Fix Your Team

Chapter 9 THE MANAGER’S STYLE: It’s not the team, it’s you!

SYMPTOMS

• All the employees in the team seem disengaged. They get the job done, but seem to put in minimal discretionary effort and do not offer ideas for how to improve systems or processes.
• The manager doesn’t feel she is really connecting with the staff. It’s a real effort to get them to agree to do anything outside their job description. Pushback is common.
• Turnover within the team is high.
• Team members regularly seek secondments and apply for roles elsewhere in the organisation. When applying, they do not ask the manager for a reference.
• Employees mostly seek guidance on work problems from one another rather than from their manager, whom they avoid.
• Employees appear guarded or nervous when giving the manager updates on how their work is progressing. Alternatively, they all appear to agree with the manager on absolutely everything. The worst feedback the manager receives from them is silence.

WHAT’S GOING ON

The stakes are high for leaders and managers. Every member of the team relies on them, at least to some extent, for guidance, direction, resources, feedback, approval and progression. We expect a lot of our managers, and when they fail to deliver, the backlash can be severe. Margaret Wheatley, the American adviser on leadership and ethics, suggests we expect our leaders to be ‘heroes’ who have all the answers. It’s no wonder that leaders and managers feel under pressure to get it right.

And it’s lonely ...