Confidence plays an important role in many areas of our lives. You will often here it said of footballer, for example, that they are a confidence player. I know from my own inability to play golf that I become marginally less rubbish if I have confidence in my next shot. Leaders who lead directly and with confidence are people that we want to follow. If you offer somebody direction, with confidence, they will, most likely, blindly follow. And the opposite is also true. Even if you know what you are talking about, if you do not present a confident argument, you will generally be ignored.

The same is true of your team. A team, full of confidence, will be more efficient at finding solutions to your problems.  If confidence is low, time will be wasted while they decide even if they can solve the issue. The idea that; there is no such thing as a problem without a solution, goes out of the window.

When a team questions their ability to solve a problem. The problem is in danger of not being solved.

Building Confidence.

It is important to be active in building the confidence of your team. This includes being on the look out for things which will damage the confidence of individuals.

1. Public praise.
   Be vocal about the successes of your team and the individuals within it. Publicise the good activity that is going on all the time. This is especially important if an individual  has been struggling for confidence. Inform other areas in the organisation of your successes. When a project is completed or an important milestone is reached, spread the word. Send an email highlighting the work and the individuals involved. Twitter is also a great tool for this and especially useful in the web world where what you are working on is often in the public domain. When your team does something well, hold it up for all to see.
2. Do not allow individuals to dominate a team.
   A certain way to knock the confidence of an individual is if they are in a team with one or two unapproachable ‘experts’ . When one member of a team is perceived to always have the best solution others will be less willing offer suggestions.  Remember, a quite individual does not equate to an incompetent individual.  It is important to build the confidence of such individuals otherwise you will lose their valuable input. If you identify this situation your can try to build their confidence and their standing within the team.  Ask them specifically for their opinion. Take them aside and seek their assessment of an issue. Public praise can also be a useful tool for individuals  as well as teams. If somebody doesn’t have the confidence to contribute then you will lose their contribution.
3. Do not set people up to fail.
   Be realistic with the challenges that you set for your team. If you consistently set an unrealistic target which ends with your team not achieving their goals, then their confidence and eventually their effectiveness will suffer. Break larger tasks into achievable chunks. Give people the opportunity to achieve something small along the way to a larger success. Failure is a demotivating experience. If it happens too often it can become habitual. Make sure that your team has a fighting chance of success. Do not set them up to fail.

A confident team is more productive. They are also more innovative in their solutions because they expect to not only achieve their goals but to excel at what they are doing.  It is important to not go too far and breed arrogance and complacency but a team of confident individuals will make your job a lot easier.

Have you had the experience of being in a team that has lacked confidence? What other ways of building the confidence of the team, or an individual, have you come across?

“I don’t know” is actually a valid answer to a problem.

“Let me think about that” is not an excuse to waste time.

“I think I should discuss this problem with my peers” doesn’t present you as incapable.

No need to be infallible

We all want to be seen in the best light. We don’t want to be seen to make mistakes. We want to be appreciated for what do. We want acknowledgement for all we put in and what we can achieve. We definitely don’t want to be seen as the weak link. We want to give an impression that we are in control and that we are ready for whatever challenge may come our way. We want people to know that they can trust us; that they can rely on us. We want to inspire confidence that we know what we are doing.

To achieve this we do not need to be infallible.  We need to be honest; with other people and ourselves.

It can be too easy to try and have an answer for everything.  If you are presented with a problem you want to solve it quickly. Most problems that come up in my world as a web project manager do not have instant answers and I’m typically very suspicious of off the cuff solutions.  When I pose a problem to my team I would expect an answer that is something along the lines of; “Give me some time to consider that” or “I’m not sure, there could be several solutions, let me do some thinking and research”.

Similarly, in an environment of peers, if you don’t know how something works, ask your team mates. Share the knowledge around. It’s sounds obvious but many people are too afraid of what people my think of them if they ask a seemingly obvious question.

