching, offering options with support • You create an environment in which everyone coaches everyone else • Not in fl icting help on others 17
18. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman What Kind of a Team Do You Lead & Serve? 18
19. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman 3. Regular One-on-Ones • Every week or two, depending on the kind of work you do • Once a month is too long • Build trusting relationships • Learn what each person wants/ needs • Check in on career development • Listen for bad news 19
20. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Make Regular One-on-One Time Sacrosanct (You will have to protect your schedule) 20
21. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman From Manager-Led One-on-Ones to Person-Led • First Structure: • Greeting • Review your action items for the person. • Ask for obstacles, etc. • Ask if they want help, feedback, coaching • Placeholder for career development • What do they want to discuss? • Action item review • Second Structure: • From Greeting to a Checkin • Other person takes the responsibility to create an agenda • Include: • Obstacles • Help, feedback, coaching • Career development • Action item review 21
22. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Minimal One-on-One Structure • Check-in • Do you need anything? (Not just from you, anything at all.) • Is anything getting in your way? • What can I, as your manager, do to help? 22
23. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Ask Other Person to Set the Agenda • When the other person sets the agenda, you share the power • Power with, not power over (Mary Parker Follett) 23
24. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Regular One-on-Ones Allow You To… • Offer reinforcing feedback often • Early warning signals of larger problems • See the team’s system/environment • Avoid performance reviews • Which don’t work anyway • Evaluations are about managing money, not performance 24
25. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Change-Focused vs. Reinforcing Feedback • Make it a point to offer reinforcing feedback at least every week: • Something people do right/well • Supports other people • Offer change-focused feedback when it’s behaviors they can change • I am always going to be blunt and direct. I can learn to choose words that people can hear 25
26. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman 4. Create an Environment Where All People Succeed • Collaboration over cooperation • Weed out non-jellers or people who can’t do the work • Hire for people who can work as part of a team • Suf fi cient cultural fi t (see the culture slide) not necessarily comfort • Hire for diversity of thought and experience • Reinforcing feedback • Drucker calls this the “harmonious whole” 26
27. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman “The Culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior the leader is willing to tolerate.” — Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker, School Culture Rewired, ch.3 (2015) 27
28. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Back/Support Your Team (Especially to Others) • “The buck stops here” • Take the ultimate responsibility • Why managing yourself is so necessary 28
29. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman 7 Principles 1. Clarify your purpose (you, team, organization). 2. Build empathy with the people who do the work. 3. Build a safe environment. 4. Seek outcomes and optimize for the overarching goal. 5. Encourage experiments and learning. 6. Catch people succeeding. 7. Exercise your value-based integrity. 29
30. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Move From Individual Theory to Team Practice • Experiment • Apply • Engage • Realize results • Choose where you will experiment and learn more • Practice new behaviors fi rst. (Beliefs arise from behaviors.) 30
31. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Culture Drives Behaviors • How does your environment create behaviors? • We often behave to maximize our rewards or minimize punishment • What does your organization reward? • Individual work (resource ef fi ciency) where every individual is busy • Team-based work ( fl ow ef fi ciency) where the team focuses on the work 31
32. © 2022 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Let’s Stay in Touch • Pragmatic Manager: • www.jrothman.com/ pragmaticmanager • Please link with me on LinkedIn • Modern Management Made Easy: https://www.jrothman.com/mmme 32