It is incredible how many good managers get consumed by firefighting or day-to-day activities that distract them from achieving their primary objectives. The solution for most managers is to work harder and longer at their job, picking up the slack from their team and delaying conversations around employee performance.

In a poorly-managed team, an environment of “Abdication of Accountability” develops. Here performing employees are punished with more work and less time and underperforming employees are rewarded with less work and more time. As a result, morale and communication suffer.

Managing promises is the process of developing and leading a self-managing team. A self-managing team allows the manager to focus on what’s most important like strategic planning, coaching, and growth.

Here are three strategies for developing a self-managing team

  1. Values vs. skills
    Focus on values first and then skills to solve foundational problems. Consider the value of responsibility versus time management skills. You can spend money investing in training for your team to teach them a skill, such as time management, but if your employees don’t take ownership (responsibility) of how they spend their time, that training will be of little use.
  2. How does your team define responsibility?
    When you look up the definition of the word responsibility, you see two different groups of synonyms. One group contains blame, guilt, and liability and the other contains power, influence, and control. If the term responsibility is repeatedly used in a negative context, people will shy away from it.
  3. Strive to honor your word
    When you make promises to your team and routinely keep them this will speak louder than any motivational speech you can deliver. When those around you see that you are a person of your word, you will have a greater chance of successfully managing the promises they make to you.

As Brent Gleeson discusses in his recent piece for Forbes, once you create a self-managing team you will regain the ability to focus on what you do best.

This article is based on my book, Three Values of Being an Effective Person.

by Eric Papp
Leadership Speaker

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