Honesty is just fine

Acknowledging areas of weakness or gaps in understanding, far from creating a negative picture you, will actually increase your standing with people around you. Understanding who you are and what you can (and can’t) do is a sign of strength. It will produce self confidence which others will feed off. And if you can pin point the areas where you need to improve then you are in a much stronger position to do something about them. People around you will recognise this and therefore have more confidence in you.

A quick answer that,  further down the road, proves to not the be the best solution, causes problems. It might make you appear to be on top of your game at that moment in time but it will leave people with less confidence in you in future. However, a more considered approach, which yields good results, leaves everybody with greater confidence in your ability. It will breed trust.

Fear can be a big issue; both for team members and team leaders. We are afraid to appear weak, or slow, or unreliable. We are concerned that our boss or our peers will think we do not know what we are doing.

It’s worth remembering that asking questions and saying, “I don’t know”, are not a sign of weakness. In fact, they are a sign of strength.

Working with a team can be hard work. It’s made even more difficult when you are not all pulling in the same direction. This is true whether you are running a small project team or a whole organisation.

You have two real approaches available to you. The first to to push on with your wonderful plans and try and take people with you whether they like it or not. The second is to work with your team to formulate your plan and, as far as is possible, take them all with you as you go.

The problem with the first option is that while you may get to run your team exactly as you’d prefer you do run the risk that the members of the team will be less than committed to the cause. In a worse case scenario they could be disruptive or even disappear all together.

Taking your team with you; allowing all involved to feel like they own the plan is by far the best approach. There are a number of ways to help facilitate this process.

Communicate

Open and honest communication is key. Be clear and transparent with all members of your team about what you are trying to achieve and by when. Also make it clear, right from the start, what restrictions there are in formulating the way forward and why these restrictions are in place.

There may be a tool that has to be used. Or hoop that needs to be jumped through. Make the team aware of these restrictions.

Listen

Whether you have a clear idea or not about the way ahead, seek the opinions of your team members. Allow them to be a part of the planning process and formulate  a plan that can be owned by the individuals in your team. Other people will think of things that you have missed and others will be more skilled in some areas that you are. Good leadership is about knowing when to take advice and not to be afraid of the areas where you are not as strong as others around you.

Use the individuals at your disposal to asses the risks to your plans. The different perspectives are essential in predicting the future problems that your team will face. If you can predict issues early, you can prevent them.

Playing to your strengths

By drawing on the skills and experience of your team members you are not only more likely to come up with a better, more thought through and thorough plan but you are also more likely to have a team who is more committed to it.

If people own the process they will work harder in an attempt to make it succeed.

We’ve all been there. There is a hole in your team, a job that needs to be done. Maybe somebody has moved on leaving a vacancy or your activities have expanded to such an extent that new skills or more resource is needed. And what’s more, you need it now!

The temptation is to fill the vacancy as quickly as possible. The first person who is willing and able is given the job. The nearest warm body is plucked out of the air and put in place as soon as possible. You just succumbed to ‘warm body syndrome’.

Ok, so you might get lucky. Somebody was in the right place at the right time and they are perfect for the role. They have all the skills, they have the temperament, you get on well, everything is a roaring success and all live happily ever after. However, sadly, this isn’t the norm. A simple rule to remember is; “just because they can, doesn’t mean they should.”

A few things to bear in mind:

1. You are not doing anybody a favour by asking somebody to do a job they can’t do. 
2. You are not helping anybody out by agreeing to a request from somebody to do a job that they are not able to do.
3. Making a wrong decision is expensive!
4. Making a wrong decision is waste of time!
5. Making a wrong decision just upsets all involved.
6. Making a wrong decision will mean you just have to go through the whole process again.

It’s best to take your time over such things. Don’t appoint somebody just because there is nobody else. If they are not right for the role then that’s it. End of story. Remember that undoing this decision is going to be a drawn out and painful process. It’s worth taking your time and getting it right first time.

This can be difficult. There is a temptation to either put somebody in post because they really want the role. Or to appoint because you really need the position filled.  But it is best to not appoint at all then to make the wrong decision. Taking your time and waiting for the right person may mean that the existing team need to work harder for a while. It may me somebody in the team doesn’t get the promotion that they have been after. It may mean the new initiative that you want to kick off will need to wait. But all these things are better than the alternative.

