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C) They don't do a good job in shielding the team sideways or upwards from external pressures that are not aligned with the strategic direction from leadership
by DoingIsLearning 4y ago
C) They don't do a good job in shielding the team sideways or upwards from external pressures that are not aligned with the strategic direction from leadership
Your two points are important but the best experiences I had _always_ had a manager who effectively filtered out the noise/nervousness from external sources (including from leadership). That means the manager is likely taking all sorts of blunt force trauma along the way but the team is allowed to focus and be clutch.
- cheschire 4y agoThe best leaders are shit-umbrellas. The worst ones are shit-funnels.
- troebr 4y agoI think about this sometimes. What about being a somewhat transparent shit umbrella? Like you don't let the team get hit by the shit, but they know that it's raining shit out there. I think it helps put some trade-offs in context.
- Loughla 4y agoThis is most of my approach. I let the team know what nonsense is coming from up above, what my strategy is to avoid it, and offer options for suggestions on how else we can deflect the bullshit. Often, we come up with really good solutions which get sent back upstairs for them to digest and shit back out on us in some other, stupid way. But at least the team feels valued, understands how they fit into the organization, and understands that if an idea dies, it's because of institutional inertia that is out of their hands. It at least helps with the frustration.
- wmeredith 4y agoThis is just managing down. You gotta communicate with your team about what's going on and why. Being a good umbrella isn't about hiding the rain, it's about keeping it off of them. In fact, hiding the rain is a bad idea, because eventually, people think they don't need the umbrella.