Are Your Team Missing Good Bits Too?

A continuation on the not taking things for granted theme

Image - pixabay.com

Last week I wrote about how easy it is to miss the good things that happen in your own day — the times when things go to plan, the small wins that don’t stand out because, well, everything just worked. If you missed it, the short version is that good tends to get ignored, and it’s worth making a deliberate effort to notice it.

The same thing happens when you’re managing people, possibly even more so.

A team that’s functioning well is largely invisible. Work gets done, deadlines are met, people get on with things without any issues, and as a manager you’re free to focus on other things. Which is exactly how it should be. The difficulty is that when good performance becomes the norm, it stops being noticed, by you, and eventually by the team.

Think about the last time you had a conversation with a team member that wasn’t prompted by a problem. Not a scheduled one-to-one, not a project update, just a moment of noticing something that had gone well and saying so. For a lot of managers, those moments are rarer than they should be, not because they don’t care, but because the day fills up with stuff that needs attention, and the things that are going well do so quietly.

The trouble is, from the team’s perspective, silence can feel like indifference. If the only time they hear from you is when something needs fixing or a deadline is at risk, they think that’s the only time you’re interested in them. Over time that can affect confidence, motivation, and the sense that their everyday effort matters.

It doesn’t take much to change that, and it doesn’t need anything formal or elaborate. It’s more about developing the same kind of deliberate noticing that Neela’s Grandpa encouraged before bedtime — looking for the good that’s there but easy to miss.

That might mean pausing at the end of a team meeting to acknowledge something that went well, rather than moving straight to the actions. Or taking thirty seconds after reviewing a piece of work to tell someone specifically what you thought was good about it, not just what needs amending. Or simply noticing when someone has handled something quietly and competently that would have been harder for them six months ago, and saying so.

Progress in a team is almost always gradual. Skills build slowly, confidence grows, habits change over time without anyone noticing the moment the change happened. That’s a good thing, it means development is happening naturally rather than being forced, but it also means that if you’re not paying attention you might miss it entirely.

The impact isn’t just on the team, it will affect you, too. It’s very easy to spend the week focused on what isn’t working, what needs chasing, what needs sorting out. That can be tiring, and it can leave you with a skewed picture of how things are. Deliberately looking for what’s going well in your team, not just in your own day, is a small habit that brings the harder parts of the job into perspective.

At the end of the week, it’s worth asking yourself the same question you might ask about your own day. What went well in the team this week that you nearly missed? Who did something good that didn’t get mentioned? What’s better now than it was a few months ago, even if nobody has stopped to notice?

When you have the answers, share them with your team, and encourage them to find the good in their own week.

Oops, I Got Promoted…Now What? - Promotion doesn’t come with instructions…it does now! Covering everything from shifting relationships and staying organised, to managing conflict and delegating without guilt, “Oops, I Got Promoted...Now What?” is the handbook every new manager needs (not so new managers can learn a thing or two as well).

If you want to lead confidently, knowing you’re doing the right thing by yourself and your team, this is the resource for you.

Aventina Training - Website