For a Team to Work Smoothly, You Need 3 Things

February 25, 2019

For a Team to Work Smoothly, You Need 3 Things

If your colleagues aren’t working well together, there are a few ways to change the team dynamic. Everyone — including you — should consider how they can improve three things: internal self-awareness, external self-awareness, and personal accountability.

Internal self-awareness is about understanding how your values affect your decisions. To improve, consider how your emotions and assumptions in a situation lead you to act a certain way. Resist the urge to act until you understand what’s driving you.
External self-awareness is about understanding how your actions affect other people. To improve, pay attention to how your colleagues react to things, and ask yourself (or them) what could be behind their behavior.
Personal accountability helps you asses how you are contributing to a problem. To improve, accept that you probably share some blame for what’s going wrong. Use internal and external self-awareness to think carefully about how you may need to change.
Adapted from “To Improve Your Team, First Work on Yourself," by Jennifer Porter

Managers, How Do You Open Up to Your Team Without Oversharing?

Managers, How Do You Open Up to Your Team Without Oversharing?

It’s generally a good thing when employees feel a personal connection to their boss. But when leaders share too much of their thoughts and feelings, they can undermine their authority. (Imagine a manager saying, “I’m scared, and don’t know what to do.”) A good rule of thumb is to open up when you think it will be helpful to others. Evaluate a personal comment by considering how you’d feel if your boss said it to you. If you would be thankful to hear it, chances are your team will feel the same. If not, err on the side of caution. For example, telling employees you’re in a bad mood because you’re having a lousy day is probably fine; telling them you’re in a bad mood because you disagree with a decision by senior management probably isn’t. Opening up is also useful when it helps your team feel less isolated: If you sense people are anxious about a project, acknowledge that you’re feeling the same stress, and thank them for their hard work.

Adapted from “How Leaders Can Open Up to Their Teams Without Oversharing," by Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy