 Managing teams is not easy at the best of times. When there's a lot of change happening, then managing the team becomes even harder. In this video I'm going to share eight key tips that I found made managing teams and especially during periods of change a lot easier and a lot less stressful. And in each of the tips I'm going to share a couple of methods of how to implement each. So after watching this video you'll have a list of practical steps that you can put into practice immediately. My name is Jess Coles and I've led and managed teams for over 25 years in corporates and household names through to SMEs. And I've had to manage teams through lots of periods of change in high growth companies through to turning around failing businesses. And if you're new to this channel, Enhance.Training provides online business courses to help professionals, managers and business owners improve their performance. And if you like this video please give it a thumbs up, subscribe and share it with friends. So let's cover communication, an obvious step to most yet one that's still not easy to do well. When you don't know what is going to happen you can't mentally prepare yourself nor plan on what you're going to do to adapt or how you're going to learn. The fear of the unknown is often much worse than any resistance to specific change. So to counter this when there is change coming communicate what is happening as quickly and as clearly as possible. Give the team members plenty of time to reflect, ask questions and understand what any changes might mean for them personally and the team and the wider business. Communicating what is happening gives the team members time to mentally prepare themselves and to start working out what any changes will mean for themselves personally and what they'll need to do to adapt to the changes that are coming. And I appreciate the communication it's a really obvious step to many yet too many managers struggle to communicate effectively or at the right time to minimize uncertainty and lack of trust. When communicating use different ways of communicating this or the changes to the team members. Here for example you could talk through the changes in one to one meetings with each team member encourage the team member to ask questions and then answer the questions as honestly as possible. You could talk about the changes in the wider team meeting and get the team to ask questions and you can also write summary of the changes and email it around to the team members. There's a couple of ideas of how to communicate and different communication styles will help the different team members take in the information but whatever you do do communicate repeatedly to the team. So remember as a manager you must communicate clearly, openly and often with team members during periods of change. I have found time and time again that sharing as much information as possible with the team that I'm managing helps everyone. Being open and honest builds trust. Give the team members the reasons why certain decisions or actions or projects are happening. Encourage them to ask questions and provide honest answers. When you give the team context of decisions that are being made then they've got a much better understanding of why the decision is being made and as a result certainly in my experience they accept the decision more readily. At the very least they'll think about what you're planning and ask questions. Engagement is a good sign. When team members understand the goals and the path to that goal then they can adapt what they're doing, the decisions they're making and the projects they're working on. This helps support reaching the team goal quicker and easier or at the very least it minimizes any conflicts as much as possible. If the team members don't know what is happening or why it's happening then it's very hard for them to adapt what they're doing to give the best result as a team. And if you don't share information how are you going to fully tap into the talent that each team member has and when you hired them for their skills and talent, let them fully use their skills and experience. Sharing information openly and honestly shows your trust in them. By demonstrating your trust in the team and opening yourself up to scrutiny you reduce barriers and build team trust in you and you also get input that can lead to an even better solution. So when managing teams through change harness their expertise to implement the changes and building their trust in you as a leader and manager is pretty vital to making your job as a manager easier and it also makes the change being implemented much more likely to succeed. Share the knowledge you have rather than hoard it. Sharing will make your job as a manager much easier. As a manager setting goals for the team to work towards is a must and if you don't then each team member will work in the direction that they think is best. The chances are you'll have everyone going to all directions, achieving much when this is happening is really hard. So set a goal or a group of goals to give everyone a focus to aim at. Each person can then prioritise their activities and projects to best support and meet the team and personal goals. The team will then move in a similar direction which will result in a lot more being achieved and the right things being achieved. In periods of change setting goals and milestones becomes even more important. When something is changing there'll be more uncertainty within the team. Creating goals and direction brings more certainty and clarity. Work to clearly define the goal and then make sure the team understands the goal that you're trying to reach. Ask them to explain the goal to you and how they and you will know when it has been reached. For instance if you're not able to define the goal clearly then actually knowing when you've reached the goal is really quite hard. An even better approach is to get the team to help you define the goal and the milestones along the way. This does take a little longer than you defining the goals. The benefits you get is a team that owns the goals alongside you rather than the goals being your goals imposed upon them. With the input you get you may also end up with better goals or a better plan to achieve the goals. However you approach setting goals make sure that you set goals during a period of change and explain them clearly to the team so that everyone understands them. How are you as a team going to reach the goals that have been agreed? When managing a team through change some or even all of the team may not know how to do the activity or reach the newly set goal. Creating a plan is accepted as a pretty good approach to achieving your goals as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Let's just cover what a plan should do for you and the team. A plan should enable each team member to understand the activities and projects that they need to undertake personally and as a group to achieve the goals that have been agreed. And a plan enables all team members to coordinate their activities which makes reaching goals faster and easier. There are different ways of creating a plan. Two options for you to