The Art of “Self-Managing” Teams ✨

CHANGE MAKERS

Zen and the Art of Building a "Self-Managing" Team

Wagner Denuzzo knows that kombucha-on-tap and nap pods have little to do with employee happiness.

The past decade has seen an arms-race in lavish corporate perks—from Google's in-office slides to X's wellness spas. But Denuzzo has been focused on a more powerful predictor of employee happiness and success: psychological safety.

Denuzzo, a practicing clinical psychotherapist before he entered the corporate world, oversaw leadership development and management at IBM before heading to Prudential, where he became the VP, Head of Capabilities for the Future of Work. For two decades he has been on a mission to help corporate giants overcome old-fashioned ideas about workforce management, and he recently joined A.Team’s CxO Network.

So, how do you create a “self-managing” team? Here’s his answer:

It's not easy. I've been through so many experiences managing teams, good and bad, and I've realized that the moment you start feeling fearful, irritated, or stressed as a leader, it's because something in your team's dynamic is not working well.

Managers today need to think of themselves like coaches. You cannot control the performance of the players on the field. All you can do is help them feel more confident in delivering the performance that you expect.

The secret is to observe reality—or rather, each team member's experience of reality. You need to be attuned to what's happening to the other person.

You start asking questions: How are you doing? How are you managing all this? You begin to understand them, their skills, and their goals for their own growth.

But remember, you cannot rescue people from their difficulties. You can only be there to watch, observe, and maybe help them figure out how to solve it. It's very hard for any manager to have that sense of boundaries. That's the toughest part of being a leader of a team going through difficult times: We need to bear witness to experiences that are uncomfortable to watch.

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• ‍What Psychological Safety Actually Means For Teams‍
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