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1 red flag managers MUST remember
There are a lot of things as a manager you need to do, be aware of, manage (d’uh!) and facilitate but there is one thing you must be mindful of if your team is a creative engine or idea factory…
I am sure as managers you all have a great team, sure there are some individuals who are prickly, pedantic or just downright arseholes sometimes but, in the main, you are an effective team.
You generate ideas, you get stuff done, people are always coming to chat with you about new ideas/perspectives, solutions, changes, refinements — it’s a well-oiled and crew, working as a complete team.
And then one day they don’t, one day it isn’t an effective team.
Something breaks, something changes. The atmosphere shifts, people retreat or they stop coming to you.
This didn’t happen overnight, it’s been going on for a while but you haven’t noticed. The frequency with which they came to you or you went to them dropped, but you didn’t notice and now, there is a gap that formed.
All of this happens way back, when the noisiest person in the group, the dream sharer, the challenger, the avant-garde solution designer, the out-of-the-box thinker becomes less vocal and stopped making noise. Stopped coming to chat with you and because you didn’t notice it the virus of indifference set in.
Keep an eye on the noisemakers, when they quiet it’s too late — be proactive and listen with the intention to the sounds not being made.
