Building Unity by Michael ‘Piecez’ Prosserman

Author:Michael ‘Piecez’ Prosserman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2020-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Flipping Management: Trust Works Both Ways

I learned something fundamental about trust at a staff retreat in 2014. I had a policy of being copied on every email from every employee. I didn’t realize how much this was disempowering the team. I was doing it because I cared so much about the details, but I learned that this was caring expressed in the wrong way. At the end of the retreat, the team had an intervention with me. They told me that I needed to trust them and stop reading their emails. I listened and stopped being copied on everyone’s email starting that night. It seemed so obvious, but it was an epiphany for me. The very thing I thought was helping was actually harming. I went from getting 250 emails per day to fifty. My team became more open to talking to me honestly — they began to trust me because they knew that I really trusted them, and took this trust with great responsibility. I was no longer looking over their shoulder. It was the difference between them having real and artificial authority.

From then on, we developed a new level of trust and communication with each other. I constantly reminded staff that I trusted them while continuing to challenge them in new areas. They did the same to me. Being someone who speaks too much, this was a constant challenge: I had to learn to listen. I reminded people at all levels to share their ideas and be honest, and I then did my best to create an open environment for feedback and improvement.

When I was a teenager, we used to throw big parties at our house. My dad always came downstairs and told us, “The one rule in our house is there are no rules.” He gave us his full trust and as a result everyone treated the space with respect. In doing so, my father was telling us that with trust and respect came a whole lot of rules that were implied, even if they weren’t spoken. This is the same type of trusting approach I brought to Unity: not always articulated, but implied that with this trust, and in the absence of many rules, came responsibility.

I had to evolve from being a micro-manager to becoming a more empowerment-focused leader. I encouraged staff to tell me the things they are the most uncomfortable to say about their work. How could we improve Unity? What could I do better to support their success? It allowed new space for working through difficult issues and making a better work environment for all. I can’t support what I don’t know, especially when I was the one causing a problem and no one felt comfortable telling me. This was very hard for me, as my natural inclination has always been avoid conflict, but I eventually learned to ask for more direct feedback.

Along with flexible and accommodating work schedules, we encouraged a dress code that allowed people to be themselves so we were never “selling” something we were not.

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