Managing in the Age of Uncertainty
5 Ways to Build a High-Performing Team
AI isn’t the only way to outperform. There’s something called a “Small Matter of People.”
One of the great experiences of my professional life was serving as the host of the leadership meetings for John Chambers when he was CEO of Cisco and the company was in its heyday.
I have many great memories and lessons learned from these experiences, but none more important that hearing our global sales leader at the time, Rick Justice, take the stage and share with the management team his secret to success: what he called “a small matter of people.”
Rick was trying to remind us that greatness comes from people, not the products Cisco made.
I think today in the age of AI, Rick’s message couldn’t be more important. A great team isn’t a team centered on AI; it’s a team centered on its people. AI is part of the answer, but the people on the team are the key to a high performing team.
In this week’s issue of Managing in the Age of Uncertainty, I’m focusing on 5 ways managers can ratchet up performance on their team. Each of them is grounded in Rick’s concept of a “small matter of people” — meaning it comes down to the effectiveness of a manager.
5 Ways to Build a High-Performing Team
At the highest level, here are the five paths:
Be more productive: The team delivers more output with same resources through better prioritization and workflows.
Be more innovative: The team generates a disproportionate share of new ideas and process improvements.
Be more collaborative: The team creates more value in cross-functional work, resolves conflicts faster.
Retain your best people better: The team keeps high performers longer than company average due to actions of the manager.
Develop your people better: People grow faster, acquire skills quicker, advance careers more rapidly.
For readers of this newsletter, ask yourself these questions: If I could double down on one of these fives strategies, which one will make the biggest difference for my team? Which ones play to my strengths or the strengths of my team?
How to be More Productive
1. Ruthless Meeting Discipline Cut unnecessary meetings and make remaining ones more effective. High-performing managers protect their team’s focus time - they say “no” to meetings that don’t need the whole team, create clear agendas, and end early when possible. Here is where I share tips for meeting management.
2. Clear Prioritization Readers of this newsletter have heard me say this many times: any job role that does not have direct line of sight to your priorities, goals and metrics is out of alignment. Help your team know what matters most right now. When everything feels urgent, nothing is. Great managers constantly clarify the top priorities so people spend energy on what moves the needle. Read here about how to drive prioritization.
3. Remove Obstacles Proactively Don’t wait for your team to escalate blockers. Ask “What’s slowing you down?” in every 1:1 or team meeting to clear roadblocks slowing down a team, Listening to your team is one of those “slow down” to “go fast” opportunities. Learn how to listen better here.
How to be More Innovative
1. Make it Safe to Propose Ideas Your people need to know you encourage ideas that might fail. When someone brings a half-baked idea, respond with curiosity (”tell me more”) not judgment (”that won’t work because...”). Read here about how to be more curious.
2. Dedicate Time For Experimentation Innovation doesn’t happen in stolen moments. Give your team explicit permission to spend time on improvement ideas - even if it’s just 10% of their week.
3. Celebrate Smart Failures When experiments don’t work, highlight what was learned. Make “we tried this, it failed, here’s what we discovered” a normal part of team conversations.
How to be More Collaborative (External to your team)
1. Model Cross-Functional Respect How you talk about other teams sets the tone. Never trash-talk other departments. Instead, assume positive intent and help your team see other perspectives. Read here to see the Four Warning Signs of a Toxic Team environment.
2. Make Your Team Easy To Work With Respond quickly to other teams’ requests. Meet deadlines you commit to. Be the team others want to partner with because you’re reliable and pleasant.
3. Address Team Dysfunction Fast Don’t let one difficult person poison the well. If someone’s behavior is hurting collaboration - whether inside or outside the team - address it directly and quickly.
How to be More Collaborative (Internal to your team)
1. Build Trust Through Transparency Share information openly with your team - the why behind decisions, the constraints you’re navigating, what you know and don’t know. When people understand the full picture, they stop guessing and start collaborating. You can read about creating transparency on the team here.
2. Create Forums for Real Dialogue Go beyond status updates. Make space for your team to debate ideas, challenge assumptions, and work through problems together. The best teams don’t just report to each other - they think together.
3. Address Conflict Early and Directly Don’t let tensions fester. When two team members aren’t working well together, get in the room with them and facilitate resolution. Teams that can work through disagreement productively outperform teams that avoid it. Here’s what I wrote about having difficult conversations.
How to Retain Your Best People
1. Help Them Write a Best-Selling Chapter The best people don’t have time to waste on a team that isn’t winning or a manager who doesn’t recognize performance. They want the chapter on your team to be compelling for their career story. Connect the dots between what they’re doing now and the career opportunities it creates. Learn how here.
2. Be Consistent - Deliver On Your Word Millennials and Gen-Z are betting this chapter of their career on you. Passive-aggressive behavior—where you do the opposite of what you say—is a deal-breaker. The best people want to know their manager can deliver on their word. You can learn about how to be a consistent manager here.
3. Listen to What’s Keeping Them Awake Don’t wait for orchestrated town halls or scheduled check-ins. Make yourself genuinely available and get your people to tell you what’s really on their minds. Know what’s keeping them up at night. Read how here.
How to Develop Your People Better
1. Have Skills Conversations, Not “Where Do You See Yourself” Conversations Don’t ask “where do you see yourself in two years?” — that assumes a predictable ladder that no longer exists. Instead, ask: “What skills do you want to build in this role that will write a compelling next chapter in your career story?” Focus on concrete capabilities they can acquire now that position them for future opportunities. I talk about how managers can handle the skills conversation here.
2. Connect Current Work to Career Dots Help your people see how today’s assignments become the skills that open doors tomorrow. When you delegate work, explicitly name what they’ll learn: “This project will give you experience leading cross-functional teams — that’s a skill every future leader needs.” Make the dots visible between what they’re doing now and where they want to go.
3. Design Roles That Build Marketable Skills You can’t promise promotions or predict career paths anymore. But you can give people chances to develop capabilities that make them valuable anywhere. Create opportunities for them to practice skills adjacent to their current role — the skills that help them write their next best-selling career chapter, whether it’s with you or somewhere else.
Manager Homework: Focus on One Great Thing
I’m biased here by my own experience executing against a set of priorities: I came to believe in what I call the “law of sacrifice”; meaning: give up some things to do something important better, a lot better.
Decide which of the 5 Ways to Build a High-Performing team is your best shot at to take your team to the next level. And remember what the great Rick Justice said: “It’s a small matter of people.” You can do it.
Try Career Story Builder
Recently 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 skills-based role.
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.