Question: “What do you do if your team members need guidance, but you don’t want to micromanage them?”
Suggestions for Communicating with Respect In Team Building
Communication, integrity, trust, and respect for the team, individually and collectively, are key, but it doesn’t ALL have to come directly from you.
Still, you must be willing to listen and learn.
The following is a suggested course of action I have found useful.
Step One
Of course, the Real First Step is for YOU to understand the task at hand and be knowledgeable enough about the subject to be able to lead with credibility.
Then, choose team members carefully regarding company or project needs. If feasible, talk with them in advance about the task and its purpose before the project is activated further. You want to ensure their availability, willingness, and ability to do what you need to have done.
Now, we’re going to skip ahead to when a team is initialized to answer the question posed at the start of this article.
In the Beginning
You are wise to talk directly with your team as a group. Acknowledge them individually and mention the skill sets, experience, and a person’s financial backing, or network of contacts that make each one valuable to the project.
- In recognizing them, you are establishing positive working relationships between you and the team members.
- You also are setting the stage for them to work well with one another. They should emerge with a clear understanding of who has the greatest knowledge, responsibility, or stake in various aspects of the company’s, department’s, or project’s progress, and outcomes.
- In this meeting, everyone can get a sense of what tools, resources, training, and other things need to be acquired or are in place to maximize success. This allows all participants to start identifying sources, funding, procurement processes, and steps required to get off to a great start.
- In addition, you can simultaneously address how each person’s expertise or experience specifically relates to the mission, goals, and objectives of the company or project. This helps establish you (without your needing to say so) as the hub, leader, and authority in final decision-making.
Good News | Bad News
Now, you have an opportunity to make participants aware of the benefits and consequences of various outcomes. “Here’s what happens when we succeed and here’s what happens if we fail.”
In that kind of description, the positive or negative consequences are those that accrue to the company, the project, and/or to individuals – including customers.
Help Team Members Help Themselves
In that initial team meeting, another purpose is to give team members ways in which to help themselves, so micromanagement becomes unnecessary.
- You might tell them to feel free to approach a lower-level leader, specialist, supervisor, (or whomever you have chosen for day-to-day project implementation) if they want guidance.
- If you prefer, let them know they can ask you directly for clarifications, guidance, permissions, or anything else they need.
- You provide links, manuals, or other relevant materials to use when they want to research for answers, rather than asking you. Examples include:
- Chain of Command
- manuals
- system navigation instructions
- office operations policies and procedures
- personnel policies and procedures
- emergency policies and procedures
- applicable laws and regulations
- past audit findings, so they know what to avoid or what new issues need resolution
- details about formal and/or informal protocols, working hours, breaks, holidays, and locations of items in the work environment
If one person is confused or needs information you have not provided, it is likely others’ thoughts are similar. So, in the spirit of “no question is a dumb question,” invite people to ask their questions before the meeting is adjourned.
You Need Your Team As Much as It Needs You!
Talk to people with respect as full-grown, intelligent beings who bring value to your operation – not as subordinate, dispensable staffers. LISTEN. Be receptive to ideas. Value their opinions. In other words, display confidence and competence, not egocentricity.
Meetings Can Be Wonderful!
I know you think I lied about that! 
I did not.
Most people dislike being micromanaged. After handling the initiation into the project, it is time for you to step back. However, you can stay apprised of what’s happening by holding regularly scheduled team meetings for updates. Alternatively – or in conjunction – you can employ Brainstorming techniques.
Brainstorming
I highly recommend including people – other than the team leaders – in these sessions. The highest-level executive, upper management, and stakeholder interests are different from those of the administrative and customer service staff (“front-line workers”) who interface with the customers and understand issues from the points of view of end users or customers.
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- Upper Management tends to think in terms of systems, profitability, and ease of administration including getting metadata reports in theoretical models.
- Front-line workers know about “real-world” applications of the systems. They can detail system “glitches” and the kinds of issues that angry customers raise when theoretical models don’t match how things actually work or what customers need or want.
- Mid-level managers spend a lot of time trying to reconcile the two and explaining to each cohort the motivations, attitudes, policies, and procedures of the others. While potentially being “attacked” by both sides, these managers must try to convince each level of operation that the others are acting in good faith and have valid reasons for their beliefs, policies, and procedures. They are the masters (or not) of compromise and/or education that makes things work smoothly, lawfully, and professionally.
Getting representatives from each primary group together in one meeting can:
- be enlightening for all concerned
- prevent major decision errors
- create a homogenous understanding of and commitment to the goals and objectives
- help keep the customer’s or end user’s needs in mind
- keep the primary goals, legal requirements, and benefits of success in mind
- create better teamwork and lines of communication
plus it may save a lot of valuable time!
Would You Like A FREE Chat
to Talk About It?
Contact me at MyPersuasivePresentations@gmail.com. In the subject line, put “Request Free Sip & Share to Discuss Team Leadership.” We’ll coordinate schedules, and I’ll send you a Zoom link where we can talk about your needs or ideas and how I might help.
Click Here to learn more about my Sip & Share Sessions.
Thanks for your time and interest!
Do It the Write Way! Let My Fingers Do Your Talking!
