How can you support your team

Understanding your team's strengths

- If you've ever watched a game of tennis you would know that some players like to play at the baseline where they have more time to react to the shots of their opponent. However, other players like to play at the net where they have less time to react, but can play shots more quickly, providing less time for their opponent to get in a position to return the ball. The best tennis players are those who know their own strengths and play accordingly. When managing a technical team it is important to remember where your team's strengths lie in order for them to be the most effective.

Let's take two technical people with identical skill sets. They know the systems and the processes being used by the business. Both have been given an objective to improve the efficiency of the current process by 20%, but these two technical people have a different working style. One is good at modifying, while the other is good at creating. The key strength of one of these team members is to take the process that currently exists and creatively find ways to save time by making amendments and adjustments.

In contrast, if you were give that person a blank sheet of paper as a means of improving a process, he or she might stare at it for days. However, your other team member has a key strength in creating something new entirely. He or she would look at the requirements of the business and would prefer to create a new process from scratch. They would start with a blank piece of paper. He or she would then compare their new process to the existing one. Some people like to start fresh because they feel restricted by the existing environment if they are given something to amend or adjust.

One's not better than the other, they just have different strengths. The key is to determine the key strengths of your technical team members so that you can channel them into different assignments that suit their strengths and ensure you team people up appropriately. It can also be useful to get two different perspectives by utilizing the strengths of both. You can do this by observing the way they respond to a challenge. Do they ask for the current process and scribble their amendments over it or do they go straight from the requirements and start sketching a new plan on a blank page? In addition to determining the creativity strength of your team members, there is another strength aspect to examine.

That is the way they prefer to approach work in general. People have a tendency to approach work with one of four different preferences. They are action-oriented. These people focus on what has to be done and what they have to build. Team-oriented. These people focus on who is saying what, who they will be working with and who has the knowledge they require. They prefer group interaction to gather the views and opinions of others.

Planning-oriented. These people focus on the steps involved and what the right sequence of events should be. Analysis-oriented. These people focus on the alternatives and the pros and cons of each. Listen to the questions your team is asking. Their response to assignments you give them can help you understand their preferred approach. By understanding how people like to work, you can ensure your own tennis players are rallying together in harmony and consistently scoring points.

Supporting flexible work habits

- I worked on a project once with an interesting character named Eddie. He was a nice guy but he had difficulty getting to our team meetings on time. I called Eddie aside one day and asked him why he was always late in the morning. He explained, "I have three daughters. I can never get into the bathroom." I was tempted to suggest that he might look into buying a house with a second bathroom, but I suspected the real reason why Eddie was always late was because he wasn't a morning person.

Your technical team is likely to have individuals like Eddie. Experts who have their own unique way of doing things. Technical people are frequently highly creative. That is what makes them able to devise solutions to complex business problems. Being a manager of a technical teammeans encouraging that creativity while still maintaining focus on your business objectives.You can encourage creativity by enabling flexible work habits to get the most out your technical team.

Some tips include allow flexible work hours. Allow team members to start later and work lateror start earlier and finish earlier according to their own personal preferences so long as that is not disruptive to team goals. Technical team members are often required to provide off-hours support or provide emergency response overnight support which can also contribute to their need for flexible work hours. Consider nonstandard office layouts.

Some people almost need a soundproof booth to work effectively while others would ratherhave a team around them. While we rarely can go to these extremes do your best to allow people to make workspace choices that best suit their work style. The use of equipment such as headsets can also give people a bit of their own space. Lastly, consider ergonomic furnitureincluding stand up desks. Support a less conservative dress code. Some people need to express their creativity in their clothing.

For example, if possible, you may want to ease up on the requirements to wear a tie in the office. At other times, apply practical considerations to the dress code. I currently work on a project where my office is in an airplane hangar. A different dress code will be required in that workplace than in a customer showcase center. People need to be given the flexibility to adapt to their surroundings. Lastly, focus on what has to be done, rather than on how something is done.

Allow people to use their own work style to generate results. Measure their performance based on those results and not on the work style they use to generate them. Let's talk about a couple of other tips. As the manager, it's your role to inspire further conversation amongst your team,and only make a directive decision when absolutely required. First, ask for creativity from your technical team in dealing with business rules. They may just come up with viable solutions to balance conformance with the need to produce results.

There's a fine balance that needs to be achieved between letting individuals do their own thingand not giving special preference to one individual over another. Whatever you allow, ensure that you are even-handed, fair, and tied to the objectives of corporate standards. It's important to be purposeful and consistent in your approach. When you do this, you'll enjoy a team that is more committed to success and not losing focus before the game is won.

