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Brain Circuits
How to lead when you’re not the expert: Part 2 – Team doubts
Most leaders are susceptible to doubt. This guide helps you identify the source of external doubts and ways to manage them. (See Part 1 for guidance on managing internal doubts.)
Tackling team doubts: a diagnostic
Ask yourself these questions to help you identify the doubt:
- Is it the whole team, or are some people more doubting than others?
When we feel unsettled, we tend to polarize and generalize. Who is actually questioning your leadership, and what might their reasons be (loyalty to previous team leader, applied for your job unsuccessfully, concern about upcoming changes)?
- When do the doubts surface?
When feeling uneasy, we might also generalize an attitude when in fact the trigger lies elsewhere, such as a particular process, issue, or context (virtual meetings, the presence of a stakeholder, the weekly update).
- How do I build trust with the team?
Doubt signals a lack of trust. You might be the visible target of this lack of trust, but it might arise for reasons that have little or nothing to do with you.
- Who are my supporters?
Due to negativity bias, it’s easy to focus on what concerns us as leaders and neglect to leverage favorable dynamics, but supporters are as important as doubters, especially if you’re new to the role.
- What was the climate like before me?
Are you arriving in a well-established, smooth-running team that collaborated well before you took over, or was it rudderless for months, with a history of conflicts, and hastily reshuffled to greet you?
Conquer the sceptics by first identifying the reasons for their misgivings.
How to manage team doubts
Identifying the problem is the first step towards resolving it. Now it’s time to focus on the solution.
- Prepare for ‘triggering’ situations and topics
Consciously shift from answer-holder to question-architect. This means internalizing the belief that your value lies in creating conditions where the team’s expertise can produce outcomes beyond that which any individual could achieve alone.
- Name the elephant in the room
At some point, you might need to address the doubts openly, either bilaterally or with the whole team.
- Enlist the support of a confidante
Find a trusted advisor with whom you can reflect on when, how, and in what sequence to bring the elephant out into the open.
- Draw a sociogram mapping your team members
Summarize the facts and your perceptions on a sociogram or similar graphic representation, visualizing each member, their relationship to you, and their relationships with one another. Then create a dashboard with indicators showing how the team is trusting you more over time.
Key learning
Feeling that others doubt you is a common leadership problem, particularly when new to a role. Conquer the sceptics by first identifying the reasons for their misgivings, then build trust with individuals to win over your team.
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