As team leaders, we need to be hands-on managers ? but not in-the-way managers. When our teams need to perform at their peak, we need to guide them from the sidelines. Here?s some advice:
?Know when not to teach. Unless you?re seeing errors that will capsize your entire effort, don?t attempt to teach while your people are in the midst of a major endeavor.
Mistakes don?t become learning opportunities until people have a chance to understand the impact of their errors. And no matter how justified you are, ?interfering? signifies a lack of confidence in the team, which is an enemy of peak performance.
At an appropriate break in your workflow, you can give guidance that will show your people better ways of working.
?Look ahead and remove barriers. While your team is focused on getting the job done now, you can be great help if you make it easier for the job to get done tomorrow.
Is there another big project right around the corner? Start planning to see if you can delay that job for a little while ? perhaps even just one day ? to give your team a chance to regroup and you a chance to coach and teach. If that?s not possible, then plan for a subgroup of your team to tackle the first stages of the upcoming project, and lighten their current workload accordingly.
Make sure you have the resources you need, that supplies are well stocked, that lingering personnel issues are under control.
(Source: TCA)
