Managing in the Age of Uncertainty

Championship teams have powerful chemistry

“What I want to ignite is the idea that we’re all in this together.”

She had me at hello.

My friend and former Cisco colleague Molly Tschang was a chemical engineering major in college. I’m not sure Molly imagined herself doing the work she’s doing now back in the chemistry lab, but knowing a thing or two about chemistry prepared her to help teams function better together. She’s the author of Say it Skillfully, a wonderful new book to help leaders and managers build high-performing teams.

“When you get that team-sport feeling, those are the championship teams,” she tells me. “They’re not playing for one guy, they’re playing for everybody.”

At the heart of great team chemistry is communication. And here’s the important part: “Communication is a team sport,” Molly emphasizes.

We’ve all heard the phrase, "change the game.” It’s a frequently quoted phrase to talk about winning in a market scenario. What I love about what Molly is telling me is it’s also a way to build a winning team. “We’ve all been told how you play the game so you win individually,” she says. “But the real opportunity is how we change the game for teams so performance improves and everyone wins.”

What Matters to High-Performing Teams: A Shared Reality

The first paragraph of Say it Skillfully is worth quoting for its brilliance:

Think of any work scenario. You have your reality. Other people have theirs. Everyone believes their reality is right (that’s why we have it), but not every reality can be right. When people have different realities, the group cannot be on the same page. This is jet fuel for dysfunction and disengagement.

They key to a shared reality is transparency, according to Molly. “Creating a shared reality is how you reveal disconnects so they don’t linger below the surface and catch you by surprise later,” she says.

Molly emphasizes that execution issues — team performance, that is — are a function of teams not hearing or listening to each other. Leaders and managers should be thinking this, Molly tells me: “I always need to assume there is stuff out there that I need to know.”

The idea of “saying things skillfully” is rooted in a company or team culture where it’s okay for anyone to speak up, even it if is unpopular. The world is moving so fast today in the age of AI. Managers have twice the number of direct reports as the boomer generation. As I wrote about two weeks ago, it’s easy for managers to simply be the “expert” and try to solve all problems themselves.

In the end, I believe Molly is celebrating the potential of every player on the team, not just the manager. “The idea sounds simple,” she says. “We’re most successful when everyone says what needs to be said.”

It is indeed a simple concept, but experience has taught me that it’s easier said than done to have a team where good and bad news are equally valued. So how do managers build teams — high performing teams — that Say it Skillfully?

How to Build a Shared Reality

At the heart of Molly’s point of view about teams is a framework she calls, “Me, You, We.” Here’s what each element of the framework stands for:

• Me: “How do I show up?” Molly tells me. It’s all about getting out of your own way and letting go of negative emotions and establishing your intentions. I know from personal experience this can be very difficult. But as Molly told me: “Control your controllables.” I wish she told me this twenty years ago! My worst moments as a leader were when I let negative emotions gets the best of me. How do you control your negative emotions?

• You: “How do I identify with someone else’s experience?” is the next big question, according to Molly. Connecting with someone as a person, not just a co-worker, is a key element of team chemistry. I learned this in spades from John Chambers when he was Cisco’s CEO. He knew more about the spouses and kids of Cisco employees sometimes than the jobs they held. But John “got” what Molly is saying: “Belief is worth 2-3 points of growth,” John would tell me.

• We: “How do you serve the whole?” Molly emphasizes. In her view, the “Me, You, We” framework is cumulative. In this end, it’s about establishing the practices on a team where all the voices can be heard, including the unpopular ones. Only then, Molly concludes, can a team build a shared reality.

When I look at the “Me, You, We” framework, I see a model for authenticity on a team. But it requires some serious introspection and behaviors — but nobody said building a championship team was easy.

Best Practice: How to Say Things “Skillfully”

Molly’s book is full of practical ways to build positive chemistry on a team. I particularly love how she talks about how to “show up” in a conversation. These are “simply skillful” questions to ask yourself if you’re looking to contribute in a meeting or discussion:

• Will this comment help our customers?

• Will this comment help our company?

• Will this comment help the person I’m talking about?

• Will this comment help the person I’m talking to?

Homework Assignment

“High performing teams love accountability,” Molly says. I’ve never seen a championship team win it all without mutual accountability.

It’s a great question to ask yourself as team manager: does your team have a culture of accountability? It starts with you as the team manager. How do you perceive you own approach to accountability? Try my free assessment to find out:

Try Career Story Builder

Last week I launched an AI-powered tool called “Career Story Builder” to provide a mentor, coach and buddy to help people write best-sellers about themselves — and why they’re ready for the next role.

Readers of this newsletter know I believe in the age of AI that the corporate ladder is dead or dying — and career pathing is being replaced by chapters in a career story. Each job role is a chapter in a longer story that sets someone up for the next job role; it’s how millennials and gen-z build career paths for themselves.

Give the Career Story Builder a try. It’s free and unlimited. I’d also love to hear your feedback about how to make it better. It’s new and I’m sure it can be improved. Send me a DM with any thoughts.

In Summary: Principles of Managing in the Age of Uncertainty

• I left Cisco to answer this question with research and evidence: What does the manager of the future look like? What are millennials and gen-z seeking in a manager? Which behaviors, tactics, skills or processes matter? What’s it going to take to attract and keep the best people over the next decade? In short, how to be a great manager.

• Based on this research, the core philosophy of this newsletter is rooted in one idea: successful managers in this moment in time, for this generation of talent, need to be “career dot-connectors.” The next-gen doesn’t expect to spend their entire career on your team — that’s an idea boomers grew up with. A job on your team is like a chapter in a career story to the current generation. If you want the best people on your team, you have to connect the dots between roles on the team and the career opportunities of the people working on the team.

• What is the“Age of Uncertainty”? If the industrial age was about taking predictable steps up the ladder, the age of uncertainty is about finding or discovering the path of a career without any predictable steps, without an obvious ladder — it’s why being a career dot-connector will differentiate you as a manager.

• How to be a Great Manager in the Age of Uncertainty: Be a Career Dot Connector is available on Amazon.

• What kind of manager are you? Take my free self-assessment and learn about yourself.