Resist the quick fix. Take your time. Get it right.

Confidence plays a major part in leading a team. I’m not talking about a blind arrogance that assumes that you are always right but instead a confidence that leads you to feel that you do not have to constantly prove yourself. A Manager serving his owns needs is not much use to the team they are supposed to be leading.

We’ve all been there at some point. You’ve just completed a fantastic piece of work or have come up with a great idea only for your manager to do all they can to take more than their slice of the credit. Such behavior de-motivates team members and leads to an unhappy and unproductive team. 

Measuring the un-measurable

I can understand why even the most self aware, confident managers can slip into this behavior. A need to justify your existence stems from that fact that mangers don’t really produce anything anymore. Their success or failure is not something that is easy to measure tangibly. Even those managers who are still involved in the practical side of their area of expertise are often distracted by other duties and so when an opportunity comes up to prove that they are still worth the salary the temptation is to milk it.

Such behavior, can, cause irreparable damage to the relationship between manager and team and ultimately the team will underperform; eventually falling apart. But team leaders are human just like everybody else. They need to feel of value and that they are a useful part of the whole or they quickly become de-motivated too. So how do we resolve the conflict?

Becoming self aware

A team leader needs to be aware of what their role is and how they should measure their success. Often managers are promoted, not because of their ability to manage but because they top of their field. This can mean that an organization not only loses their best people from the shop floor but also gain some bad leaders into the bargin, but that is a subject for another time.

Essentially, a team leaders job is to make everybody else look good. A good manager is able to create an environment where those in their team are able to grow and develop, bringing the most from whatever skills and talents they have. A manager who is more interested in making stars out of the individuals in their team rather than themselves, is much better placed to get the most out of those around them and in their charge.

For this to happen it’s important that a manager firstly understands what their role is, secondly understand that their success should now be measured, fundamentally, on other peoples performance, and finally that they are secure in their position; not worrying about how they look or needing to prove themselves.

If you have ever wondered why your team is what it is, then it is possible that you should look no further. Just like children often pick up traits, characteristics, and mannerisms of their parents, and “best friends” will find that they think and behave alike, teams will often take on the personality and ethos of their leader.

This is obviously a big generalisation but it is very useful to remember if you are in leadership of some form. The team leader sets the culture of team as a whole. If the dominate characteristic of the team leader is that they are competitive, then do no be surprised if you end up with a team that is guarded about their knowledge and skills and individuals are more interested in proving themselves than cooperating for the greater good. If the team lead is a joker then expect a “playful” environment in the team. If the team lead is reserved and quite…. You get the idea.

The point is that if you not happy about a particular part of your teams culture then the first place to look is at yourself! Your personality; your ethos, will be imprinted on the teams that you lead. This is also worth remembering, if you are a new leader of an established team and wonder why things are as they are. Finding out a little about your predecessor might be a useful exercise in understanding what might be involved in taking your team forward.

The ‘Super Hero’ Legacy

I found a good example of this in a previous post. The lead of the team I was in had set themselves up as something of a superhero. Everything they did was correct, every solution was as elegant and effeiciate as it could possibly be. And, of course, mixed in with the perfect amount of flair. They never had a question, they never had a doubt, they always had an answer. The end result was a team who were afraid to ask questions for fear of looking foolish and not appearing good enough to be a part of the super heros team. Team members were not very good at sharing experience and knowledge as the assumption was that eveybody already had the knowledge, else, how would they possible be in this “super team”.

This culture had been set as an unconscience response and reacation to the personality and ethos of the team lead. This was important to understand if any atempt to change this culture could be successful.

If you want to develop an area of your teams life then the first place to look is how you operate as an individual. There is no point in expecting an open working environment, with the free sharing and exchange of ideas, if you are less than transparent in what you do yourself. 

A major part of the role of a team leader is to set the culture of team. This is done not only by what you say, not even only by want you do, but also, who you are.