Tools for Gaining Opportunities for Team Members

If your team members have the abilities and the motivation to perform but don't really have the opportunity to use their skills and energy, you will have a frustrated team instead of a high-performance one. Perhaps you should facilitate a team meeting and get the input of the members regarding what additional opportunities they would like to take on. Members may be counting on you as a leader to initiate efforts to negotiate with higher levels of management to adjust goals, roles, and responsibilities to match the talents on the team. If that is the case, you need to hold a session with your boss to gain the needed clarity and negotiate the additional opportunities. Perhaps you should first practice for such a meeting. Exercise 28 can help you prepare. You should conduct this exercise with two fellow team leaders to practice the skills needed to maximize the effectiveness of the session and to receive feedback.

EXERCISE 28

Practice Meeting with Your Boss

Directions:

Try to find two people in your organization who also have group leadership responsibilities and who are also considering meeting with their boss. In this threesome, arbitrarily designate leader A, leader B, and leader C to participate in a practice session for a meeting with the boss, following the scenario below.
Leader A will be the initiator of the practice session. He or she should explain to leader B how to act like leader A's boss as required. Leader C will act as an observer and later be asked to provide detailed feedback on what the initiator did that helped in the practice session. Leader C should also propose other strategies or words for the initiator to consider using in the meeting with his or her boss to make it more effective.
Rotate the roles to ensure that each member gets a chance to receive constructive feedback on his or her approach.

Scenario: You are being asked to meet with your boss in the next couple of weeks to negotiate a plan for introducing changes to make even better use of the talents on your team. Begin preparing for this meeting by answering the following questions:

What do you hope to accomplish by meeting with your boss?
What could be done to make this meeting "real," that is, really make a difference?
How could you best present the information you have regarding the talent and motivation on the team?
Is there a compelling need for change?
What changes are you proposing for you and your team?
How can you best ask for your boss's input on this plan?
What do you want from your boss to help you fulfill this plan?