Good Vibes for New Team Leaders
Do you find yourself in the very exciting (but challenging) position of influencing a team or leading direct reports? If you’re reading this article, then you probably already care about leading well and that’s huge!
If I could go back in time and give myself leadership advice, I would share these approaches that helped foster successful and driven teams.
Start with "why?" for motivation and vision
Figure out the why behind the project or engagement as soon as possible. What’s the overall project or departmental vision? Next, what are the “sub-visions” for product, brand, design, engineering? Communicating the “whys” frequently and succinctly can help motivate teams and maintain morale. Even better if you can lead your team to craft their “why” together.
It could also be helpful to have a “why” for the roles on your team. For example, “why project management?” or “why technical editing?” … why is the role valued in the project or organization?
Empathy always
If you’ve got direct reports, then you may have formal authority or agency over decisions that affect the work experiences of humans. Exercising empathy for those humans could help you communicate effectively, uncover hidden assumptions, and make better decisions. But let's be real - it also makes work so much better when leaders care! Being an empathetic leader does not mean doing everything for people, but rather seeking to understand their point of view and values while helping them be successful in their role. Situational Leadership can help with this.
Tailor your approach per situation
Situational Leadership is a framework where leaders tailor their approach to match a person’s experience and commitment level on a task. This framework can help leaders decide whether to provide step-by-step help or to adopt a more hands-off approach. For example, if you identify someone in the “Disillusioned Learner (Low Competence, Low Commitment)” zone on a task, you can help them transition from frustration to confidence more quickly.
Manage team and stakeholder expectations
In the past, I’ve found it helpful to routinely gather team and stakeholder feedback through casual questioning, surveys, or retrospectives. Are your stakeholders expecting something that’s not on your team’s radar? Do your outputs satisfy customer requirements? Do your stakeholders already know what they want and need or is that an assumption?
Create reliability for trust and safety
A former colleague of mine always said “What happens in vagueness, stays in vagueness” with respect to good writing, but it also applies to project execution. Don't underestimate the power of routine meetings, status reports, and processes. I'm not saying to get process heavy, but don't get lured in by folks telling you that “agile” means no process at all. Routines can be a lifesaver in a ever-changing (and sometimes remote!) work environment, especially in the beginning when many people from different backgrounds are working together for the first time.
Learn in real time
Never stop learning. Try learning one new thing per week and apply it during your regular work routine. Learning doesn’t have to be linear…it can be “just-in-time” to supplement ongoing or upcoming tasks. Our team recently had success reading sections of Continuous Discovery Habits and applying what we learned during our discovery cycle.