Message-ID: <28343789.1075854145363.JavaMail.evans@thyme> Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2000 14:12:00 -0800 (PST) From: mam@teamlead.com To: daren.farmer@enron.com Subject: Some after thoughts to our meeting Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-From: "Mauldin, Mike" X-To: Daren J Farmer X-cc: X-bcc: X-Folder: \Darren_Farmer_Dec2000\Notes Folders\Personal X-Origin: Farmer-D X-FileName: dfarmer.nsf Hi Daren, I enjoyed our lunch together yesterday and believe we made a good beginning. You have very high standards for your own performance and are highly committed to the best outcome in all situations. You are likely to have high expectations for results from our coaching meetings This a good formula for success and I will do my best to honor your strengths with a focus on moving the action forward. With this in mind, I had some thoughts and additional questions for reflection following the meeting that I would like to share. You are in a transition from being a high team performer to becoming the leader of a high performing team. One of your frustrations as leader is that members of your team seem to rely too much on you to solve problems that arise in the day to day operations of the team. At first you responded to their requests for help by solving it for them, then you shifted to using questioning techniques to have them solve the problem with you. You have also offered some training to address the learnings needed to be more independent problem solvers. You are frustrated when some members of the team continue to come to you with questions they should be able to solve and when they fail to implement changes that you have trained them to use. You are seeking ways for the the team to have the same problem solving ability that they come to you for. You have recruited people with this ability and you seek to expand it in the team. This issue was the focus of our first session and needs to be the focus our next meeting. The question is: How to engage the team in solving this problem. How do I get the members of this team to own this responsibility and begin creating their own solutions? What resources are needed by each person to contribute more to this problem? How do I involve the team members more in the solving of this problem? What new behaviors do I need to employ to increase the involvement of the team? What do I need to change in myself or my relationship to the people in order to engage them more actively in the problem? There is one dimension that I am clear about. I know that you have used performance appraisals to give feedback. Have you put this issue before the team as a whole for the team to solve or have you tried to change individual team members? I look forward to our meeting on the 17th. Keep growing! Mike TEAMLeadership Center Mobile: 713-598-6732 Office: 713-871-8326 Fax: 713-871-1707 Home: 409-321-0680 mam@teamlead.com