MC51 Manager as umbrella: Protecting the team from the storm

Management Café

The notion of a manager as a protector of the team is deeply embedded. After all, a primary part of any manager's job is to remove roadblocks and distractions so their team can stay focussed on their objectives.

But it's not always easy to decide what will distract the team versus what might be helpful to them. Should the team know when a storm is forecast? When a storm is happening? And how much context do they need about the storm itself?

Pilar and Tim explore some of their experiences with sharing or withholding information.

0:40 min Choosing what to filter information and what to share is hard!

4:30 Tim talks about keeping a big secret from his employees.

6:15 Sometimes additional information just makes the situation worse.

9:20 Pilar shares an example of protecting someone by withholding negative feedback.

11:40 Tim references Patty McCord's fantastic book "Powerful", in particular her saying "humans can hear anything if it's true". He shares a time that he successfully practiced this with his daughter. But when Pilar imagines the situation with an escalation... Tim becomes very unsure what to do.

14:20 Pilar shares a terrific story of a theatre group taking extreme lengths to withhold information.

16:30 The manager's role is to judge the situation and what the impact might be on the team and individuals.

18:10 Tim talks about one of his managers who was particularly good at shielding him from the rest of the organisation.

What about you, dear listener? Do you have a framework for deciding what you share with or withhold from your team? We'd love to hear about your experiences!

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