Jun 28, 2024
So you want to build a stronger, faster team? Here are 3 quick tips for better teamwork that you can implement today:
Show the team that it's okay to make mistakes. A good place to start is with yourself.
Share your own mistakes with your team, especially when your boss is there too. When your boss suggests an idea in front of the team, share your perspective, even if it differs.
Soon you will start gaining insights from the team much faster about what processes or aspects of the product need fixing.
Pro Tip: Share your mistakes, but don't go crazy. While sharing mistakes is valuable, there should be a balance. Over-sharing or focusing too much on failures might undermine confidence in leadership. So, keep it balanced.
If you want to speed up your decision-making, one way is to hold a meeting. Meetings may not be great for context switching, scheduling, or avoiding interruptions, but if you are looking for speed, this is the way to go. You and the team need to be prepped for this.
Use tools like Notion or FigJam to outline the context, key points, and a suggested action plan before the meeting. This prep work shows your thinking process and helps everyone understand how you arrived at the conclusion and proposed decision. The team can spend the first 5-10 minutes reading it and then share their feedback: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Process that feedback, adjust if needed, and make the call.
Pro Tip #1: Disagreements are okay. As long as the team understands why and how a decision was made, it's easier to move forward. At the end of the day, the decision-maker (you) needs to make the final call.
Pro Tip #2: Establish definite criteria for when a meeting is necessary versus when a decision can be made asynchronously
Make your Monday mornings special. Use Figma to share updates. The Figma template should have several sections, including what energised us over the weekend, upcoming events or celebrations, things we've learned or started doing, and our goals for the week.
For fun team activities, check out How We Roll: Team Activity.
Pro Tip: Ensure you have a couple of photos to share from the weekend and at least one thing you learned. These are great conversation starters!
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I'm a father of 3 from Sydney, a Product Director and a Product Coach. I write about leadership, product management and the messy reality of making work work.
I'm currently building and experimenting with a mildly alarming number of things.
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