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Improving Employee Engagement through Effective Team Leadership

3/31/2015

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“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” —Jack Welch

Have you ever had the experience of working on a team with a really bad team leader?  I certainly have, and I’ve heard many depressing “bad team leader” stories from others.  I’ll share a story I heard from a young consultant – I’ll call her Sheri – who was part of a large project team with a particularly ineffective team leader.  There were about a dozen people on the team and everyone worked remotely.  Other than weekly team calls, Sheri never heard from her team leader.  She was given a very vague assignment and was not given any opportunity to ask questions.  Sheri tried sending instant messages and emails to her team leader to ask questions, but he never once responded.  Sheri would submit work products like financial models and PowerPoint slides, but the team leader gave her very little information on what he thought of her work or how it was incorporated into the overall project deliverables.  Sheri never had the opportunity to meet or speak with the client, and the team leader didn’t share any feedback from the client on what they thought of the work.  Of course, Sheri never received any feedback from the team leader on her performance during the project.  The only “feedback” she got was a mediocre performance assessment score two months after the project had ended, with no explanation given as to the reason for the mediocre score.  At the time I spoke with Sheri, she and several others on the team were already well into the process of looking for another job…and who could blame them? 

In today’s work environment, more and more work is being done collaboratively in teams.  And many of the factors that drive employee engagement are significantly influenced by team leaders.  Employees want meaningful work.  They want flexibility in how, when and where they work.  They want to have fun at work.  And they want to work with people who will help them grow their skills and inspire them to do great work.

As a result, team leaders play a critical role in employee engagement.  Since they have regular interaction with the people on their team, team leaders are often in the best position to develop employees’ skills, provide real-time performance feedback, coach employees to improve their performance, challenge employees to take on “stretch” assignments, and mentor employees on their career goals.  Team leaders are also often in the best position to sense when employees are not engaged and may be at risk of leaving their job.

Companies need to do more to support team leaders
Given the high degree of influence team leaders have on employee engagement, companies should do everything they can to help employees be great team leaders, yet this is too infrequently the case.  Often, companies provide little training and support to team leaders on how to be effective in their role.  I have heard many stories about – and experienced firsthand – situations where inexperienced team leaders have been thrown into the deep end with little or no support, and it’s up to them to “sink or swim.”  Unfortunately, in many of these situations, the team leaders clearly “sank,” which had a detrimental impact on the rest of the team.  And the problem isn’t limited to new team leaders.  In many cases, team leaders may be very good at some aspects of their role, such as keeping the client happy, but they are particularly ineffective at managing the people on their team.  Yet this goes unchecked because their performance isn’t measured on how effectively they engage the people on their team.

Sheri’s story was clearly a worst-case scenario, but based on the stories I’ve heard over the years, I suspect it’s not all that uncommon.  And even more common is the scenario of the “so-so” team leader, who provides some guidance and feedback for team members, and may genuinely want to effectively engage the team, but hasn’t been given the training or support on how to do that.  With the job market heating up these days and employees having other options available to them, even having a “so-so” team leader may be enough to convince employees to look at what else is out there.

So…what can companies do to ensure that team leaders are effectively engaging employees?  In short, companies need to do three things:
  1. Provide training and resources to team leaders
  2. Provide team leader coaching
  3. Hold team leaders accountable for employee engagement

Provide training and resources to team leaders
Formal training on team leadership can dramatically improve the effectiveness of team leaders.  At least some training should be live (in person or by webinar / teleconference), so that team leaders have the chance to ask questions, as opposed to online self-paced training.  One option might be a multi-day team leadership “boot camp” for new team leaders, supplemented with ongoing monthly presentations for all team leaders.  In addition to training, companies should provide templates, information and examples that team leaders can leverage over the lifecycle of a project, such as team building exercises, project plan templates and suggestions on coaching and feedback. 

Of course, people management is just one aspect of team leadership, and training and resources should cover a comprehensive list of topics, such as:
  • People management: team building, providing coaching and feedback, dealing with underperforming team members, assessing team member performance
  • Client management: stakeholder management, executive presence, presentation skills
  • Project / financial management: project contracting, project planning, metrics tracking, budget tracking, revenue generation
  • Thought leadership: best practice methodologies, harvesting intellectual capital

Provide team leader coaching
While training and resources are very important, they are not enough.  An equally important type of support for team leaders is coaching, especially for new team leaders.  A new team leader is inevitably going to encounter several unfamiliar challenges and may not know how to handle them.  Having an experienced team leader as a coach to go to for advice will help team leaders navigate these challenges.  How long a new team leaders gets coaching depends a lot on the person, but I would recommend a minimum of one year.  More experienced team leaders should take on the role of the coach to newer team leaders. 

