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Building a Team
Possibly the worst thing about being a supervisor or manager is that you now sound like your boss -- it's kind of like having kids and becoming just like your parents.
Whether your hair is pointy or merely turning gray, it can be unnerving to go from heckling in the stands to having responsibility for an area or group. All of a sudden, the heckling doesn't seem so funny. That's not to say there aren't terrible managers or team leaders out there who don't deserve heckling -- of course there are. But we're only interested in terrible managers here as examples -- to show you how not to build a team. We're sure you've been taking notes throughout your career and, of course, following Dilbert.
IT people aren't grunt workers, and treating them as such is a good guarantee of failure down the line. While some good leaders take a page from the military and treat their team as "special forces" players rather than ground-force operatives, others act as a coach for what can be an MVP team. Any way you look at it, your team's success is your success, and this becomes your organization's business success. You can think of your team as being Layer 1 of the OSI model; if it is not functioning correctly, Layer 7 (the business organization) also is going to have problems. As a manager, you have responsibilities both to your team (everybody wants to be on a good one) and to upper management. It's not always easy. To minimize the pain, here's our Network Computing Leader Checklist:
>> Accentuate the positive. No employee is perfect, and it's important to focus on the deficiencies that truly matter to the work at hand, as opposed to your personal preferences.
>> Don't be stingy with praise. As a supervisor, it's your job to criticize, but constant criticism is demoralizing. Find something nice to say every once in a while. If you can't, you've got a bigger problem on your hands.
>> Stay focused while disciplining. When it's time to criticize, do so. If you compliment while you are criticizing something that was done wrong, you'll end up being confusing and ineffective.
>> Care passionately about doing things right. It's infectious.
>> Be specific about work expectations. Again, it's your job to criticize and compliment, but it's best to have a bar to measure against, preferably a written and succinct one.
>> Clearly define goals. Nobody likes working on a never-ending treadmill. A goal-centered team is one that occasionally gets the rush of achieving something, followed by the urge to go out and achieve again.
>> Lead by example. If you insist on timeliness, be timely. In particular, fess up when you mess up; you'd be amazed at how few supervisors do, and your team will appreciate it.
>> Get to know your team. People can detect if you actually care or if you're just giving lip service. If you like someone enough to give a flip about what's up with his or her family, great -- you'll bond with that person by asking about the kids, pets, hobbies and so forth. But here's a caveat: If you don't genuinely like a team member, don't even ask; it'll come off as phony, and you'll hurt the work relationship.
>> Insist on mutual respect. Not everyone has to hang out together, but a lack of respect among team members becomes animosity, and animosity stifles productivity; even a passive-aggressive internal battle becomes a real problem. As with any network problem, being proactive here is preferable to being reactive. A team that has mutual respect also shows mutual responsibility, and the ball gets dropped much less often.
>> Insist upon discretion. Nothing hurts team morale more than one of its members badmouthing the other, and nothing hurts your team more than the outside perception that your team is warring internally.
>> Promote growth. People may resist change and growth, but most prefer it to stagnation, and the team members that you want to stick around will rise to the challenge.
>> Listen well. Nothing hurts your effectiveness more as a supervisor than typing or thinking about something else while you're "listening" to a team member explain a problem. Also, some sort of employee feedback mechanism, informal or formal, is essential.
>> Offer tangible rewards. Not every supervisor -- particularly midlevel managers -- can give merit increases or bonuses, but there are other ways to offer positive reinforcement for a job well done. Some examples include comp or flex time. As much as folks might scoff at plaques or other awards, it does feel pretty good to get one, particularly if there's a gift certificate or a day off attached. Stay away from lame tokens (like company pens in compensation for huge overtime), though. However you do it, publicly thanking individuals is essential.
Job satisfaction and high morale are incredible motivators for any employee. Apart from showing leadership, you'll also want to make sure that staff has the perks and resources to do well at what they do. These perks can include training (both on the job as well as formal classes), cross training, flex time, lab time and business review time.
Finally, when you're building or augmenting your team, think about the future. Get input from individuals who are more connected with their jobs than you are: Are new responsibilities popping up? Are old responsibilities going away, or is this wishful thinking? Asking questions is essential here: How can these responsibilities be divided; does someone else have similar job functions? What part of your job functions must remain in-house, versus jobbed out to vendors? (Outsourcing isn't always a bad word: Sometimes it translates to better use of resources.)
Even if things seem to be running smoothly, don't be afraid to mix it up a bit. You don't want to be where the mainframe shops were 10 years ago, shrinking and becoming less essential daily. You want to build the "generation next" IT team, not necessarily one that simply addresses today's needs. New staff positions may open up, and old jobs may vanish because of attrition. For example, lately, we've seen organizations push staffers into a combination helpdesk/trainer/consultant function, going from department to department and helping them get the most use out of the software and systems they already have. We've also seen IT agree to security auditing being moved out of IT and into the internal audit department of the organization, with the thought being that a truly independent auditor will do a better job.
Time will tell if these roles become permanent in most IT shops, or whether they'll be dropped as noble but failed experiments; the important thing is that the IT department is at least attempting to be responsive and adaptive to the business needs of the organization.
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