It is never easy to manage a team and there is so much to learn and master a few aspects such as giving feedback effectively, developing your team and more.
One of the effective managing skills is to make sure is you always talk about the why to your team members.
Sharing a decision with your team? Tell them why you made it.
Choosing not to take their recommendation for next steps? Tell them why you are going in another direction.
Prioritising one project over another? Tell them why that makes sense for the business.
It is a simple step which can be easily ignored, however doing this will have a big impact on your colleagues.
Here is why you should take the time to convey the why.
* About your priorities
When you start explaining why you made decisions is that you’ll start sharing more context with your team. The reason you decided to go with A versus B is often that there was also something else going on that they didn’t have visibility into, which was relevant to your priorities.
By sharing that, you’re helping them connect the dots, learn more about how the business works, and understand what is more or less important to you, your boss, and the company.
* Make better decisions themselves
Once your team has more context and understands your priorities and why you make decisions, you’ve created a feedback loop!
To pick a silly example, if they brought you two options for snacks and you picked fruit over cookies, they could bring you a number of different options next time. If you explained the decision as being tied to a number of people on the team being gluten-free, they’ll bring you options that fit that criteria and start thinking about the needs of the team as part of the decision. If you made the decision based on budget instead, well, you may get a number of cheaper cookie options next time.
You get the idea. You’re empowering your team to learn and do better next time, which is what management is all about.
* Be more engaged
When you keep your team involved it keeps them engaged. Talking about the why that ties your work and theirs back to a bigger goal, purpose, or mission, not just the task at hand. This is what creates the internal motivation and desire to do the work at hand.
Courtesy: www.themuse.com
