Leading The Team Vs Managing The Team

A manager complained to me recently that the team she was responsible for were not doing what they were asked and they were all useless.
“interesting” I immediately thought and asked her how long they had all worked for the organisation. It turns out that they all had at least 10 years experience.

It turned out that the team were very frustrated and disillusioned as well and some of this was because of their manager.

To get a better understanding of the type of people we were dealing with and the dynamic between them, I asked the team to complete a Behavioural Profile called DISC – it is something we use with all our clients and their teams.

The results immediately allowed me to focus on some of the causes of the problems within the organisation.

It turned out that the manager was a very direct, take no prisoners, authoritarian type of person while her team were far more people orientated, risk and change averse and their highest motivator was security. These aspects of their profile were all being challenged in the wrong way by the manager and this was evident from the results they were achieving.

It was not that the team were bad, they just lacked some leadership and some management from a person who understood her team.

Over the next few weeks we will be working with this team to improve their understanding of each other, understanding how to communicate with each other in a more focused and positive way and help them to all work together for the betterment of the company.

The company has very high standards and its targets for the year do challenge people to improve and get better. The manager in question here has to improve in her learning and become a better leader. This is all possible.

If you would like to see how DISC Behaviour Tools can improve your business, please get in touch with us today.