Team Building

[SeniorTeamLead]

Newly promoted and need an outsiders perspective. Hoping this might be useful.

I’m working in a technical area which is challenging, lots of time pressure. I’ve been there six months and I can see that some junior members of the team are struggling, and some are doing brilliantly.

The brilliant performers are picking up the great work and getting a lot of praise. The ones who are struggling are becoming less confIdent and less engaged.

The teams all get the same training. But it is a very “fake it til you make it” environment if you don’t have very high level qualifications. We’ve recently had a team day, diversity training and anti bullying awareness sessions across our sector too.

The issue is that there seems to be a racial element to this, unconsciously driven or not and that is the perception of senior management. Our two juniors who are least confident and have the smallest portfolios are all Afro Caribbean heritage - they’ve recently come to the UK. They have been transferred to my management line after a very senior member said to me there had been an issue with them feeling included.

I can see a difficult dynamic here but as a new senior I don’t know what else I can do to help short of supporting development plans for team members across the board and trying to spread the work more evenly to build confidence. However it is a very competitive of environment with tight deadlines, and I cannot change that. The entry into my company is competitive so I don’t think this is about not being able to do the job but confidence. I have had one meeting already with my new managee where she was extremely down about herself and implied she was not good but her references are excellent. From what I have seen she seems fine if cautious but she is doing herself down to me as her manager.

Any help; I want to help my new team be happy at work and perform well. This all seems intense just writing it out.

Have you sat down and identified areas where she feels she is struggling? That would be a good start, and working out how you can bring her up and identify an action plan for any problem areas. How does she like feedback being delivered? Can you identify great work she’s done and praise her for it?

We are due to have a development conversation next week - my hope is to wrap up some of “where would you like to build your knowledge” and “what areas would you like to improve” in that.

Some of it is ridiculous comparisons. For example our top performers might be quite junior but they’re also academically very experienced so they can hit the ground running. She won’t have that and of course I don’t expect that. What is expected is “a can do” attitude which if she’s not communicating that to the senior team means less work being given.

I’ve also noticed she undermines publicly what work she does do, worrying out loud in the office that’s it not quite right. I’ve reassured her that’s it’s fine and what was wanted, but how difficult is it to say to someone “look, stop criticizing yourself in an open plan office”. I don’t want to upset her but the reality is that if she keeps doing this then she’s building a perception of herself that is not helpful to her getting good work

You need to show her / them that they are capable. If the top performers always get the best and high profile work then stop this and distribute the work more equitably. If I was always being given the low profile work it wouldn’t matter if my boss repeatedly told me I was good. I wouldn’t believe it as I wasn’t being ‘trusted’ with the better tasks.

It sounds like massive issues with self-confidence. (I’m a leadership coach, this is not uncommon, even in very senior business people).
I would suggest spending some of your development meeting getting her to focus on what she’s done really well, and how that has contributed to the overall success of the project/team/profitability/client satisfaction. People hear critical comments and are impacted by them far more than positive comments. Overweight the commentary on what she’s doing well and give any development feedback very lightly. If you can spare the time, perhaps ask her to check quietly with you if she’s unsure of the quality of a piece of work?

I’ve been able to give her some of my work where I hope if she can show she has the skills I can make a better case for her having a bigger and better portfolio for herself. Right now I can’t. She is less tenacious than all the others who have worked out that the game is to put your hand out proactively and then work out the issues.

my hope is to wrap up some of “where would you like to build your knowledge” and “what areas would you like to improve” in that.

No, no and no.

You sit down and go through the job expectations and discuss what they are doing well, and identify areas that they need to work on and how to do that. You teach them what rhey are lacking. You pair them with other team members to do shadowing. You work with them on a phased plan to address one knowledge or skills gap at a time and you check in weekly with them.

You praise them when they do good and advise on how to progress that. You are honest when it went badly and together you look at why that happened and what they could have done to avoid that.

This is basic people management. Stop the wishy washy vague discussions and give them some concrete help.

I would like to do this but previously had my fingers quite seriously burnt. I won’t ever be making an improvement plan like this; our organization asks specifically that the person being managed sets their objectives. I can give feedback but I cannot set them. It’s tough, but if they don’t have self awareness then I cannot force or set that for them.

I work for a Big4 firm and this sounds like a similar approach that we have. Except you do need to deviate from this if someone is not performing as expected. The setting goals and working towards them is great for high performers, but creates a downward spiral for low performers and so you would be doing this person a disservice to stick to this methodology in this scenario.

What she should be doing is seeking feedback from others, and then you should be using this to identify her development areas and then creating strategies for her to have opportunity to develop in these areas and show progress. In the absence of other feedback, you should be giving her the feedback. If you want to pitch at as “here’s the feedback, what do you think you need to work on based on this”, that still lets you have your method but directed by you. If shes not getting it, keep asking “and is there anything else from the feedback you think you should work on” until she gets it. And if she never gets it, ask “what about X”. And if she still doesn’t get it then you do need to move to a formal performance plan because that’s then a wilful choice not to work on necessary development areas.

And you should talk to her about personal brand, and the impression she’s leaving by selling herself down. I’ve had that conversation with most of my juniors, and will openly (and kindly) call it out when they do it now. I encourage them to go away and come to me once they’re confident, if that means having a private chat with me to become confident then that’s a perfectly good strategy that I’ll support - but don’t present the work as finished until you’re confident. I often say cheesy things like “how can I believe in you if you don’t believe in yourself”, and honestly the teams outward confidence (backed up by genuine ability and competent output) has increased since I took over, and I think instilling the can-do attitude has also helped morale overall.

What is the point of a people manager if they aren't allowed to manage people?

Yes. This seems very helpful. The issue is that we have an up and out model which means the person needs a lot of drive to maintain their position still less advance it. If this person doesn’t help herself then she will be managed out. I do not think she is a poor performer but it could spiral as you say. The reality is that she could be replaced quite easily and so performance matters quickly.

From your answers OP, this is perhaps not the right fit of company for her. If you need to be a go getter to get ahead and it’s very competitive, if that is not her personality, then she will never flourish there.

Over a long career, I have realised that it is the personal fit that matters, skills can be learned. We now use this in our recruitment, and it has improved the atmosphere in the business as well as the performance because people feel comfortable and then confident.

Yes that might be right, but I want to give her the chance. And our team has unique pressures. However she made a positive choice to come and join us and is only six months in. If this was the situation in a year (which I don’t want) then it’s probably about fit, rather than skills