As a manager you recognize that there are team members you can lead more easily. Often these are the team members in which you recognize yourself and who you can easily “read” to estimate what they need to perform in your team. It is probably also more challenging for you to lead team members in whom you are less likely to recognize yourself. Being a good leader by these team members also requires empathy and a number of good guidelines as the basis for an inclusive and effective team. Here are 7 checks that can help you with that:
- Don’t use yourself as the norm
A team has all kinds of tasks. Some tasks need explanation and guidance if a team member has not done them before. Other tasks are self-evident and team members should be able to do themselves. But is that really so? If something is clear or easy to you, it doesn’t mean it is the same for all your team members. People with different backgrounds or experiences can sometimes use your explanation or help for something that does not need an explanation for you. Check for tasks that you take for granted whether this is also the case with all your team members. Don’t see yourself as the norm and actively monitor this. By checking and responding to this, you give all your team members the same knowledge and principles to be able to do their work well.
2. Make sure that you are equally easy to approach for all your employees.
Managers who indicate that their doors are always open to all of their employees may not be doing enough for all of their team members. Pay attention to who all uses the invitation to just walk into your office, call you or schedule a Team appointment with you. Does everyone do that equally or are there people you talk to a lot and others don’t? Check every week how much and for how long you have spoken to your team members and actively contact the people you speak less often each week. Moderate your contacts with employees you talk to a lot to make time for the other employees. Let people see and feel that you want to be in contact with everyone equally.
3. Actively invite colleagues to give their opinion.
Organize your meetings in a way that ensures that all team members can contribute as much as possible. Ask your team how you will handle this together and how you will use differences in team discussion to make better decisions together. For example, make sure that introverted colleagues can also contribute. Record how you are going to do this in each discussion and monitor the agreements made.
4. Correct immediately if someone on your team asks for credit for ideas originally conceived or suggested by someone else.
Consciously or unconsciously, team members sometimes claim ideas previously suggested by other team members. Because of this, some team members don’t get the credit they deserve. Pay attention yourself and correct and ask your team members to do this for each other as well. These 7 basic rules help your team to build inclusion and trust with each other and with you. Perhaps an idea to discuss in your team which of these 7 basic rules can still be improved and whether your team has additions to these basic rules for your team?
5. Assign your employees highly valued and visible tasks equally.
Give your employees equal opportunity to perform highly valued and visible tasks in your team and for the organization. Give everyone the opportunity to present occasionally, represent the department or lead a project. By giving everyone the same opportunities, everyone can learn and grow.
6. Also divide the non-visible tasks equally among all your employees.
In addition to distributing the visible tasks fairly, you can also share the invisible tasks that your team has to perform fairly across the group. Show in a diagram how you distribute the more invisible tasks over the entire team and evaluate every 6 months whether the distribution of the visible and invisible tasks are still well organized with your entire team.
7. Respond immediately and in the team to those who exclude team members and / or make them feel uncomfortable, inferior. Promote humor that doesn’t hurt.
As a manager you want a pleasant atmosphere in your team in which everyone feels seen and heard so that all team members can contribute optimally. You naturally stimulate jokes and humor in a team, but you immediately intervene if jokes hurt or make some team members feel uncomfortable. As a manager, also pay close attention to whether all team members inform each other correctly and on time. You also want to avoid sub-groups in your teams because these people mainly interact with each other and (un) consciously exclude other people. Ask your team members to pay attention to this themselves and to correct each other quickly if things go wrong.