User Guide

About a month ago, a friend of mine - let's call him "Andrew" - was getting ready to start a new position where he would be managing a team of people. He asked me for any tips to help him in this new endeavor.

My first suggestion was for him to create a User Guide & to send it to his team. What's a User Guide? I'll get there in a few paragraphs...I promise. To get some ideas of where & how to start writing a User Guide, I sent him the following links User Manual at Work = Less Anxious, More Productive and this, very comprehensive post Indispensable Document for the Modern Manager.

Why?

Google performed a study about team performance; searching for the answer to, "what makes a high-performing team a high-performing team?" According to the study, the most critical element is psychological safety, where members on the team feel safe to be vulnerable and take risks around each other.

Vulnerability through transparency helps build trust. But, how do you get there, especially with a new team? As uncomfortable (scary) as it may sound, being vulnerable by sharing strengths and struggles, and being transparent about your tendencies, helps set a solid foundation for new professional relationships & psychological safety.

A key building block of psychological safety is vulnerability through transparency.

Early in my career, I wanted people to think I could do it all, that nothing bothered me, that I could be all things to all people. The reality is that, (gasp) I can't do it all. (second gasp) I can't be all things to all people. (third gasp) I have weaknesses, some things do bother me, and and there are certain things I value more than others. The longer I have been leading teams, I have found that being transparent & honest creates a bridge with team members. If I can transparently admit my strengths & weaknesses, my tendencies - both positive and not so positive - it creates space for other team members to do the same. Doing that also creates space for understanding and empathy. That's a foundation for psychological safety.

User Guide Template

The User Guide is a great way to start revealing those tendencies & building trust through transparency. Below is the template I have used, and the one my friend Andrew used, based on the article User Manual at Work = Less Anxious, More Productive

• My Style
• What I Value
• What I Don't Have Patience For
• How to Best Communicate with Me
• How to Help Me
• What People Misunderstand About Me

How'd it go?

Not only did Andrew create a user guide for himself, he sent it out to every team member. Then, he asked them to write one for themselves & to have it ready for their first one-on-one the following week. Brilliant! When I spoke with him, he said this had been an incredible exercise, helping him to quickly start building a foundation of professional trust by getting to know his team in a deeper, more meaningful way (and vice versa).

Other ways to build trust through transparency?

In Patrick Lencioni's book, The Advantage, he suggests building trust by having each person on a team share personal histories that include either the most interesting aspect or most difficult challenge they had as a kid. I've used this approach - with mixed results. Some people welcome the opportunity to share & be known, while others, well, not so much.

I've also read a suggestion to talk with your team about the first time they remember experiencing injustice. I was a bit skeptical of this one and after stumbling onto a thread on Quora, I'm convinced I won't use that topic to build a connection with team members.

What tools do you use?

Regardless of the tool(s) you use, one building block of psychological safety is vulnerability through transparency. I've found a User Guide is is a solid tool to start that process.

What tools or approaches have you used, or been a part of, that have worked? What exercises have you been a part of that didn't go so well? I'm interested in your experiences and hope you'll share them in the comment section below.

My User Guide (updated March 2020)

My Style

• Whatever I do, I want to do it with excellence.
• I enjoy laughing & joking. My default sense of humor is that of the absurd - usually, the more absurd something sounds, the funnier I think it is. My sense of humor comes out even in times of crisis and deep challenges. It doesn't diminish my understanding of the severity of the situation or my commitment to resolving the issue with excellence.
• I have incredibly high expectations of myself and the teams of which I'm a part. That high level of expectation matches my commitment to every member on the team: to help them learn and grow, get the best out of their performance, and succeed.
• I love ideas and tend to talk out loud about "what-if" scenarios. That doesn't automatically mean those ideas will ever happen. Talking about them helps me to explore options, understand downline effects, and clarify logic.

What I Value

• People who "own" their jobs and responsibilities and want to be the best at what they do. I gravitate to people who do their jobs with humble excellence and who pursue growth & knowledge.
• Humility, drive and determination, putting the team before themselves. We > me.
• People who can cut to the essence of a problem or challenge, who speak truthfully and care about the product, team, job.
• Looking for continuous improvement, all the time.

What I Don't Have Patience For

• People who use baseless opinion, don't use logic, use circular logic, make excuses, and live in a state of reactivity.
• People who say, "that's not my job" or "I didn't speak up because no one ever asked me."
• Closed minded people who default to "that'll never work," or "we've never done it that way before."
• Mediocrity

How to Best Communicate with Me

• Ask questions.
• Show me you are thinking. Even if you don't have a solution to a challenge, by taking the time to show that you have identified the issue and are thinking about potential solutions goes a long way with me.
• Optimistic realism. If you approach me with your mind completely resigned to a negative outcome, you're right…you won't find a solution. Even the most painful realities need rational, clear focus.
• Be honest and transparent about your mistakes and mine. I've never written someone off (or fired them) because they made a mistake or pointed out one I have made. One of the quickest ways to lose my respect is to not own a mistake you've made.

How to Help Me

• I tend to be a do-er. I like to act, to do. It's not helpful to my team if I jump in and fix or solve everything. Tell me, "I've got this" or "don't worry, I'm on it." "I'll let you know if I need anything." "I'll let you know when it's done."
• Communicate. Especially at the beginning of something new - over-share information. Communication helps me know where you are with your understanding of things and it builds trust.
• Communicate. Transparent, honest communication where you tell me valuable facts builds trust and respect. I'd rather have straight-up rough news than a sugarcoated version of what you think I want to hear.

What People Misunderstand About Me

• I am all about team. If you are on the team, you are on the team; meaning you have my trust and I will help you grow and be successful. The misunderstanding happens when someone takes advantage of that, repeatedly expects the team to take up their slack and doesn't reciprocate the support and loyalty for their team members. Everyone is special, until one person thinks they are more special & starts hurting the team. When that happens, I'm still all about the team and will protect it.
• I regularly share my perceptions regarding team member's performance, approaches, habits etc. It's not a judgment. It's an invitation for a conversation to help me understand where you're coming from; to help broaden my perspective through a give and take of information.

Photo by Andrew Neel from Pexels