Better Software - September 2008 - (Page 39) “Expect Success; Accept Mistakes. Stress the motto ‘Fail early, fail fast!’ People learn from their mistakes.” control the disruptive person in their midst, they can use his knowledge and experience to succeed as a team. You have resolved the situation with the difficult person, and now your team issues are solved. You have a trusting, productive team, right? Not yet! Steps to Build a Culture of Trust As the leader, your role, style, and behavior will lay the groundwork for building a culture of trust. There are a few things you need to pay special attention to about yourself. Authenticity is essential. Your team members will see right through you if you are missing your own “ring of truth,” and their lack of trust will continue. Be trustworthy, and own up to your own foibles, history, and mistakes. Share all information with the team, and, when you can’t, explain why. You first have to show you trust your team. Give up command-and-control leadership, and stop micromanagement. Telling people what to do and how to do it shows a lack of trust. If you trust people, you know they will do what they say they will do—and that they know best how to do it. Micromanagement sends a message that you do not trust those you are leading. Trust me, your leadership will be tested by your team. Team members will come back several times to see if you will rescue them or fix it for them, if you will tell them what to do and how to do it, if you will really accept mistakes, and whether you genuinely trust them to deliver. They will watch carefully and test your trustworthiness. Will you listen? Will you give them the information they ask for? Will you admit your mistakes? Will you be honest? Now focus on creating a culture where team members can build trust among themselves. Use the following steps: • Remove Debilitating Fear. Without the team generating ideas and solutions, progress will be slow and perhaps impossible. Debilitating fear is what keeps team members from expressing their questions, solutions, analysis, and investigations. They are afraid of humiliation, ridicule, loss of respect, and—the deepest fears—loss of their position, pay, and perhaps their job. Fear results in paralysis and catastrophizing (making things seem worse than they are). There are ways to mitigate fear. As a leader, acknowledge openly with team members the fear that you feel is in the team. Imagine, reframe, and describe the team culture as it will be as a trusting team. Remind team members that they have choices in how they respond to the fear. Ask them to give the team a chance and to bring their ideas to team meetings or simply try their ideas out on other team members, one on one. Practice the steps to change: Celebrate resistance, figure out what to be— not what not to be—and take small steps. • Use Team-based Measurements. Measuring individual performance is a deterrent to collaboration and team members’ working together. Often, if individuals are www.StickyMinds.com measured on their own performance, they don’t care how well the rest of the team does; they’ll look out for themselves, first. To change this dynamic, measure the team, not the individuals. This motivates team members to work together and help each other deliver a team success. • Ask for Small Deliverables in Short Iterations. Ask team members for rapid, incremental deliveries—small successes where they can see progress and successful results as a team. Let them make decisions on how they will do this, how they will do their own work, and how they will work together. They don’t need you to tell them. Step back and let the team decide. • Expect Success; Accept Mistakes. Stress the motto “Fail early, fail fast!” People learn from their mistakes. Right now, your team may be worried about taking a risk and failing. Sure, removing disruptive fear might help. Most important is your protecting them and your organization. Create a way for the team to fail safely. What does that mean? First, you don’t want the team to be embarrassed in front of your customers, in front of organizational leaders, or in front of other teams. Add a step in the processes (or, better still, suggest team members evaluate adding a step) where they can walk through their results before they go outside of the team. • Take the “Fun” Out of Being Dysfunctional. Ignore unprofesSEPTEMBER 2008 BETTER SOFTWARE 39 http://www.StickyMinds.com
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