One of the benefits of working on a team is more eyes means more opportunities to find problems (and solutions) fast.
But what if your team members don’t default to sharing information?
That’s frustrating–but luckily also preventable.
These three shifts can help.
Pay attention to your reaction
When you respond to bad news with frustration or anger, you teach your team it’s safer to let things go.
To counter this normal human reaction, acknowledge your frustration, and then pivot to how the team can move forward together.
Here’s what I mean:
Take a breath: This slows down your heart rate and gives you space to respond rather than react.
Name your frustration and your gratitude: This can be as simple as saying “This situation is frustrating, AND I’m glad you brought it up”
Focus on the future: Resist the temptation to focus on what caused the problem. Instead, reinforce that now that the problem is visible, you can work as a team to get it fixed.
Make it safe to be wrong
Once people feel safe bringing things up, they may start identifying problems that aren’t really problems, or suggesting solutions that won’t work. That can be annoying, but it’s a small price to pay for the collaboration it fosters.
Here’s how to turn those moments into teaching moments–without eroding trust.
Praise the intent: This step is essential.
A simple statement like “Thanks for bringing this up. I can see why this looked like an issue.” validates your team member’s judgment and helps ensure they will continue to surface what they notice.
Provide context: After you’ve validated their perspective, share the broader context. What leads you to the conclusion that it’s not a problem that needs to be addressed?
This serves two purposes.
- Provides a learning opportunity: The context teaches your team member what else to look for. This will improve their judgment over time.
- Exposes your blind spots: When you share your view of the situation, you make room for your team member to share theirs as well. For example, last you heard the new feature wasn’t going to be shipped until next month, so there is no need to expedite the documentation updates. If you tell your team member the updates aren’t a priority, she may leave it at that. If you tell her the updates aren’t a priority because there will be time to do them next week, you open the door for her to tell you she just heard they squeezed the feature into tomorrow’s release.
Welcome problems without solutions
This one is a little controversial. In fact, it’s the exact opposite of conventional wisdom. Who hasn’t worked for a “Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions” boss?
On the surface, this seems like a great leadership approach. It empowers your team to think proactively, curtails complaining, and makes your job easier all around.
It also teaches your team to work around big problems instead of bringing them to your attention.
This is especially true if you lead a customer-facing team. Folks on the front line see everything–but they rarely have the leverage or context to propose, let alone execute, a good solution.
When you encourage your team members to surface and report every issue– not just the ones they know how to solve, you’ll find more problems faster.
Easier said than done
It’s one thing to understand how these approaches can foster trust and collaboration on your team. It’s quite another thing to practice them consistently while feeling the pressure of deadlines, competing priorities, and just life.
I can help with that.
When you book a call with me, we’ll have the time and space to unpack your exact leadership challenge. Then, we’ll find the places where you have leverage to make a change. Finally, we’ll touch on the internal work that will make it easier to stick with the new approach.
Sometimes, that will be enough to get you moving again. Sometimes we’ll find opportunities to work together longer for a bigger impact. Either way, the first call is on me.