Your best project manager comes to you to help with personality clashes. They share how strong personalities are getting in the way of work, and asks for your advice on how to fix this dysfunctional team. Rather than asking why – which will move the work onto your plate – ask a series of ‘how’ coaching questions.
Leadership is finding what works to increase and what does not work to decrease, you are the expert.
My solution will not work for you, and when you choose to do something different, then you are a leader.
10 favorite organization development, leadership development, and team development blog post of 2016.
Asking why may create a belief that the problem will be solved faster, and it may. It will be resolved faster because you are taking the accountability and authority away from the person who came to you for support. Asking a series of ‘what’ will help the progress of the person, team and you.
Ignoring strategy for the sake of planning is a choice, just as much as changing your plan as new strategies become apparent is a choice. One choice will change how the work gets done, and the other will keep it the same.
Recently someone told me that my role as a consultant is to motivate them to change. That by sharing research data, internal project completion data, and how the structure of their current organization is causing dysfunction they now feel demotivated.
For the 7th year in a row, Mike had the pleasure of supporting the Simon School of Business Executive MBA students.
When we all agree utopia is realized, we have no movement because we are satiated. Leadership is about moving people towards what’s working and away from what’s not working. We need discord. We need friction.
Often conflicts within teams are not the team itself, it is the needed work and support from another team in a different department within the organization.
To have a manager who cannot exercise leadership is a bad manager. To have a leader who cannot manage is a useless, charismatic moron.