Building Teams - #8 (3/23/23)
If you didn't see my quick thoughts on letting teams be themselves, I've been thinking a lot about how leaders try to put their team members into little boxes, many times to their detriment.
Too often, by accident or intention, we try to get our teams to be like us, or be something they're not, but why?
My hunch is that we're not thinking far enough down the road. I like to ask "where is the team in 6 months?" to challenge myself on if team members are on the right trajectory to be most effective. Not just effective for the company or team, but effective for their own career growth. It's not all on you as a leader to make sure they get there, but especially early in a team's existence, it is on you to model and draft the direction for the future.
Think about your team today, and think about that same team in six months. Ask yourself, in six months:
Do you know what the team should look like?
Is the team on track to be successful?
What might prevent success?
What can you do now to increase the team's chances of success?
Do you have the right people on the team?
Do they have the right access to the tools to be successful?
There's no one-size-fits-all solution, as every company and situation is unique. What does fit all solutions is proactivity and thinking through the above questions. Most importantly, be honest with yourself, and with your team, to determine where you need to double down and cut back to get to where you need to be.
Let me know what you think below!
What I Read This Week:
What Science Can Tell Us About Building Great Teams - Kellogg Institute
Letting your team be themselves - Leadership Lessons from "Ted Lasso" - Hartley (shameless plug)
Better Software Engineering teams — Structures, roles, responsibilities and comparison with common approaches - Andrew Winnicki
Reflections on Team Topologies for Software Engineering & Delivery - Desmond Loh
Headcount goals, feature factories, and when to hire those mythical 10x people - Erik Bernhardsson
Have a leadership question? Let me know! I would love to find an answer together with you.