consider are firstly the manager or a small group decides what steps and activities the team as a whole and each person on the team are going to undertake. You may need to define how to do the activity, when and with what resources. Another approach is to set the goals and then ask the team to produce the plan of how to get there. You may need to facilitate and coach the team during this process. Try to put your views forward last. You can often avoid doing this altogether by asking the right questions for the team to answer. Again this approach generates a lot more buying from the team. It can also give you a better plan as each expert in their area has inputted into the plan. There are other approaches too of course and which you use will depend on the situation. For example if there was a crisis using the first approach to manage the team through the change will get you to a result quicker but not necessarily a better result. Whatever approach you use make sure you have a plan in place so that each team member understands their part in the changes that are being implemented and they have a roadmap or blueprint explaining how they're going to do this. Following on from the planning section and depending on the complexity of the change project you are managing assigning goals and responsibilities at an individual level or a sub team level is likely to produce better results overall. Taking this step gives each person a clear picture of what is expected of them personally. With personal expectations and responsibility set you as a manager can follow up with each person and get the individuals to achieve the goals set. Without goals at an individual level or a sub team level it is hard to track the progress and performance of individuals and without the detail being managed carefully the overall change project can slip. If you have a large team then make sure your direct reports are keeping an eye on the detail and managing the individual progress within the larger change project. You do need to focus on the sub team progress and follow up regularly. Whatever the size of the project or the team when managing teams through change you must follow up regularly to ensure the execution of the plans is happening as you expect. I think one of the most important jobs the manager can do with their team is to coach and mentor each team member to improve their skills and knowledge. This is an investment for medium to long term performance of the team. The better the team the easier the job of the manager. The better the team can perform, the better for the team itself and the company overall and of course this reflects very well on the manager. When coaching you are trying to get the individual to think and solve problems. They can know more than you yet there is lots you can do to help them. With mentoring you are passing on your knowledge and experience to that person. Whichever route you choose or a combination of both give them open honest and useful feedback wherever possible. Make sure you praise them more than you criticise the more feedback you give to genuinely help team members the better they will understand what is going well and what still needs improvement. Help them to work through how they are going to improve. The work you have done to set goals and expectations at team and individual level and the planning of activities with the team to deliver the goals gives you the platform to hold your direct reports and the individual team members to account. If you have not done this then you can only rely on your opinion against theirs as to whether they are making appropriate progress. An opinion doesn't come close to comparing against fact based progress. With targets and milestones you have something to compare against and therefore hold individuals to account without you just don't. If things are not going to plan then you must understand why things are not going to plan and take action. You cannot ignore the issue if you want the change project delivered as planned. And there are lots of reasons for things to slip versus plan. Some examples might include individuals not knowing exactly what to do individuals lacking skills to deliver against the planned activities or the plan itself might not be very realistic or it has flaws which are being exposed when actually trying to put it in place or there might be external factors that have made delivery much harder or required more time or there might be capacity issues in the team and therefore it is making it slower to deliver or it might be that individuals have the wrong attitude or are not performing whatever the issues as a manager you must ensure the team gets back on track. When the team is delivering celebrate the success give deserve praise and encourage more great work. Positive reinforcement is so important. Going through a period of change requires additional effort, more emotional energy and everything takes a bit longer as you're learning throughout the process. During this period of change you can probably expect the same level of queries, requests, projects and other activities required of your team. Therefore it becomes important to protect your team as much as possible to deliver the project on time. So in managing teams through change keep as many of the lower priority work, requests, projects etc away from the team as possible. A great way to do this is to firstly speak with your manager, explain the likely dropping capacity during the period of change and what work or output you'd like to delay or even stop for that period. Make sure your manager is aware and happy of your plans. Speak to all the other stakeholders that your team interacts with and explain the situation and ask for their understanding and help during the period of change to keep any non-urgent work away from your team. The key is to manage expectations before the period of change starts and then to keep managing expectations during the period of change. Good communication and taking the time to regularly meet with stakeholders is a great way to do this. Also think about the resource levels. If you have a substantial change project then adding in temporary resource into the team to create additional capacity might be a really sensible option. Protect your team as much as possible. It will make the period of change easier and quicker and they will love you for it. Change is pretty constant in the modern workplace today and as a manager you need to deal with it personally and take your team through it and still deliver on all the other requirements that your team has. When managing a team through change there are many areas to cover and your job as a leader or manager of the team will be just as busy as that of your team. Use the eight key tips that we've gone through today to give yourself and your team the best chance of delivering change successfully and keeping everyone happy and motivated in the process. If you like this video please hit the thumbs up button below and subscribe and hit the bell to get notified of our weekly video releases. This really helps us to produce more videos to help you. Thanks very much for watching and I look forward to seeing you again soon.