Debugging Teams by Brian W. Fitzpatrick

Author:Brian W. Fitzpatrick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Published: 2015-10-09T04:00:00+00:00

This anecdote not only injected a bit of humor into the situation, but also made it easier for Ben and Dean to discuss the effect that Dean’s “train stopping” was having on the team in addition to the energy Dean was spending on it.

Track Happiness

As a leader, one way you can make your team more productive (and less likely to leave) in the long term is to take some time to gauge their happiness. The best leaders we’ve worked with have all been amateur psychologists, looking in on their team members’ welfare from time to time, making sure they get recognition for what they do, and trying to make certain they are happy with their work. One leader we know makes a spreadsheet of all the grungy, thankless tasks that need to be done and makes certain these tasks are evenly spread across the team. Another leader watches the hours his team is working and uses comp time and fun team outings to avoid burnout and exhaustion. Yet another leader starts one-on-one sessions with his team members by dealing with their technical issues as a way to break the ice, and then takes some time to make sure each engineer has everything he needs to get his work done. After they’ve warmed up, he talks to the engineer for a bit about how he’s enjoying the work he’s doing and what he’s looking forward to next.

One of the most valuable tools in tracking your team’s happiness is, at the end of each one-on-one meeting, to ask the team member, “What do you need?” This simple question is a great way to wrap up and make sure each team member has what he needs to be productive and happy, although you may need to carefully probe a bit to get details. If you ask this every time you have a one-on-one, you’ll find that eventually your team will remember this and sometimes even come to you with a laundry list of things they need to make their job better.

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