Have you ever found yourself with people reporting to you who you think are ready for the next challenge in their career, bit you are not sure how to put the pressure on them to force them to “step-up”?

Up until Christmas we were a team of four with two of us having been in the team for years and two newer people. Things worked in a natural way where the two junior guys handled the day-to-day, senior guy took over the tricky stuff and I managed the lot. It worked well, but something was missing. My two junior guys were stuck as junior guys, unable to take a more a senior role.

At Christmas two things happened. Firstly my senior guy moved to another team. This alone was not too bad and I was sure we would survive until we replaced him. Immediately after that however a colleague resigned and I was tasked with managing both my own team as well as his team of four. This left my people with the loss of both their senior colleague and the majority of their manager’s time. I was now concerned about how these guys would cope.

Guess what happened.

Both my junior guys stepped up. They are now running the team almost entirely themselves, with me only needing to provide occasional guidance. My time is almost entirely spent on my new second team; my step kids as I so affectionately refer to them.

This has made me think that there has to be a repeatable way to apply the pressure that is required to force people out of their comfort zone, stretch them and through this make them more valuable to the organisation. This also needs to be done without the loss of key people. So how do you approach it?

I have a few things I have learnt that I hope may prove useful to others.

You need to create the sense of urgency and panic in order to start the process. Take your senior people away from the day to day work. This could be by givng them stretch work themselves or looking for secondment positions outside of your area. This will take away the crutch that your juniors will inevitably lean on. You must take them physically away from the team though to ensure the loss is felt.

Make sure your people know that you are there for them. This might sound like common-sense but the biggest challenge you need to overcome is that he or she will start to doubt their ability when they hit hard times. Let them know you are confident that they can do the role, that you are ALWAYS available if needed and make sure you honour that. Be there for them.

Do not feel like you need to save them. Let them stress a little and sort through a problematic situation on their own. Be concious of what is going on but do not interfere without being asked. They will learn much more if you let them resolve it themselves. When they do come to you for help don’t teach them. Coach them. I will write more about coaching vs teaching going forward but you are trying to give them an experience, not information.

Do not offer the promise of promotion or pay increase for what they are doing. If you can’t, for whatever reason, come through with the goods then the person will feel cheated and you will damage the relationship. You also want him or her to be motivated by the challenge itself and not tie it to a different motivation.

Lastly make sure you praise them, and often. Make sure you are present and available and talk to them frequently. Let them know you are paying attention and noticing their achievements and take the time to recognize the challenges they are facing.

I am about to embark on this journey with my new team so I will be able to better understand if these tips really do work. We’ll find out soon. Please let me know if you have similar stories or other ideas.

Jordan

I’m sure we all come across this, the project that is never finished because one moving part is just not perfect.

In the past this has plagued me as an individual (my blog design still isn’t good enough) but at what point do you let that fact delay the underlying goal you are trying to achieve?

One of our senior managers requires some specific reporting to help him and others make critical, timely decisions. These are the types of decisions that can have huge ramifications for the enterprise. Sounds like a pretty solid reason for speed, yes?

One of our very well respected technologists is forever stalling the project as he has not yet been able to create the perfect data format that can cover all possible eventualities. I understand the need to design long-term strategic solutions that are simple to manage and promote reuse as much as possible more than most, but at what cost? Unfortunately it has become politically incorrect to use the term “tactical” in our environment but I think we may have pushed the issue too far in the opposite direction to the point that we are becoming stagnant.

How do you help these people see the bigger picture from an organisational perspective and get on with delivering? How do you teach people that perfect isn’t always best?

I caught up with some colleagues last night to say goodbye to two friends that are leaving NAB to move on to other things. This is sad as these are both public, renowned members of the innovation community and they’ll be sorely missed.

I met one particular person last night who I knew only through online communication in the past (yammer, twitter) and she introduced me to a concept that I found completely fascinating, that inside every large corporation there is an Innovation Underground. A small community of people who care about shaping the future and have that drive to seek out like-minded people.

Think about it for a minute.

The Innovation Underground!

I have spent the last 12 hours thinking about what this means and why it even exists. What is the common theme amongst these people?

Here’s what I think. Firstly everybody in this little community seems to find their own way in. They seek out those who share similar values and are motivated individuals. Secondly I now aware of how many working groups and discussion forums these people are involved in. How they are involved in projects that generally have nothing to do with their functional role.

This group numbers maybe thirty or forty that I have met so far and I’m sure there are more.

What do you think the common theme I observe is? It is that every single one of these people is committed and passionate about improving the organisation as a whole. Whether it be for our customers, our employees or our community. Whilst everyone has day-to-day responsibilities and goals to meet at a functional level, they are also (more?) concerned with the greater organisation.

Wow! This realisation has caused me to feel a little humble as I realise I’ve been embraced with open arms. What a wonderful group of talented, passionate people to learn from.

Do you recognise this within your organisation? Are you a part of such a group? What good have you achieved?

2010 really is looking awesome!

Jordan xxoo