Can you explain how you use open and honest communication to motivate and engage your team?

Question

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

To motivate my team - I believe in starting with a purpose and impact of my
teams work. I would then access the superpowers of individuals of my team,
through 1:1 I would gain more insights into their passion and what fields or
areas they want to grow in. I will use their passion and super powers to put
them in an advantage to succeed while they solve the customer problems. At
Acutance, I motived my team by following these steps - along with regular
exposure on the cool work they are doing, I made sure that they get the needed
exposure to be recognized by peers and leadership. I would also conduct monthly
survey on what I need to do to help my team grow and deliver on results, this
helped me guide on things I need to focus and alter course if needed. In the end
I got the highest manager ratings amongst my peers . My team satisfaction was
around 80% consistently. Further, If the team lacks motivation I would bring
this in the team meetings to understand what could I do better, more often than
not - it would be folks working on legacy code or maintaining existing code. The
way I would address is that - i would try and rotate the team members on this
tasks.

Anonymous · Answer

To be a positive work environment, I believe that I should develop a a strong
trust fact with all of the team members.  This is critical, and this helps with
rest of the steps I am about to elucidate..
1.  team should generally feel connected with the company and direction.  This
happens by my regular and honest communication about what the leadership
including CEO and board are thinking.  I ensure this via daily standups.
2.  Having an open door policy.  All of my reportees should feel comfortable
that they can approach me at anytime to talk about any issues they may face.
3.  Champion for them:  I should ensure that my team members get the right
credit in the right forums for their work.   I should also ensure that they feel
included and derive meaning in their own work.
4.  Strive for growth:  work with them regularly and help them towards their
career growth.

Anonymous · Answer

I implement various strategies such as organizing team-building activities,
encouraging open communication, setting specific meeting agendas, and valuing
input from all team members. It's important to create a safe space for everyone
to voice their thoughts, especially those who may be less vocal. I facilitate
platforms like Google Talk, collaborative documents, and Slack channels for
sharing feedback since my team is geographically dispersed. Building empathy
through one-on-one interactions outside of work and ensuring fair distribution
of tasks are essential.

I want to address an incident where an on-call engineer did not address the
issue promptly, leading to it being assigned to the wrong team, causing a delay
in resolution. During the retrospective review, it was noted that the entire
team should be involved in improving the on-call process rather than solely
focusing on the engineer.. To support the on-call engineer, it's essential to
emphasize that seeking assistance is encouraged, whether from me, as the
engineering manager, or other relevant team members. By fostering a
collaborative environment and providing necessary support, we aim to enhance
performance and ensure successful outcomes for the team. This resulted in team
members were comfortable and feel safe to ask for help and admit to mistakes

Another scenario how the anonymous survey enhanced communication and captured
engineer feedback effectively. The survey included questions like: What areas
can be improved? Do you feel assigned tasks are impactful? Is your voice heard
and valued? Are you comfortable seeking help? One key aspect was sharing the
survey results transparently with the team. The recent survey highlighted a need
for more training on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Additionally, it revealed
concerns about meeting times due to team members' different locations. To
address this, I proposed guidelines for decision-making during meetings and
outlined when attendance is crucial, like for complex tasks, and when it's
optional for standard meetings. This framework helped the team feel involved and
secure in decision-making.

Anonymous · Answer

I practice open and honest communication in various settings. First of all, I
spend half portion of my 1X1 in actively listening to my direct report's
concern, feedback and opinions.  If I have any feedback, I provide that in a
timely manner.  I discuss frequently team member's career growth plans with them
and provide them project opportunities to grow. I also recognize team member's
accomplishments both privately and publicly.

Additionally,  I conduct team meetings every week and ask my team to drive part
of the agenda.  Whenever there is any update from the senior leadership that may
impact my team, I update my team about it. Additionally, I ask if anyone is
facing any roadblock and unblock them quickly.  I also set motivating goals and
team charter for the team so it remain focused and engaged.

Can you explain how you use open and honest communication to motivate and engage your team?

Answers