When I was learning how to be an effective team leader, I had a coach that I met with biweekly, and sometimes on an ad hoc basis when I needed immediate advice on how to handle a challenging situation, such as a difficult client or an underperforming team member.  It was reassuring to know that my coach was available to help me whenever I needed it.  In addition to giving me advice on handling sticky situations, he coached me on team leadership skills, such as leading a team kickoff meeting, building out a good project plan and preparing for a client presentation, where he played the role of the client and threw curve balls at me like cutting me off with challenging questions.

Incidentally, companies should also provide training and support to the coaches on how to be an effective coach, because the quality of the coaching that team leaders receive makes a big difference.  It’s important that coaches understand what’s expected of them, and if they aren’t going to be 100% committed to the coaching role, they shouldn’t be coaches.  Coaches should also be given coaching resources, such as suggested topics to cover with the team leaders they are coaching.

Hold team leaders accountable for employee engagement
In addition to supporting team leaders through training and coaching, it’s critical to hold them accountable for their performance.  Of course, team leader performance should be measured across all of the dimensions listed above.  The problem is that team leaders are often not measured on their people management performance, the dimension that most directly drives employee engagement.  Team leader performance is often assessed by a supervisor who may not have much visibility into how effectively a team leader managed the people on the team.  As a result, team leaders may put less focus on the people management aspect of their role.

The best way to assess a team leader on people management performance is to ask the team members for input.  For example, did the team leader provide adequate direction and guidance to team members?  Did the team leader motivate team members to perform at their best?  Did the team leader provide helpful coaching and feedback to team members?  This type of input from team members can be gathered through 360 feedback or employee satisfaction surveys.  There are dozens of software products that companies can use to easily collect 360 feedback.

Unfortunately, not every team leader has the passion or talent for people management.  Someone might be a strong team leader across other dimensions but may not have the skills or the desire to lead and manage the people on her team effectively, despite training and coaching.  Sometimes in this situation, someone else on the team with strong people management skills may naturally step up to fill the role of people manager.  In other instances, where this doesn’t happen organically, it may make sense to assign someone as a “deputy team leader” who has the skills and the passion for leading the other team members.  The team leader responsibilities can be split, and performance metrics adjusted accordingly, with the team leader focusing more on client management / thought leadership and the deputy team leader focusing more on people management.  Of course, this requires a strong working relationship and frequent communication between the team leader and deputy team leader.  And it may not work well in all situations, depending on the personality of the team leader and the culture of the company.

I believe effective team leadership is critical to employee engagement…what do you think?
There are many different factors that determine how engaged an employee is, but a really effective team leader can play a major role in improving employee engagement.  Likewise, a particularly ineffective team leader can significantly decrease employee engagement.  Companies need to recognize the importance of the team leader role and give team leaders the support and the incentive to effectively lead, motivate and coach their team members.

I’d love to hear your feedback…do you agree?  Do companies do enough to support and incent team leaders to effectively manage their teams?  Do you have additional suggestions on how companies can ensure that team leaders effectively engage the employees on their teams?

Photo credit: CanStockPhoto
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The Life-changing Magic of Mentoring

3/17/2015

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“A mentor is someone who allows you to see hope inside yourself.” –Oprah Winfrey

We hear so much about mentoring and how wonderful it is…the importance of mentoring, how mentors help you move into leadership roles, everyone should have multiple mentors, etc.  But life-changing?  Yes.  A good mentor can, quite literally, change the course of your life.  A mentor might encourage you to explore career options you might not have otherwise considered.  A mentor might introduce you to someone who ends up being your next boss.  A mentor might even help you find the courage to make a significant life change.

Life Change #1: Leaving Engineering
Mentoring changed the course of my life on three occasions.  The first time, I was in my mid-twenties, feeling less than inspired by my job as a structural engineer.  I had been in engineering for over seven years, and I was restless.  Projects felt too similar to each other, like slightly different applications of the same formulas and methodologies, not radically new and challenging problems to solve.  The prospect of doing roughly the same thing over and over again for the next 40 years was, quite frankly, depressing.  But, structural engineering was what I had signed up for, what I had worked so hard to succeed at. 

My friend Marci was also a structural engineer, a few years older than me, but decades ahead of me in life wisdom.  Marci and I cycled fifteen miles together every Tuesday morning, and we had plenty of time to chat about life during our rides.  Through these chats, Marci became a very influential mentor to me.  She asked me one day, “If you’re not happy with your job, why don’t you just quit?  Take some time off and think about what you really want.”  This was one of the most ridiculous suggestions I’d ever heard.  “I can’t do that!” I scoffed.  “Why not?” she asked.  Well…hmmm…why not?  I came up with lots of reasons…people would think I couldn’t cut it, this type of thing just wasn’t done by successful people, I’d have to really cut back on my spending…but each excuse sounded shallow as I said it.  When I really thought about it, there was no good reason why I couldn’t quit my job. 

