What does our team/organization think about us as Managers?
I would be really interested in any ideas on different ways to learn what your own team thinks about you and how you can improve, change, transform, adapt? As Managers we usually tend to focus on feedback and coaching of others in our team - what about team's coaching of us?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Jenkins on -
Excellent question! The fact that you even asked this question means you are on the right track as a manager and understand the importance of what your team members think about you and your management style. I agree that gaining this knowledge is essential to fine-tuning our own performance as managers which will certainly translate into better performances from those who report to us.
I am not aware of any particular method used by managers who actually care enough to gain such insight. I guess some of our members here will have a better idea than I do. I do believe we can learn a lot however from simply asking. Also, doing some research to find out where your team members hang out online. I am sure you can get a lot of information from following the things they say in online groups and forums. One example, send them an invitation to this group and setup an RSS on their profiles and follow their comments ;o)
Again, I think it is an excellent question and I extremely curious to hear what others here have to say on this topic as well. I too manage a team of developmers and would find this information highly valuable.
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Permalink Reply by Kathy Klotz on -
Alot depends on the culture of the company. If your company breeds a "we vs. them" mentality (and I am sure we have all worked for one at some point)--then your team already feels disconnected to you and is not likely to give you feedback. Or that feedback may be skewed to be what the team feels you want to hear in order to keep their jobs.
In a collaborative, supportive environment you will definately "get" what you "give". Your team needs to feel connected to you (read the Blog post for 11 ways to motivate geeks) and supported by you. After that you better be ready and willing to give constructive criticism when needed and get crtiticized by your team when they percieve you deserve it. I say peceive because if you are doing your job right then there are bound to be things that are going on that you protect your team from. This may sometimes lead them to believe that there was more that you could have done to 'push out a deadline'; not knowing that you fought long and hard for that but the 'powers that be'--who YOU report to have decided otherwise. You can share with yor team just enough for them to know that you agree with them and tried your best; without going so far as to say that Sr Management has lost it's collective minds. (Nothing breeds disrespect faster than throwing someone else under the bus).
The other thing is that technology people as a rule do not wear their hearts on their sleeves--so you may not get much feedback from anyone in a group setting. I try to schedule some one on one time very casually with team members to discuss the overall project or workplace or price of gas (if that's what it takes to get the ball rolling).
Lastly, always be ready to change, transform and adapt based on the composition of your team's personalities. If they all need to be managed differently; you will have a challenge-- but a happier team in general than if you had forced one style of management on them all.
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Permalink Reply by John FIco on
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When I worked at EDS we used a 360 degree approach to yearly reviews. 10 surveys went out for each person being reviewed (it helped that you were reviewed on your anniversary not at the end of the year so they were spread out) at least 5 of the 10 went to people that worked for you, 4 went to your peers and 1 was done by your direct supervisor. This gave me a really good idea as to how I was perceived from each level of the company. the surveys were aggregated by relationship so if your reports didn't score you well, it didn't balance your peers scoring you high.
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Permalink Reply by Jeffrey Lo on
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How employees think of a manager is correlated with how you as a manager care.
How do you show you care?
1. Allow for upward communication, and act upon it quickly
2. Understanding that people have a life, work is not their life
3. Develop their goals towards their own interests and specialties, and follow up on them
An organization cannot transform without congruence and synergy between team members or between managers and employees. If you want open communication and feedback from your employees, you must show that you care about them before they feel like they want to help you.
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Permalink Reply by Jim Gettman on -
Here is something I always do, and always suggest to my managers. It is so simple you don't need to write it down, and yet frighteningly powerful. Done once a week, with a different person each time, it will help you focus on what really matters. Ready? Get alone with the person you worry about the most, promise that their answer will remain in strict confidence and will only be used to help you be a better employee, and ask them "What is the worst thing you think about me that I have even a small chance of fixing?" Good luck.
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Permalink Reply by GARY MAHAN on
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Business is business. As a manager you must keep profitability at the forefront. While doing this you must also be aware of your subordinates wants, needs and desires; that would be motivation. With these two things in mind, just treat them as human beings and set aside some time to listen to what they have to say. I truly believe that honesty is the best policy. You may be surprised at what they tell you.
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Permalink Reply by Conrad on -
In addition to the good points mentioned by others here, I'll add this:
Relay to your team members what goes on in the management meetings you attend. At least tell them what you are allowed to tell them. Be aware that there can be issues with this practice, such as employees worrying about how specific, hypothetical discussions might affect them.
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Permalink Reply by DocDave on -
Keep us in the loop, even if it does not appear that we have the "need to know" what is happening inside of the left hand will have applicable effects on the right.
