How can you get the most out of self-managed teams?

Somehow, the word ‘vision’ make people scared and confused. “ I only a manager. I don’t know the company vision. It’s director job to define, not me” In reality, not all director able to answer the question “why the team exists?” The team leader ability to translate the company vision to his team plays crucial role. Make it simple and achievable, so the word “vision” become relevant to team member.

"Purpose and goals" might restated as "vision for the future." Such vision, ideally, depends on shared values and shared sense of the impact the team wants to have in the organization and with their stakeholders, be they inside the organization or external customer. When I was at Google, they hired a new Executive Vice President for my part of the company. When he addressed our organization, he spoke of goals to gain market share and dominate the market. That collided with my sense of purpose at Google. Google's tagline had long been, "Organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful." (Or something like that.) Market domination wasn't going to cut it for me. So I got out. Keep the team focused..

I concur that organizational objectives & goals are paramount, but a high performance team doesn't start at the organizational level. I first & foremost, consider the objectives & goals of the individual. Each person, with different skill levels, in different stages of life & different career ambitions. This involves a very transparent conversation where I hear from my team what they really want from working in the company. I've had members tell me they want to grow their career at all costs, others will say they want to spend more time with the family & another could tell me he just wants to keep busy but nothing more. Once I know what they want, I overlay this into the objectives my boss has handed to me & build from there.

I would agree with Ben that it’s the individual we should be focusing on as leaders. If the goals and objectives are focused to high up, leaded need to listen and work on individuals to align it all, without which you end up with a machine that at best moves too slow (wobbly wheels) or at worst may not get you where you want to go (misaligned wheels).

Any team, self-managed or not, is most effective when they have clarity of how the team does its work, when members can depend on each other, and when they have a shared vision for the team's impact. Conflict resolution, feedback, and cultivating a shared vision is traditionally a leadership responsibility. Self-managed teams still need leadership, just not management. That leadership will, ideally, emerge from within the team. Team members are accountable to each other. Together and must be transparent about their own vision --- the impact they want to have on the world. To thrive, they must actively seek ways to handle their own conflicts. They are adults now. "Team managers" are just foster parents appointed by the company.

The reality is that it's near impossible to pigeon hole expectations equally. And I don't believe in treating everyone the same, regardless how contrarian that sounds. My goal is to build a bond strong enough where individual responsibilities can cross lines and everyone helps everyone regardless if it's in their contract or not. The magic is in building this bond not along occupational descriptions but a "relationship", an esprit de corp that gels strongly. I accomplish this with regular meetings, and regional gatherings and one on ones, and role rotation so each knows and learns of the challenges another faces in a different role or even a different country. And I do formalize this exchange with a structured backup of each other.

When I was at Google, the manager I held in highest esteem told me, in a one-on-one conversation, "I work for you. What do you need to do your job well? Training? Tools? Resources? My job is to get it for you." I had never felt so supported before, nor have I since.

As a recruitment leader, my entire team has a high dependency on the ATS (Application Tracking System). Sadly, most ATS are rather clumsy and hard to use. Naturally, there is training around this platform but I also created my own reporting mechanism that makes it transparent to everyone what everyone is working on (I was a programmer in a previous life and that helps). Besides that resource, I also encourage they attend any training that they find interesting and I recommend. This is not always recruitment related to keep the learning experience exciting and fresh and eager. The role rotation and OJT also reinforces the learnings that is not limited merely to their scope or country, and opens many doors.

My branding firm is a virtual collaborative agency with team members dispersed geographically around the USA. We have been successful because we are a team of individuals who trust each other to do our specific roles for our client engagement teams. We coordinate via IM, email, Zoom and phone calls and have regularly scheduled weekly meetings to address challenges and make team decisions. We leave our egos at the door and do what's best for our clients through collaboration, trust and respect for one another. We also believe in working hard and playing hard which adds enjoyment to our work.

It's dissappointing that trust comes so late in this conversation. Google found that psychological safety is the single most important factor in effective teams. If I can't take reasonable risks with new ideas, if I must constantly look out for who might want to leverage my vulnterability, then I will waste precious mental energy protecting myself from those threats, whether they are from company leaders or from my peers. That is a waste of energy that leads to a vicious cycle. Soon, that sense of threat permeates the whole team. Indeed, the whole organization. That's (one reason) why Google implemented Blameless Post Mortems. If there was a failure, it was a systemic failure, not a personal one.

Trust is given by default and only for them to lose it. Honestly, independent decision making is not given to all members, as recruitment has a fiduciary element and plenty compliance issues to manage. But managers have 100% autonomy on decision making. I follow the do first, ask for forgiveness later approach. As long as one is accountable, the failures are not failures but lessons that only strengthen the team as a whole. That said, individual members, regardless of seniority or otherwise have absolute right to be heard. And then either the request is followed through or a proper rationale given why it was declined. This trust is built on the foundation of the bond in place. No bond, no trust.

Monitoring methods for a high performance team is not so much identifying from past performance but to put in right targets and reviewing it against well defined standards. Tools such as Visual Dashboards, Kaizen, and Gemba are few which help in continuous improvements.

If the first step was to establish purpose and goals, the second step, not the fifth, should be to identify metrics by which the team can measure progress toward those goals. The team should be keenly aware at a regular cadence of how those metrics stand. A key point that needs to be underscored is to track *team* performance, not individual performance. Few things destroy psychological safety faster than pitting one team member against another to establish favorite status with leaders. Another key point is that the team needs to have a clear sense of its capacity for taking risks and learning from failure. Woe to the one who innovates, risks, fails, and is chastised for it. And woe to the team with members who fear failing again.

A recruiting unit is subject to plenty KPI's, much like I assume for every business unit. Those KPI's are monitored and course corrected as necessary. Celebrations are not limited to only achieving KPI's, celebrations are done to celebrate effort, improvement and innovation. A strong layer of these will trigger hitting the achievements with a great sense of satisfaction in a no fear of failure environment.

In my experience, teviewing and adjusting a team structure is like fine-tuning an engine. A high-performing team is a well-oiled machine driving towards success. One thing I've found helpful is not waiting for the engine to stall! Schedule regular team check-ins to discuss goals, roles, and challenges. Be open to feedback and make adjustments as needed. This proactive approach ensures your team stays adaptable and keeps driving towards success!

Effective team self-management is predicated on its self-governance. The team knows itself better than company leadership can. If as the above precursors are in place, the team knows its purpose and goals, and maintains a psychologically safe environment, then the team itself is best suited to explore team strengths, define roles within the team, delineate responsibilities among those roles, and define clear processes that are key to advancing the metrics toward reaching those goals. Reviewing team self-governance at a regular cadence, perhaps monthly or quarterly, is key to siezing opportunities and addressing threats to the team's success. The team must decide for itself how to best handle those threats and opportunities.

Getting the most out of self-managed teams requires a thoughtful approach that empowers team members while providing the necessary support and resources for success. Here are some strategies to optimize the performance of self-managed teams: Clear Purpose and Goals, Empowerment and Autonomy, Effective Communication, Continuous Learning and Development, Supportive Environment, Clear Roles & Responsibilities, Regular Feedback & Reflection, and Flexibility & Adaptability. By implementing these strategies, organizations can harness the full potential of self-managed teams, driving innovation, productivity, and success.

A key element that would run through every step of running an autonomous, high performance team is hiring the right people. They should identify with the "vision" and grow along with the growth of team/company. Rewards will be a lot different for such a team member than from normal HR templates. This difference will be key to make or break at the beginning of building the team.