Managing the Family as a Team Leader
Jul 4, 2024
As a team leader and a father, there comes a time when we have to manage a group of human beings. In many previous leadership positions, I've had to manage the team when one of the members was not meeting expectations.
That experience has helped me positively manage my 13-year-old son, who has excellent grades in his secondary school, except for one subject this year: mathematics.
Normally, we don't worry too much about monitoring him. We always make sure he has all the tools to study, manages his time efficiently, and handles exams without any problems.
He has never had a grade that put him in an uncomfortable situation, at least not on a semester basis, until now.
Today, his semester average in mathematics is below what he is used to, and if this trend continues, he will have to retake it at the end of the year or after the summer.
The following is the conversation we had when he arrived from school:
- "What happened with mathematics?"
- "I don't know, I find it difficult to concentrate on some parts of the problems and I don't notice small mistakes that later cause me to fail the final result."
My approach was:
Don't worry, is there a particular topic you're struggling with?
Do you know which topics you would like to reinforce your learning in?
Are you clear on the topics covered this semester?
Based on his answers, the next step was to create a plan:
During the holidays, we will use one hour a day to review all the topics since March.
We will use YouTube, Google, and ChatGPT to review the topics where you are weakest.
We will do it together so I can also see where you need more support.
Understanding the state of the situation and creating a plan to solve it together, without assigning blame and providing real and transparent support, helps and sometimes excites. It's not the same when a leader presents an action plan with different objectives than those communicated to the team member.
I know because it's happened to me: bosses who say they want to help but actually have different objectives that they don't share. This is common in large companies and it doesn't work; it doesn't help anyone: neither the team member, the leader, nor the company.
Let's start by being transparent; it saves a lot of time and unifies the team. Let's be clear in our interest in knowing the status of each project stage and each team member so we can guide them in improvements or solutions. And above all, let's be empathetic: it's a team effort. In good times and bad, if we at least follow these two principles, the benefit is for the team member, the leader, and the company.
