Julia Rowan answers your management, leadership and team development questions
Question
I am a mid-level manager in a large company with four direct reports who all manage teams of three to five people. We work to high standards and I don’t think we have any problems. I have one-on-ones with my direct reports and the five of us meet every fortnight. About once a month, the whole department meets. Should I be doing anything differently? We’ve worked hard to get here, and I don’t want to rock the boat, but I think we have more to give.
Answer
It sounds like you are doing a lot of things right. This is a great time of year to look at how the team functions and put strong foundations in place for the year ahead to increase your relevance and visibility.
I trust that you and your team have more to give. Employees appreciate being consulted – and managers are often pleasantly surprised by their insight and interest. I suggest that some carefully planned team events could be very productive.
Begin by working out what you want for your team and the service you provide. If you could describe “a better team,” what words would you use? Feel free to use words like “more” or “less,” and then change “less” to “more” (e.g., “less dependent’ might become “more independent”).
If your organisation has a strategy, read it and reflect on where your team intersects. Consult with your direct reports to make sure they are on board.
Organise a half-day session with the whole team. Plan it well and make it feel special – offsite, if possible, refreshments on arrival, lunch to finish, etc.
Open the session by discussing your strategy and the team’s strengths. Celebrate wins – big and small – to build confidence and acknowledge contributions. Keep the focus positive while the teams build confidence in engaging in this type of process.
For example, identify lessons learned rather than mistakes made and use interactive activities like a SWOT/SWOC analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats/challenges) to assess the team’s current standing and potential for growth.
Don’t rush the pace – it can be really useful to meet a few times as issues can settle, and ideas can emerge between sessions.
Consider the perspectives of stakeholders, including your senior team, customers and suppliers.
One effective way to do this is by placing a few chairs in the room to represent them. Invite your team to occasionally take the seat of these stakeholders and ask questions such as, “What do they want from us?” and “What else can we provide for them?” This allows team members to see things from a different perspective.
A valuable outcome of a session like this could be that team members ask for feedback from stakeholders using a set of agreed-upon questions.
Use the opportunity to strengthen relationships within your team. For example, you might ask people who they would like to acknowledge or appreciate or which team they would like to work more closely with.
As ideas about ways forward emerge, you might translate these into goals for 2025 – perhaps allocating ownership to front-line team members. This provides a nice connection to your team meetings.
Julia Rowan is Principal Consultant with Performance Matters Ltd, a leadership and team development consultancy. To send a question to Julia, email julia@performancematters.ie
If you read one thing...
“The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” by Charlie Mackesy is a gentle book that addresses human emotions like love, vulnerability, courage and connection. Beautifully illustrated, it would make a lovely takeaway from a team session.
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