How to Turn Around a Failing Technology Team
Have you ever been in this situation? You are a senior manager, and you aren’t getting what you want out of your technology group. Either you are seeing long production cycles, poor quality, significant down time, or the product is not what you expected. Well, you aren’t alone. Many senior leaders feel this way.
Toxic Employees: They can be a big problem and can destroy the productivity of the entire team. If you have one, you need to resolve that issue as soon as possible. I have seen many examples of toxic people and dealt with the examples shown below.
Misinformation – Individuals deliberately causing confusion by over communication, no communication or giving misleading information. I had one person doing all three.
Silos of Knowledge – Intentionally holding the company hostage because of some specific skill or knowledge of a particular application they refuse to share.
Time-suckers – Employees calling unimportant meetings, sending meaningless emails, interrupting productive individuals with meaningless distractions, or repeating the same questions or problems over and over, but at the same time never offering solutions.
Team Interpersonal Conflicts: Two or more individuals that cannot work together because of some conflict. If you address the conflict head on and immediately, you might be able to overcome the situation. If you don’t, it will fester causing bigger issues down the road.
Lack of a Talented Leader: Companies like hiring inexpensive employees to keep costs down. This is understandable, but if you do this you need at least one highly experienced leader to guide them. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen this issue.
Lack of Team Cohesion: You need team cohesion to avoid multiple individuals with their own agendas leading in opposing directions. This leads to system or application rebuilds and integration issues.
Silos of Knowledge: A silo of knowledge is when one person has information about a process or application that no one else has. This might be ok as long as the silo isn’t critical information. The more important the knowledge base is, the bigger this issue may become. You leave yourself open to being held hostage because no one else understands what is going on.
Poor Documentation: Frequently, I see no documentation at all or so much documentation that no one will ever read it. I subscribe to Agile practices barely enough documentation as a rule. If you contact me, I will share the three pieces of documentation I consider critical for written communication.
No Standards: For fast development, integration, and excellent quality you need solid documented standards. Just ask the team for their standards document. If they don’t have one, you know you have a problem. If you have a document with no code reviews, you don’t know if it is being followed. The lack of effective standards will cause several issues like difficult cross training, longer spin up times for new employees, longer development, and maintenance timelines as well as poor quality. Don’t ignore standards.
Poor Project Management: Not following Agile practices, not conducting frequent reviews (scrums), not including all critical stakeholders in the planning, and not setting reasonable attainable goals.
No Process: Much of what we do can be standardized into a process and automated. Look out for people doing things manually. If you see spread sheets or MS Access being used, it may be a sign you have a manual process. See if it can be automated.
No Code Reviews: Everyone needs to go through code reviews. I was once told people do what you inspect, not what you expect. Code reviews are a training opportunity for the reviewer and the engineer. It ensures your standards are being followed as well as efficient techniques are being used.
Lack of Psychological Security: To learn what psychological security is, look up “Google Aristotle” on the web. Every manager should know this.
Poor Coaching and Mentoring: You need private one-on-ones with your team. This is when you will discuss their concerns and career aspirations. You focus on them and let them talk about anything on their mind. Be honest. Don’t wait for the end of the year to give them a review. Tell them what they are doing well and what needs to improve.
No follow-up on failed projects: You must review failed projects. It needs to be done in a non-judgmental, non-critical, non-accusatory way. This will help future projects and keep people focused on quality and process.
Unreasonable Expectations: Consider whether your expectations are reasonable. How many times have I heard "I need this tomorrow morning", with no thought or idea what is required to complete the task.
No Clear Vision for the Future: Create a clear vision of where you want to be in the future. Your team will be lost without a view of where you want to go. You need to review that vision with them frequently, so everyone knows you are on track to accomplish your goals.
If you have any questions about these postings. Please reach out to me. I am happy to help.
Regards,
Scott Matson
Scott.Matson@CRM-Whiz.com
Connect with me on linked in
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