Clarifying goals for your team

- If you've ever coached a children's sports team you would know that maintaining focus can be an issue for most children. Everybody starts out with a goal in mind but sometimes a few begin to daydream as the game goes on. It is the coaches job to help keep everybody focused.Managing a projects technical team is similar. It needs goals that are clearly defined and kept in the forefront at all times. This helps to avoid daydreaming or drift away from purpose that can sometimes occur with adults too.

A technical team is made up of people who know the ins and outs of the system they're working on. And because of that, they can provide significant insight to complex problems. Of course we don't want to suppress this, we want to promote it. The right balance of system and business knowledge is needed, however. Let's say you have some technical experts who are senior members on your team. They know the system very well having worked in every single moduleover the time it's been in operation.

They have the experience to understand the best way for information and work to flow from onearea to another. This is valuable information to enhance the efficiency of the business as well as efficiency of the system itself. Given that information your team suggests a solution and pushes an agenda. Because your technical team members are not living in the business area they may not be aware of a change that occurred in that area recently. The solution they propose may address 90% of what the customer needs in the current environment.

But the other 10% is going to create difficulties. When managing a technical team you want to be able to take on the valuable information provided by your technical experts, but you also need to emphasize the need to validate changes that have occurred in the business since the last time they worked in that area or on that module. So encourage your technical people to suggest easier ways of doing things. Encourage their thorough understanding of the' system and its' underlying capabilities and give them a voice to make recommendations.

This is very important for the business and the morale of youtr technical team members.However, as you do this, balance these recommendations with the goals of the project at hand and the overall business you support. Ensure most of your technical teams' effort continues to be focused on any technical changes that need to be made. However, while doing so, encourage your team to validate business considerations before making recommendations so their input is viewed positively. By guiding your team's focus on the project and overall business objectivesyou will ensure your technical team members understand the broader view. Not just the narrowview of what needs to be accomplished with a given change from the system standpoint.

This will keep them focused on the bigger purpose for your business as well as the integrity of your technical systems.

Allowing for team and individual performance

- Managing a technical team can be a bit like playing in a jazz band. Good jazz bands know how to play together, laying down a great groove. But what makes them most interesting is that when that great groove combines with individual riffs, which make for a rich and colorful listening experience. The improvisation of the solo players backed up by a solid and familiar groove adds variety and allows for the greatest creativity for the band and their listeners.

However, too much groove and it gets boring. Too much improv and it sounds chaotic. Bands need good balance. Technical teams need good balance as well, and that balance appears in two ways. First, there needs to be balance between leveraging the abilities and capabilities of each team member with a devotion to lending their personal expertise to your team's products.Although individual effort is typically involved, technical team members need to work togetheras a productive team to make sure their individual pieces come together to make an efficient and effective technical product.

If in this teaming process, dominating personalities or just do it my way attitude surface, this can throw your team out of balance. If left unchecked, this could result in the loss of critical skilled team members. Second, many technical team members do their best work when working on their own versus contributing to a team solution. Playing their own riff, if you will.Working on a team project can be less fulfilling, with prolonged team projects leading to dissatisfaction and the potential loss of a critical skilled resource.

Maintaining appropriate balance with these two conflicting expectations can be quite tricky, so here are a few tips to help you out. Determine the work preferences of your team members.The only way to do this is to ask them directly. Listen carefully to their answers, however, as they often will not be a definitive I like alone or I like working on team projects. Often balance is the key for your team members as well, which actually can be very helpful.

Focus on cross-training. As many team members like to work as soloists, it's not uncommon for technical managers to find themselves with only one person with skills or experience in a given technology, or with a certain aspect of their technical products. Don't become one of these managers. Most team members will enjoy the challenge of learning and supporting other areas of your business. As a result of cross-training, you can have one person serve as backup for another if demands increase or you find yourself with a team member who gets sick or leaves your area.

Look for opportunities for in-house sabbaticals. For your team members that have a strong preference to work alone, try to find solo projects within your department that will give them the expressive creative opportunity to produce their own products. Where that is not feasible, look for other opportunities outside your department where a unique project could be valuable. It might create difficulties for you as a department leader, but the impact of that sabbaticalagainst losing a critical skill to another company may be worth it.

Lastly, don't allow yourself to be held hostage. If you become too accommodating to the desires of your team members, your team and your overall department performance can suffer.Team members can develop a resentment to what they may perceive as an imbalance as some team members are treated as special. Although the impact of that critically skilled team member leaving may cause pain, in the long run an ongoing lack of fairness perceived by your team can be much worse.

So as a technical team leader, be flexible and accommodating when you can, but make sure you maintain balance with individual and team-based work. Do that and your technical team will consistently lay down a wicked groove.