As a people leader, we have the power to help our members achieve their dreams while also contributing to the company’s goals. We have the power to help them grow both personally and professionally so they have the confidence knowing they can succeed wherever they will be in the future.
Meet them where they are
1:1 meetings
Regular sync-ups or skip meetings with team members. Our former manager gave us this formula:
Team member’s topic
Team lead’s topic
Action items
“Skip meetings” happen if you are in multiple levels of organization. Your members have members.
The 1:1 meetings are not for giving project status updates. They are for connecting with our team members. Topics can be anything under the sun.
Some of the topics that usually float include career goals, concerns at work and ideas for the team’s improvement. Team members may have great ideas that are worth sharing to the rest of the team. Others may have sensitive topics that should be kept between yourselves. It’s important to keep proper discretion at all times. Leaders should be trustworthy.
Career Development Framework
People need to know what’s expected of them based on their role and their level.
How can you clearly say you meet all the expectations for your current role and position?
How do you level up?
How do you transition from being an individual contributor to becoming a people leader?
I am interested in another role. What are the skills expected of <another role>?
These are some of the things that a good career development framework will answer. This is also critical for an objective performance assessment.
Self-assessment
Be that person who asks “who do you want to be?” It’s great if your team members can answer this question right off the bat. Most of the time, the answer is “I’m not sure yet”.
Career development plan (Confluence template) - we used this template as basis to let members assess their strengths and weaknesses in these domains: technical skills, company’s core values and leadership skills.
Reminders:
Be honest. This document is confidential and will not be shared to others.
This is an informal document, you may use informal language.
Think of this as a practice to the annual performance assessment.
Leadership is not just for people with formal leadership titles. For example, mentoring juniors, taking initiative in research or driving collaboration in a project.
Writing a brag book
Brag Documents - Listing down and reviewing accomplishments regularly
Our former manager shared this with us. We don’t remember everything we do. Our managers don’t know everything we contribute. Writing down about our work helps us feel more fulfilled and helps our managers as well to advocate for us.
Measuring team health
Companies use human resources platforms to get a feel of employee engagement and manager’s effectiveness. Usual offerings are:
Anonymous surveys that will let the employees rate items like their sense of belongingness to the company or the level of trust with their manager
Reports showing current metrics and possible focus areas
Benchmarking against other teams within the company or against the global workforce in the same industry
Examples include Officevibe and Lattice.
Learnings
Having genuine concern for people’s well-being and being trustworthy are important factors in being a good people leader.
Sometimes a team member may not be giving their best as usual. There could be a number of reasons like struggling with unfamiliar tech, experiencing family problems or having mental health concerns.
Always remember that they are human beings, not robots. Listening is important. Only when we listen intently do we know what to do next or when to get further help.
Let the person know as early as possible. Give regular feedbacks, not when it’s too late. We had a member who started out with low performance at the start of the year. He was given constructive criticism. He worked on his weaknesses, and was able to deliver more than what was expected of him by the end of the year. When the annual performance assessment came up, no one questioned the high ratings he got.
Sometimes giving enough time or space to a person will also help. For example, a family member died and the team member’s devastated. Cannot do their job properly. Providing some time for the member to recover helps. In my experience, team mates (and other people we work with) are more than willing to make adjustments — covering work, re-prioritizing activities, etc.
Moving a person under another lead. I’ve seen this work a couple of times. In both scenarios, the person is not culturally fit with their team. Once they were moved to the new teams, they showed positive changes immediately 👌
Some issues are more sensitive like health issues or legal problems. Do not try to solve these on your own. It is better to seek help from experts like the human resources department, medical professionals or the legal team.
Not all people will like you. Not all people will believe in you.
And vice versa. Yep, you also don’t like everyone.
One of my mentors gave me a simple advice: just treat them like how you would treat your members normally. No exceptions — no trying to please them and also not hating on them. Just normal interactions. It worked, but not instantly.
A lot of people do not have a clue what they want to do. That’s ok.
Segment included me 😂 I’ve had a lot of managers before me and they were all very supportive.
Do you want to try being a team lead?
Do you want to become a manager?
It was sad knowing what my team mates wanted to be in their career while not knowing my own. I was just focused in getting the job done. I did not have a career map.
What do you really want to do?
What makes you feel alive?
Who do you want to be?
It’s ok not knowing right now and it’s ok to change minds. Encourage team mates by letting them know that it’s not too late and that it’s ok to try different things. Give them the support they need — maybe more opportunities to lead, booking trainings or getting certifications.
360 feedback. Feedback goes both ways. Again, there are tools that can be used to ensure anonymity. The best experience is when team members invite you to their circle, and are comfortable enough to openly provide their honest, professional feedback without fear of retaliation.
On surveys
The survey results should not affect the performance bonus of an employee. This may lead to employees giving all positive ratings even if they do not really feel the same.
Employees may not provide feedback if they don’t feel like someone’s actually listening. It’ll just become another chore for them. The other day I was talking to a friend and she said there was a time when someone responded to her comments. That was yeeeears ago but she remembered because it made her feel like her voice mattered.
Brag books and bragging. There were a few people who were not that comfortable about writing their brag book because it felt like.. bragging. I see it more as listing work that I am being paid for, remembering the good stuff I did with team mates, and writing down my tech journey.
- Do I do this regularly? NOT REAAAALLY WAHAHAHA 🤣 I do like creating end-of-year milestones pages for the whole team. It’s like a brag book but for the whoooolee team and everyone can add to that. 😝