Many teams come together and collaborate to form their individual ideas into a strategy. Sometimes, friction can occur and it’s the manager’s job to set the scene for a valuable and effective brainstorming session. 

In the beginning stages, everyone was on their separate path, so when they come together there could be some friction. Even if it is not noticeable, it is the manager’s duty to gel the team together through factors within your work environment. 

Some jobs include:

• Strategy setting
• Unblocking negatives
• Aligning company objectives 

All in all, it’s a storm and your team needs help navigating through it. 

The 4 aspects of managing:

• Mentoring
• Coaching
• Sponsoring
• Delivering Feedback 

Mentoring

It’s natural for managers to constantly be in mentor mode. Giving advice, helping solve problems, and sharing your perspective. This is fine! Teams like having some authority to look up to in order to feel a sense of safety while doing their work. 

Sometimes this can be controversial in a sense when it comes to representation. A plain example is when women in the workplace combine their wants collaborate, representing a strong vibe. On the other hand, when they begin to voice their opinion they are labeled as cold and hostile. This is one example of many that can become perplexed to certain mangers. 

As a mentor, it’s important to aware of the marginalized members of your team as they might feel different towards topics or how they are perceived.  

Everyone has a mentor, which mean everyone is evolving. Never stop at one person but expand your insights and outreach to many people in and out of the industry. Mentoring can only get you so far. It is the easiest/natural way to hone in as a manager but doesn’t fully support the growth of your team. 

Coaching

During the mentoring mode, you are mainly focused on the problem and solution.  Usually, you are in the role because you have had ample experience. Sometimes, the only advice you give is based off what you know. This means you are more focused on yourself and less on the teammate in front of you. 

Two primary actions of coaching mode:
Asking open-ended questions – to help others explore more of the topic rather than the problem at the surface
Reflecting – describing what you see and how they see themselves (as in progress)

Open questions

Closed questions come with a quick response such as “yes” or “no”. In contrary to closed questions, open questions require more of an explanation. Where the problem occurs is when there is an issue and someone asks “why”. Automatically the team will feel judge that they don’t know why.

Instead, ask questions about the problem, not the solution – who, what, where, when and THEN why. 

Challenges will prosper in a successful group that is willing to grow. Questions that start with “what” are curious. As a coach, you can offer questions that get to know your member better. What is important to them? What does success look like within this challenge? 

A common aspect surrounds the “what” questions are promotions and events. Instead of offering your input on what you think, offer them the chance to explain WHAT they can do with the promotion and WHAT has proved them to receive it. 

These questions will push your teammate to think more deeply, as well as give you a better understanding of your team. When managing a large team, it’s hard to niche everybody in terms of their work. By asking them questions, they can offer up works they have done that might have slipped your mind but still are imperative. However, asking and answering questions can be hard so it might take time. 

The key is that coaching mode opens a two-way conversation. 

Reflection 

Be seen and be heard.

Help your teammate feel heard by engaging in their conversation. Often, it’s hard to lend your full attention to a conversation and feel accomplished. When a team member is communicating with you, repeat what you hear back. It helps you to understand for them to reflect on what they are saying. 
You can start with …

“what I’m hearing is…”

“what I know about you is…”

This can offer reflection in understanding how they communicate during a conversation and to offer visibility if your teammate is confused. 

Occasionally, you might and will get a reflection wrong. That is okay. Sometimes we choose the wrong words, interpret differently, and sometimes just do not understand the information in front of us. 

When coaching, you do not need to have all the right answers. You are just looking to help someone grow.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this blog….

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