BehavioralPeople Management

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

Engineering ManagerData Science ManagerData Engineering ManagerML Engineering Manager

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Anonymous

4.6Exceptional
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

4Strong
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.


Anonymous

4Strong
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

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.
  • How do you keep your team motivated and engaged in their work, and what strategies have you found to be effective in maintaining a positive and productive work environment?
  • Can you share your approach to fostering a culture of engagement and motivation within your team?
  • How do you ensure that your team is motivated and invested in their work on a daily basis?
  • Can you discuss how you balance the needs and motivations of individual team members with the overall goals of the team?
  • Can you describe the steps you take to promote a positive and productive work environment?
  • How do you handle situations in which a team member is not motivated or engaged in their work?
  • Can you provide an example of when you successfully motivated a team member who was struggling?
  • How do you reward and recognize the achievements of your team, and what impact has this had on their motivation?
  • What role does leadership play in maintaining a motivated and engaged team, and how do you embody this as a manager?
  • How do you measure the success of your team in terms of motivation and engagement, and what steps do you take to continuously improve these metrics?
  • Can you explain how you use open and honest communication to motivate and engage your team?
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Interview question asked to Data Science Managers, Engineering Managers, Data Engineering Managers and other roles interviewing at Drive.ai, Fujitsu, Kraken and others: Can you explain how you use open and honest communication to motivate and engage your team?.