There’s a lot of talk about growing as makers. While individual contribution can be beneficial, it’s important to highlight and lift up the work your teammates are doing. It’s important for strengthening client relationships, reducing silos, and bringing your fellow workers’ strengths to light.
We’re going to talk today about small but intentional habits to help unlock a coworker’s confidence and effectiveness. These can be helpful today, but I’ve personally seen them grow over time. While larger moments of recognition can be important, it’s additionally important to recognize people in smaller, everyday moments.
Adding Shine to Client Relations
If you’re on a separated team like mine, it can be easy for the client to see our team as an abstract concept, or worse, a monolith of one person who’s talking in a meeting. This can lead to individuals feeling isolated or invisible, which is demoralizing.
Utilizing names in conversation, both in meetings and in written communication, is the antidote. Here are a few examples I’ve used recently:
- “Bo’s taking notes for us today. Bo, do you have everything you need for your notes?” This signals to the client that Bo is a real, capable person with a specific role, and that he’s paying attention to the meeting.
- “This is helpful information. I’ll make sure Sydney gets this, since she’s working on this story card.” That gives Sydney credit for the work she’s doing, and builds trust in the broader team.
- “I think Sivhaun worked on that card. Do you want to answer this question?” or “Here’s the new table feature, Maria spearheaded this effort.” These highlight that a real person made that feature happen and put value on her contribution.
Look for more opportunities to share contributions. Use names in standup and client meetings, not just pronouns or abstract roles. Using ‘we’ can erase individuals and lead to taking credit by omission.
Studies show that being named out loud in a professional setting has real psychological value – it shows that your work matters and that we want the client to know that too. Who doesn’t love being shown off a bit?
Clearing the Path for Internal Work
You don’t need to be a Certified Scrum Master to practice good leadership. (Thanks, Mike!) Anyone can model good leadership by checking in with the team, asking about blockers, and staying aware of what your fellow team members are up to. There’s no barrier to asking “Do you have what you need to move forward?”
To further support your team, keep in mind the benefit of getting them to think for themselves. If you quietly unstick every block, they’ll soon learn to lean on you – and only you – for help. Try asking more questions, like “What do you think is causing this?”, “What have you tried?”, “If you had a magic wand, what would you do?” (Thanks, Kealy!). This can help strengthen that muscle they have that drives their curiosity.
Hand in hand with this, don’t forget you can check your team members’ calendars! If you’re in a Google ecosystem like we are, you can look up their calendar to see where they’re at. Practice a little empathy here too – If you see that they’re in the last five minutes of a four-hour-long block of back-to-back meetings, let them get a fresh glass of water before you flag them down with a question. If they have heads-down time, ask yourself if your question is important enough to interrupt that block, and if you have exhausted all of your other options. Respect their bandwidth as much as you can. They’ll thank you for it!
On remote days, there’s an added benefit in the quick huddle. Synchronous communication and screen sharing can shorten a conversation and circumvent confusion. It also avoids the drive-by ask: sending a vague Slack message and then going heads down. I had a quick call with our team’s designer Dan, who said something I won’t soon forget. ‘I’m learning that maturity is knowing that a quick call is the better option.’
Success for the Whole Team
Both practices — external shine and internal resolutions — tie back to the same principle. Your fellow workers are whole, capable people that you are invested in. Their successes and failures are shared by you and your team as a whole. There’s a ripple effect happening here, too. Research suggests recognition is good for more than just the recipient; bystanders who witness it also report higher engagement and a sense of fairness.
Give it a try this week — any one of these little actions. See what shifts!