1. Team Leader Training Diving In
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2. Diving In
Dan has been a Team Leader for several years but never really achieved the potential that his supervisor saw in him when he was selected for the job. By any measure, Dan is a go-getter. He was a very capable researcher and is a subordinate-friendly Team Leader. However, it seems as though there are a number of “false starts” that occur with each new project. Specifically, Dan tends to dive right into a project as soon as he gets the green light. It seems that no sooner than the chief spells out the basic plan, Dan makes a lot of assumptions about the project’s goals and gets to work. He’s very quick to delegate some tasks that he thinks are important to the project in order to get a fast start. Unfortunately, this often leads to a fair amount of wasted work because Dan has assumed incorrectly. It takes Dan too long to really understand the vision others are trying to impart. As a result, his chief is reluctant to use him in high risk/high payoff situations.

3. Question & Answer Session
Q1. Your chief is mentoring you and has asked you for suggestions about a hypothetical Team Leader situation which sounds a lot like Dan. What do you recommend?

4. Question & Answer Session
Q2. How do you grow and teach your researchers so that they do not fall into the same trap as Dan?

5. Q3. What attitudes might you encounter from the members of Dan’s team?
Question & Answer Session
Q3. What attitudes might you encounter from the members of Dan’s team?

6. Lessons Learned, Slide 1 of 2
In this case, you have a colleague not living up to his potential and a rightfully frustrated chief. Dan’s problems are two-fold. One is trouble understanding vision due to a rush to action. While action is good, action without direction can be worse than inaction – it’s a waste of effort.
One thing you may recommend is the use of “back brief” or active listening: after receiving a directive, the “dive in” Team Leader would repeat back “here’s what I think I heard you say…” Another is to suggest that the chief asks the Team Leader for his plan of action and the objective that it will achieve before he begins any action.

7. Lessons Learned, Slide 2 of 2
Periodically conduct your own self-assessment. Look back at your last couple of projects. Critique them for how you could have performed better as a technical expert and as a leader of your team.
Learn to balance a good quick start with a rush to action that could end up being useless. Ensure you clearly understand specific directives as well as the broader purpose and vision underlying them. Actively listen. Set the expectation that subordinates will do the same, helping them to develop active listening skills when necessary.
Themes
Breadth of Vision; Developing Subordinates; Planning and Organizing