what’s your purpose
Do you notice yourself talking to a wall despite being in front of a group of people looking at you? Do you get upset when the team isn’t doing what you are telling them, because your idea is the best one ? (well, so you think) . Why is it so hard for them to put the hours in their tasks at the end of the day? I mean, it makes so much sense… (maybe to you but not to them)…
Why don’t they get you? Why aren’t they doing what you are telling them?
How do you talk to your team? What tone do you use? What words do you choose to speak?
When you speak to your team, what is your purpose?
Is it :
- to inform them
- to motivate them
- to challenge them
- to enlighten them
- to support them
- to unblock them …
Hopefully it’s not to show-off.
What you say has an impact , so choose your words wisely.
You want to inspire your team, then why would you gossip about others. Why would you bad mouth others, the process, the management? What value does that bring?
You want to inspire your team, then why are you focusing on the negative things?
You don’t understand why they don’t just do what you tell them because if they just do it, it will make their life easier? You want them to change simply because you told them to?
Will you change if a stranger tells you to? Let’s face it, you still are a stranger to them, you are not family.
Let’s challenge the initial reason of why do you want them to change? Do they see any issues? Are you seeing issues that don’t exist for the team? Maybe the first step is getting the team to see the issues … or you realizing there isn’t any.
Be creative in how you bring the topic and guide them to see what changes they can do and how will it improve their work life. They will eventually come up with your suggestion or an even better one. Your solution isn’t the only one that can work, you have to remember that. Keep an open mind.
Let us be realistic, yes… pessimistic, no…optimistic, YES! Despite everything that looks bad (a change in scope, environment issues, internet problems, access issues, lack of licenses), do you see that your team is able to deliver a product increment? That in itself is amazing!
What we are lucky to have, is a team. We are not perfect, but we are not alone. We have a team, and they are amazing in finding a workaround, to deliver a product increment. So let’s focus on delivering something great. Let’s focus on the things that we can change. How about our attitude to begin with?
Remember
- What is your intention (inform, motivate, inspire,…)?
- Why do you want the team to change
- We are lucky to have a team
