The three main challenges of working as a self-steering team and how to cope with them

It is no secret that Qteal consists (only) of self-steered teams. In our words, this means the team has no hierarchical leader or someone to report to because we believe that it is more sustainable and effective that the teams themselves pick up the efforts that management would do otherwise.

The team owns the complete project, which comes with a great set of responsibilities. Think of ensuring that all the project needs are met, that the bills get paid and how to cope with unsatisfied customers.

At first sight, being able to make all the decisions yourself and/or as a team seems very attractive to many people. Unfortunately, few are the ones that practice self-management to the fullest.

In this article, we happily share with you what we believe are three (of the many) challenges self-steering teams face and how you and your team could cope with them. Would you happen to have other challenges worth mentioning? You can go ahead in the comments below.

Challenge number one: Give feedback to each other when there is a mismatch in expectations.

Typical examples that would rise in this case:

1. The work delivered by a co-worker is not the one expected
2. Someone within the team gives the impression of not complying with the agreements made upfront
3. A team member is going on holiday, but that seems unachievable based on the current workload

Indeed, if a manager is leading the team, this person is usually expected to give feedback, but what when the team does not have a manager?

Although we still experience difficulty on this topic, we believe that giving feedback is the role of anybody in the team. Indeed, it is one of the many responsibilities that are part of self-steered teams.

Our practical solution was to hold a communication course last week with an external party. Next to the benefits of getting external advice, it gives a clear overview of what the team is struggling with and what solution we want to try out together.

As we said earlier, few are practicing the Teal way of working to that extent because of the challenges of working in such a way. That leads to a misconception we would tackle right here:

"We do not work as self-steered teams because we can't cope with hierarchical commands or because we believe it is more fun. We work as self-steered teams because we believe it makes people happier and is the best way to create great products or services."

Challenge number two: Who will fill the gaps in a team?

Yet another example of what would typically be a role or a decision to be made by the manager; make sure that all the skills and roles are available for a team to achieve its goal.

Here also, In our self-steering teams, we noticed that sometimes these gaps do not get (quickly) filled. Members stay too easily with what they are already doing and familiar with. There also seems to be a threshold for members to give feedback to someone that that person might be suited to pick up the role to fill a gap.

Coping with this issue generally refers to the same solution as in the first challenge, ensuring that everyone understands that, since there is no manager, everyone is responsible for achieving the agreed-upon goal. There is not one person that can be blamed for not making sure that the team has all its needs.

The practical solution we have in place is what we call retrospectives. During those, good and bad points are communicated to the team and prioritised. The team will discuss certain points and work towards a specific solution according to its priority. An example of this could be that we miss certain skills, and the action point would be to plan external training about it. Another example would be that we are missing a certain role and need to take action towards filling up that role.

As the title would suggest, a self-steering team needs to steer itself... And if there is no steering wheel or a windshield is missing, guess who will need to take care of it?

Challenge number 3: Not placing your personal ambition over team results.

Outperforming others is a familiar atmosphere in many workplaces. In the end, there are only that many places for managers in a company, right?

What about a company with only steering teams and no management?

The answer is quite simple: there is no point in wanting to outperform another team member. Otherwise stated: the team is as strong as its weakest link.

An excellent example of coping with this is when you have extra time. Instead of getting even more work done yourself, check in with your colleagues to see if they are on schedule and help the one lagging behind to ensure the team result is assured.

This one is really about nurturing that mindset and culture between team members. Another concrete example of how we guide people to get in this mindset is our 'TPC process'. That is: everybody's salary is transparent, and everyone can set his/her own salary. But advice and feedback must be asked to the entire team, so they also personally benefit from helping the team and adding value to it.

As you can read, the common thread in these challenges is the lack of a manager. Although the easy conclusion that could be made out of this is that the presence of a manager is easier than facing these challenges, we are convinced that the benefits of a self-steering team surpass these challenges.

These benefits can be found throughout our social media posts, so feel free to have a look at them and give your feedback!

Meanwhile, we hope you can use some of the above experiences within your team or organisation!