Honesty, don't tell me we can't do X and then have the business unit implement X. We will have to clean up the business units mess in the long run anyway.
Think before doing. I had an IT manager who approved the sale of a server harddrive on ebay. The drive had over 1 million accounts on it, this action eventually led the crash of the student loan industry due to Federal intervention and the Company barely exists at this time.
If there is a problem with a methodology fix it, otherwise the same problems will occur. I worked with an IT team where the developers did not want the analyst to do ANY of the design work, and yet the developers did not create ANY design documents. And then they wondered why a three month project took over a year to complete and still did not meet the needs of the customer. When I brought up the absence of design document as being a major issue for the success of the project (at the three month mark mind you) I was told it was not needed, they were using the specifications for the design document (remember now that the analysts were not allowed to put design specs in the requirements document). Later during the debrief after the 1st phase of the project was deployed the PMO wanted to know what went wrong, and they still denied the necessity of the design specifications saying "the lack of design specifications was not the single point of failure." There were a lot of things that went wrong but not having the design specs compounded all of the other problems.
Do not let the developers run the IT shop. Good developers are worth their weight in gold, but they still must be managed and they should never have an overriding voice over the customer, business, nor the analyst for each of these entities are closer to the problem and understand it better than 95% of the developers.
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Permalink Reply by Bill Mothershead on -
Dilbert wouldn't be funny if it were not mostly true.
There are those who know what needs to be done,
and know what exact sequence of steps are needed,
and have the resources and skills to make it happen...
...and then there are a bunch of other people stuting around
pretending that they somehow matter or control something
important.
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Permalink Reply by Jessica on -
I would have to say that as an employee one of the best things a Manager can do is listen to me, and make me feel like a valued member of the team.
I currently work with a remote team in India, and this has posed challenges - the rest of the team is based in an office and see each other day to day, whereas I am sort of the faceless email address where projects go for a few days and then mysteriously return.
We've had some bumps in the road, but what I am finding is that the most important thing is to allow for communication and to actually listen to what the employee is asking - not just start answering before you hear / read the entire question.
-Jessica
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Permalink Reply by Ken on -
Management By Walking Around (MBWA) is an outstanding tool for developing relationships and for assessing organization current state of affairs. There are also plenty of free 360 assessments online that a manager can use as well.
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Permalink Reply by Sandra Sears on -
This is an interesting question - probably one that a lot of managers would like to ask. Given the "boss/worker" relationship you have with your team members, it would be difficult for you to really know how your team members feel about you. In previous jobs as a member of a team with a manager, I can tell you that the team members will discuss their feelings amongst each other.
There are two levels that team members might have some feelings about you - do they like or dislike you personally, and do they like/respect you professionally. The professional aspect would most likely be the most important to them as well as you. Hopefully, personality compability was a factor in hiring in order to minimize personality conflicts within your team.
That said, let's begin by recognizing the fine line that managers must walk in their relationships with their employees - they want to be friendly, but still maintain their position as the one in charge. It would of course be a lot better to not get the relationship with an employee off on the wrong foot than to try to correct the situation after it has happened. Bad experiences will leave a negative impresssion that will be hard to overcome. You want your employees to be productive, but you also must be sensitive to their personal needs without being taken advantage of.
Taking a positive reinforcement approach will always be better than taking a hard line approach. A hard line approach deflates motivation and over time will cause employees to be less productive because they feel that they are not being respected. The object should be to find ways to get the employees to take personal ownership of the projects they are working on. This would involve more than just saying to them "you own this". This can happen by sharing more of the big picture with the team so they can better understand the importance of what they are doing in relation to the company goals as a whole. Think of a person working in a factory that does the same thing every day without thought or knowledge of how their work fits into the whole product. Over time this is very boring and unsatisfying, not contributing to a sense of personal worth.
No matter what level of knowledge employees have about the big picture, they will still form opinions on your ability to make decisions. The more they know, the more accurate their assessment of your ability will be. It is easy for someone to "assume" something in error and then spread this false assumption among the group, bringing down motivation in the group. Thus it is good to foster good communication across the team.
Mean it when you say "the door is always open". Encourage suggestions and input for your team members. Teams members who are deep into the detail may be able to offer knowledge and suggestions that the higher view may not have taken notice of.
In summary, make sure you communicate well with your team and let them know you respect and value their contributions. The more you can do this, the more motivated your team will be, and the chances will decrease that they will ask for time off for invalid reasons, because they can really feel that they do own their piece of the project. Also the time spent at work will be more productive.
I hope these random thoughts are of help, and I appreciate the question.
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