Sterling Terrell

smart ideas from books (mostly)

How To Run A Team

How To Run A Team

This bit on how to run a team is literally verbatim from what I have said before about communication.

You run a team with clear and consistent communication.

It’s about empathy – and being able to convey needed information to people where they are.

Are expectations reasonable? Are processes clear and documented?

Honestly, few managers do this well.

And many are too concerned about their own skin to strategically think through anything effectively.

I mean, speaking to a manager should energize an employee – not deflate them.

If it’s the latter, something is very wrong.

Understand: Leadership is communication.

“I had never really run a team of any sort before,” Musk said. “I’d never been a sports captain or a captain of anything or managed a single person. I had to think, Okay, what are the things that affect how a team functions. The first obvious assumption would be that other people will behave like you. But that’s not true. Even if they would like to behave like you, they don’t necessarily have all the assumptions or information that you have in your mind. So, if I know a certain set of things, and I talk to a replica of myself but only communicate half the information, you can’t expect that the replica would come to the same conclusion. You have to put yourself in a position where you say, ‘Well, how would this sound to them, knowing what they know?’”

-Ashley Vance, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (Amazon)

Leadership Is Communication

Leadership Is Communication

This post – Leadership Is Communication – is another repost from the former john.do blog.

Good-grief I miss that blog…

Be-that-as-it-may, you know how every so often something you read sticks with you?

I think about this post every single time someone at work fails to relay an important piece of information in a timely way.

Of course it’s never an imposition on them.

It’s an afterthought.

And then it’s someone else’s problem.

(The 💩 always flows downhill, in case you don’t know.)

Poor communication, coupled with a misunderstanding of the work being done…and a flippant email from a supervisor or co-worker is suddenly hours of work and frustration for a now agitated employee.

Understand: A significant part of not being a “blocker” is documenting your processes.

It should all go something like this:

Leadership is communication. And, in general, the better the person is at communication, the more effective they are as a leader.

This was a (lightbulb) moment for me and it’s why I work so hard on trying to be the best communicator that I can be, for our community inside and out.

One of the things that I do as a general litmus test when I look to work with people is how good their communication skill(s) are… in its variety of forms. This is especially important as written communication is becoming even more necessary — clearly, it should be something that all managers & leaders should be thinking about!

If you aren’t a consistent and intentional communicator you’re just not going to make it long working with me! This, of course, aligns deeply with our #tatt operating virtue.

Remember: Communicating well doesn’t mean communicating a lot* — it simply means that you’re doing everything that you can to ensure that the information that you have stored in your brain is quickly distributed out and into the minds of others.

It means that you aren’t getting in somebody’s way (or holding them back). It means that you’re never a blocker for another team member and they have access to the information they need to operate and execute.

Most-important is the following principle: Communication is a service that you do unto others; it’s not something you demand. This is important; please don’t miss this.

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