Resilient Management
Meet Your Team
- Understand team formation stages: Recognize that teams progress through forming, storming, norming, and performing stages
- Invest in psychological safety: Create an environment where team members feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable
- Learn individual core needs: Discover what each team member needs to do their best work through direct conversation
- Use BICEPS core needs framework: Consider belonging, improvement, choice, equality, predictability, and significance when supporting team members
- Adapt to work styles: Identify and accommodate different work styles in your team
- Collect communication preferences: Learn how each person prefers to receive feedback, recognition, and general communication
- Document team knowledge: Keep track of individual preferences, skills, and needs for future reference
- Observe team dynamics: Pay attention to how team members interact with each other
- Identify team skills gaps: Assess team capabilities honestly to identify areas for growth
- Build trust intentionally: Use regular one-on-ones and team activities to build trust from day one
Grow Your Teammates
- Use situational leadership: Adapt your leadership style based on the individual’s needs and the specific situation
- Balance delegation styles: Know when to direct, coach, support, or delegate based on a person’s experience and confidence
- Provide effective feedback: Deliver timely, specific, actionable feedback focused on behaviors, not personality
- Create growth frameworks: Establish clear growth paths and expectations for team members
- Set meaningful goals: Collaborate on goals that align individual growth with team and company objectives
- Sponsor team members: Actively create opportunities for your team members to grow and gain visibility
- Leverage teaching moments: Use challenges as opportunities for learning and development
- Address performance issues early: Don’t wait to address problems; have direct conversations promptly
- Recognize different types of growth: Acknowledge that career growth isn’t always vertical and can take many forms
- Celebrate progress: Recognize and celebrate growth milestones to reinforce positive development
Set Clear Expectations
- Articulate team vision: Clearly communicate where the team is headed and why it matters
- Define team norms: Establish explicit team agreements about how you’ll work together
- Create decision-making frameworks: Clarify how decisions will be made and who has authority for what
- Communicate about communication: Set expectations about communication channels, response times, and meeting behavior
- Establish meeting hygiene: Create norms around meeting agendas, participation, and follow-through
- Define role boundaries: Clarify the responsibilities and authority of each team member
- Set measurable goals: Ensure team and individual goals are specific and measurable
- Connect work to impact: Help team members understand how their work contributes to larger objectives
- Manage change effectively: Set expectations about how changes will be communicated and managed
- Revisit expectations regularly: Schedule regular check-ins to confirm expectations are still appropriate
- Distinguish between coaching and sponsorship: Understand when to ask powerful questions (coaching) versus when to create opportunities (sponsorship)
- Practice active listening: Develop your ability to listen deeply without immediately jumping to solutions
- Ask open-ended questions: Use questions that encourage reflection and self-discovery
- Create learning moments: Look for opportunities to help team members learn through experience
- Sponsor underrepresented groups: Actively create opportunities for those who might otherwise be overlooked
- Connect team members with resources: Help people find the tools, training, and connections they need
- Provide context, not control: Give team members the information they need to make good decisions
- Step back appropriately: Know when to let team members lead and learn
- Model vulnerability: Show that it’s okay not to know everything and to ask for help
- Balance support with challenge: Create an environment that is both supportive and pushes for growth
Build Resilience
- Manage through change: Develop strategies for leading teams through organizational changes
- Address team conflict: Handle disagreements directly and constructively
- Identify burnout signals: Recognize signs of burnout in yourself and your team
- Create sustainable pace: Establish practices that support long-term health and performance
- Develop personal resilience: Build your own resilience tools to navigate leadership challenges
- Establish feedback loops: Create systems for regular feedback in all directions
- Foster team independence: Build a team that can function well in your absence
- Navigate reorganizations: Help your team stay focused and confident during org changes
- Create communication systems: Establish reliable ways to share information during turbulent times
- Balance immediate needs with long-term goals: Don’t sacrifice long-term health for short-term gains
Lead Through Change
- Understand change responses: Recognize that people respond to change differently based on their core needs
- Communicate changes effectively: Be transparent, timely, and thorough when announcing changes
- Address concerns directly: Create space for questions and concerns about changes
- Manage your own reactions: Process your own feelings about change before helping others
- Provide stability where possible: Identify and maintain constants during periods of change
- Focus on team needs: Pay special attention to BICEPS needs during transitions
- Gather team input: Involve the team in changes when possible to increase buy-in
- Create transition plans: Develop clear plans for implementing changes
- Monitor change impact: Check in regularly on how changes are affecting the team
- Celebrate adaptability: Recognize and reward the team’s ability to navigate change
Develop Your Management Style
- Identify your management values: Clarify what you believe makes a good manager
- Understand your strengths: Leverage your natural talents in your management approach
- Address your blind spots: Recognize areas where you need to grow or compensate
- Create support networks: Build relationships with other managers for advice and perspective
- Find management mentors: Seek out experienced managers who can guide your development
- Develop self-awareness: Regularly reflect on your management practices and their effects
- Balance authenticity with growth: Be yourself while still working to improve weak areas
- Create feedback mechanisms: Establish ways to get honest feedback about your management
- Practice self-care: Maintain your own well-being to be effective for your team
- Evolve deliberately: Intentionally grow your management style based on experience and feedback
Key Takeaways
- Understand individual needs: Use the BICEPS framework to identify and support team members’ core needs
- Adapt leadership style: Apply situational leadership by directing, coaching, supporting, or delegating based on individual readiness
- Set explicit expectations: Clearly communicate about team vision, decision-making, and working norms
- Balance coaching and sponsorship: Know when to ask powerful questions versus when to create opportunities
- Manage through change: Help teams navigate transitions by addressing core needs and providing appropriate stability
- Build team resilience: Create sustainable practices that help the team weather challenges and change
- Develop feedback loops: Establish regular channels for giving and receiving feedback in all directions
- Focus on psychological safety: Prioritize creating an environment where team members feel safe to take risks
- Document team knowledge: Keep track of preferences, decisions, and expectations for reference
- Cultivate self-awareness: Regularly reflect on your management approach and seek feedback for improvement
