I advocate defining objectives instead of itemizing the steps of the task. But when Team Leaders try it, it does not work too well. At the design review they still don’t get what they were looking for. They discover that the objectives were not understood the same way by each team member. Is something wrong with the Objective?

Most technical Team Leaders have proven their technical chops. I assure you, the objective is just fine. But “telling” the objective to the team does not work. Here’s why

Humans hear but they don’t listen.
Or at least – they don’t listen well.

I have often been asked how the High-Performance behaviors of successful teams differ from the not-so-performing teams I have met or worked with over the years.   Here’s a selection of topics – by no means all inclusive – that show this.   Look at this as a spectrum: most teams fall between the two extremes – but usually they lean towards one column or the other.

“Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right”  (Henry Ford)

People are capable of doing great things. Whether they do great things is up to you, the Leader.

As leader, you must believe that the team can achieve great results.  In fact, believe more than the team itself is willing to believe. You can’t fake it though.  It must be genuine because people can always tell.

From the coaching file (in a seminar I gave):
“Norm, this is all fine and good, but how do you use your methods when some engineers can’t even be trusted to get a can of soda from the corner store?”

What is the likelihood that these engineers will actually go the extra mile for this manager?