Adapting to Your Team’s Needs

What were some of the examples that you have heard from people about what they’ve encountered that has hindered their performance or their enthusiasm for a job?

Micromanaging, which I think there are folks that micromanage and don’t think that they are, but you are. And the other one is that not everyone communicates the same. Two things that actually came up recently, as one person said, “I prefer written communications over verbal. So, if you need something, I prefer for you to Slack me or send an email versus call me on the phone.” Great. That’s easily actionable. And the other thing that another person said was, “When there’s a task at hand or something that needs to be worked on, tell me what it is and then give me space to come back with a solution. I prefer to work through it myself than to brainstorm with the group. I want to work with the team but I need that opportunity first.”
And I’ll tell you, that is important for me to hear because I am a person that gets the team on the phone and goes, “Here’s the problem. What does everyone think?” But now, I can send that via Slack and say, “Hey, in 30 minutes, we’re going to all regroup. Here’s the problem. And in 30 minutes, let’s come together and I want to hear everyone’s thoughts.”

That’s you adapting to your team’s needs. That’s beautiful.

I’m going to show up the way that my team needs me to show up. That’s what I think leadership is. I’m going to show up the way that my team needs me to show up. And I don’t always get it, right. But we welcome the feedback, that radical candor to get that feedback to work on it, improve and continue to evolve.