Igor Grubisic

Trust is a cornerstone of effective teams and the best way to foster trust is to lead by example. Do not play games and politics with your team. Their work is a reflection of you and your values. Your team members are your trusted companions. Be candid and open about your thought process, your agenda, and your goals. I use 1-1 meetings to bond with my team members, and All-Hands meetings to strengthen the team. One part of the meeting is called “Lessons Learned.” A team member (me included) would reflect on the past two weeks and share one success story and one failure story coupled with the lessons learned. This practice builds trust and increases the team member's sense of value.

Ownership fosters the team members' sense of purpose and contribution. When assigning tasks to my team, I first ask who would like to take on a specific task. This inspires team members to take the initiative and work on the challenges they feel most comfortable with. I then ask everyone for their plan and what support they may need. Finally, whenever applicable, I ask everyone for their expected timeline. We use individual 1-1 and all-hands meetings to reflect on progress, address the challenges, and plan for the next steps. This practice strengthens collaboration and fosters initiative, trust, and effectiveness within the team.

Setting clear expectations and responsibilities enables your team to be successful. I set regular quality gates to review progress and address challenges. I also assign clear roles, making sure they fit the individual competencies. For larger teams, I use the RACI matrix to set a clear responsibility structure. During all-hands team meetings, I evaluate progress and address challenges. I do that by asking team members to reflect on the time since the last all-hands and share one success story and one failure with lessons learned. I then invite everyone to share where they need support. This practice encourages collaboration and strengthens my team’s effectiveness and efficiency.

I use my All-Hands meetings to encourage dialog, evaluate progress, and address challenges. One part of the meeting is called “Lessons Learned.” A team member (me included) would reflect on the past two weeks and share one success story and one failure story with the lessons learned. Another part of the meeting was “Help Needed,” when each team member could have asked for support for the task they were working on. This practice encouraged sharing, transparency, and collaboration, making each team member feel valued and respected.

Understand that a performance decrease is not always the consequence of a lack of collaboration within the team. In teams I led, I looked for signs of: - Disjointed communication during all-hands meetings - Little to no mention of team tasks and issues during 1-1 meeting - Finger-pointing and the so-called, “blame management” - Unusually long delivery times for otherwise straightforward deliverables - Lack of initiative by individual team members Finally, each of my team members had a specific way of producing deliverables, so I also looked if all deliverables had “signatures” from all team members. If only a few team members collaborated that would be a clear sign that there is a lack of collaboration.

In every team I led, there was always at least one person who felt uncomfortable under the spotlight. Ultimately, that person would start feeling left out. Encourage these people to engage by asking them for their opinions and help. In a one-on-one meeting, agree on a task that they should present in a broader team meeting. Also, talk with them to understand how you could enable them to feel more included and valued. In my experience, the most common reason is either a feeling of inadequacy or a belief that their engagement doesn’t matter. As a leader, it is your job to break that stigma and enable your team to feel valued, relevant, and needed.