How to manage teams to successfully tackle changes & challenges in business

When a situation, something about us or someone else frustrates us, we have a certain expectation of how we want things to go change from there on. We usually have a clear image on how we would like for people to behave and we also have an expectation of how fast we think things should change.

When managing crucial situations in business, managing people and setting up goals it is important to be aware of the following steps to sync expectations with reality and avoid any misunderstandings.

Defining the problem

The problem might look different for every one of us. Because we are looking at it from our point of view: meaning from our point of belief on how things should look like, and based on our experiences and the knowledge, skills, and information we have at that moment. In order to solve the problem, the key lies in narrowing down the problem, so the team can look at the most similar problems.

Q: What is your view on this situation?

We achieve that by communication and listening (trying to understand all points of view).

Creating a safe space will encourage the team to communicate and point out their view on the situation based on their field of expertise. Based on that communication, we will have an enormous amount of information that will help us define the problem.

Once the team has defined a problem together, and everyone has an understanding of why solving that is important we can move on to the next step.

Defining what change looks like

Rather than focusing on what the change is or how to achieve the change, let's first focus on why and how the possible solution will be beneficial to ourselves, company, team, and customers.

Q: How is the solution gonna benefit us, and how is it gonna make us and others feel?

Once you have narrowed that down, transform those benefits into possible features. Once you got that down we can begin brainstorming the possible solutions. Once the team has brainstormed all the possible solutions it is time to move to the next step.

Don't tell people what to do, tell them which problems you need help solving.

Roles & responsibilities

Clearly defining what is someone's responsibility, explaining how will we know the task has been completed, and assisting them with what they might need will resolve in completing the task.

Q: How can I support you?

Defining timing

As mentioned before, defining by when we want to have something completed will play a huge role in performance. Setting up an unrealistic timeline will result in an enormous amount of stress, discomfort, and frustration. Rather than forcing an unrealistic timeline on your team and exhausting them, have an open conversation about how much can be done by a certain due date. Help them prfioritize and scratch off the tasks that are not as important.

Q: Based on your experiences, what time reasonable for you to complete this task?

After the completed debate prepare a timeline based on the conversation that you had, If things change - they most definitely will - repeat the process once again. Your job isn't to pressure them, but to serve them and encourage them so they best perform.

Mistakes & Compassion

Being aware of the possible “mistakes” that will happen along the way, will help us prepare for our initial response. We all know messing up something is not fun, and is usually connected to emotions such as blame, shame, and anger which can oftentimes lead to an emotional state where we do not function at our best. Serving (our) needs at that time is crucial. So let your response be compassionate - towards yourself, others, or the situation. Not only would that encourage you to feel more confident in the task/situation you are dealing with, but it will also make you feel loved and safe and encouraged to do better.

"Communication and understanding are the keys here. If you want something you are not getting, ask for it."

Kudos for getting to the end of this blog post and engaging your curiosity and (hopefully) shifting your perspective on how to sync expectations with reality and successfully tackle changes and challenges with your team.