Management consultants here on Linkedin spend a lot of time talking about how to build great managers.
Train them to give better feedback.
Teach them how to have difficult conversations.
Improve their communication skills.
Ask them to be vulnerable.
All useful, and right in the middle of most management consultants’ target market.
But I think there is another side to the equation that gets much less attention:
What does it take to be a great team member?
Jim Collins wrote:.
“A culture of discipline is not a principle of business; it is a principle of greatness.”
I think that gets close to the heart of it.
A great team cannot depend entirely on the manager having the skills to somehow manage everyone else into behaving like an effective team.
The team members have responsibilities too.
For me, a team is a group of people who agree to play together by the same rules.
That requires discipline.
Not discipline in the old-fashioned sense of obedience to authority.
Self-discipline.
The discipline to agree to the same rules of engagement.
The discipline to be able to separate the contents of a discussion from how one delivers the message.
The discipline to object when behaviour is considered objectionable.
The discipline to be course-corrected when one’s behaviour is considered objectionable.
And, importantly, the discipline to escalate minor behavioural issue through an agreed process rather than reacting personally to it.
That changes the manager’s role considerably.
Instead of being the permanent referee, counsellor, mediator and disciplinarian, the manager becomes another participant in a system that everyone has already agreed to use.
And the rules apply upwards as well as downwards.
A team member can challenge a manager’s behaviour.
A manager can challenge a team member’s behaviour.
Colleagues can challenge each other’s behavior.
Fairly. Proportionately. And with an agreed process for resolving what happens next.
Perhaps the question therefore isn’t simply:
“How do we train better managers?”
Perhaps it is:
“How do we build disciplined teams where everyone agrees to play by the same rules?”
Because I suspect great managers help provide the environment (outsource when necessary).
But they can’t create a great team on their own.
I believe that like Jim, great teams require great team members; people disciplined enough to hold each other to account and willing to play by the same rules.
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