Team Leader Training The CG’s Summary… Normal slide navigation has been disabled in order to ensure this training works properly. Macros must be enabled to complete training.

The CG’s Summary Your chief described the results of a recently completed project to the CG who then asked for a written summary. Currently, you are swamped with tasks. Fortunately, the researcher who led the project consistently does high quality work. You ask him to deliver the summary to you, setting a suspense one day before it is due to your chief. Normally you would schedule more time to review the document, but you only have a couple of days to produce the summary, and you want to be considerate and give your researcher as much time as possible. A few hours before the summary is due, you ask the researcher how it is going. The researcher replies that it’s almost finished. You go back by his office expecting to pick up the final copy to take to the chief only to find out that the researcher doesn’t have it ready.

Q1. Now what are you going to do? Question & Answer Session Q1. Now what are you going to do?

Question & Answer Session Q2. What might precluded this situation? How should you monitor projects and assignments?

The CG’s Summary (Continued) Unbeknownst to you, the researcher was just beginning work on the report when you asked him about it a few hours prior to his suspense. At the close of business on the date the report is due to you, the researcher fails to deliver and says he’ll stay late to finish. You get the report the next morning. It is not well done. Now, you have little time to make or ask for changes before you must turn the report over to your chief.

Question & Answer Session Q3. What will you say to your chief? What can your chief do now, and what can she say to the CG?

Q4. How do you address the situation with your researcher? Question & Answer Session Q4. How do you address the situation with your researcher?

Lessons Learned, Slide 1 of 3 There were two performance issues in this scenario that need to be addressed. The most obvious pertains to the researcher’s behavior. He should have done a better job managing his time, he shouldn’t have misled you with his status update, and he shouldn’t have submitted poor quality work. Clearly, you placed too much trust in him and should think twice about giving him that level of autonomy next time. The other performance issue is your own, and it’s important to accept responsibility for it. Your system of monitoring progress was deficient. The occasional, last-minute, verbal check-in didn’t cut it. You should have used a more reliable method. And, you shouldn’t have accepted “it’s almost finished” as a suitable response when you asked for a status report. You should have probed for a more detailed update. In addition, you should have managed the timeline better, allowing yourself more time to view and edit the draft before turning it over to the chief.

Lessons Learned, Slide 2 of 3 In short, you need to take responsibility for your team’s work. Everyone makes mistakes, but as the TL, you own them when they come from your people. Passing the buck is not something that your chief would appreciate nor does it represent ARI values.

Lessons Learned, Slide 3 of 3 Monitor project status and accept responsibility for failures. Monitoring progress means actually viewing the product for yourself. Themes Accepting Responsibility; Planning and Organizing; Setting Expectations