So, after talking it through with my husband, that’s exactly what I did.  My plan was to take six months off and then return to engineering, but I never returned.  Once I had time to think about what I wanted in life…my passion for business and for managing people…I decided to go to business school.

Life Change #2: Getting a Job at IBM
My second life-changing mentoring experience happened during business school.  Over the course of exploring career options, I became fascinated with management consulting.  Getting paid to solve really interesting, challenging, varied problems sounded like my dream job.  I became close with one of my professors, Batia, and I asked her for advice on changing my career to consulting.  She knew a lot about the consulting industry and gave me heaps of good advice on the different consulting companies to consider, and which ones might suit me the best based on my background and personality.  She also gave me great advice on my resume, cover letters and interviewing tips, which was extremely helpful since structural engineering was a very atypical background for a management consultant.  I couldn’t believe how generous Batia was with her time…and she didn’t stop there.  She also introduced me to people she knew at several consulting companies.  One of those companies was IBM. 

Batia introduced me to one of her former students, Felicia, who was now working in IBM’s internal strategy consulting group.  By the time I got to first round interviews with IBM, I had already spoken with two people in the internal consulting group, and those connections helped me to sail through first rounds.  I got to final rounds, and it turned out that one of my interviewers was Felicia.  Maybe I was feeling too self-assured going into the interview, or maybe I hadn’t had enough sleep, or maybe it was just bad luck…but I bombed my case interview with Felicia.  I knew that was probably the end of the road for me with IBM.  But Felicia called me that evening.  “This is an unusual call, because we’re not saying yes and we’re not saying no.  You bombed your case, but Batia wrote such a strong letter of recommendation for you that we’ve decided to give you another chance.  Practice your casing this weekend, and we’ll have you back for another set of interviews next week.”  Wow, how often in life do you get a do-over like that?  I practiced hard that weekend, I nailed the case interview the following week, IBM gave me the offer, and I spent 8 ½ years working in IBM’s internal consulting group.  Thanks to my amazing mentor, Batia.

Life Change #3: Following My Passion for People
My third life-changing mentoring experience happened just a few months ago.  I was still working in IBM’s internal consulting group at the time, and I still loved my job, but part of me was feeling like it was time to think about finding the next thing.  I had become increasingly passionate about talent management over the past few years, and I was feeling more and more like I wanted to move my career in that direction.  In fact, I had been feeling that way for quite some time, but I was happy enough with my job that I wasn’t proactive about pursuing talent management opportunities.  Then about six months ago, I decided to reach out to one of my mentors, Christina Zini. 

I had known Christina for several years, since we worked together on a project at IBM, and she had become an important mentor to me as well as a friend.  Christina had left IBM to start her own business as a women’s leadership coach (shedreamsbig.com).  Feeling like it was time to be more proactive about shaping my career, I hired Christina as my career coach.  Through our biweekly coaching calls, I became more focused on thinking about where I wanted to take my career, and what actions I should take to get there.  With Christina’s help, I developed a plan to start building my brand as a talent expert and to start exploring talent-related career opportunities. 

Then, my career-change plan suddenly accelerated when I was put on a project that I particularly disliked.  I decided that rather than spending the next several months focused on something I wasn’t passionate about, I would quit my job and focus all my efforts on following my passion and finding a job in the talent space.  So that’s exactly what I did. 

I am now a few months into my job search, and while some people may think I’m crazy for walking away from a perfectly good job with a steady paycheck, I know I did the right thing.  And it was working with Christina that not only helped me figure out a career plan, but gave me the confidence to take a bold risk and follow my passion.

Those are my mentoring stories…and I’ve heard and read similar stories from countless others, across all stages of life, about how mentoring profoundly changed their lives.  The inner city school kid who was inspired by his “big brother” to work hard in school and apply for college.  The college graduate who was encouraged by her professor to follow her passion for social work instead of taking a job in the family business.  The young financial analyst who left his job on Wall Street for a technology startup, because his mentor not only encouraged him to follow his passion but introduced him to the entrepreneur who hired him.  The 50-year-old mother who decided to go back to school after her youngest child left home, and became a massage therapist, because of the support and encouragement of a good friend.  The list goes on and on. 

What’s your story?  How has mentoring changed your life?  Please share your story in the comments section below…I’d love to hear from you!

Photo credit: canstockphoto.com

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    Author

    Jackie Bassett is a Director of People Strategy for UChicago Medicine, who is passionate about people...and helping organizations thrive by putting people first.

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