Growing as a leader and setting your team up for wins

James Giroux writes so much good stuff on his own blog, I can’t keep up. I am accumulating a list of things he’s tackled that are unusual to see written about in any depth in the WordPress community, especially by a man.

At some point I hope to write some things in response, or inspired by James’ posts. Emotional safety is one. And something I recognize but didn’t have a non-self-blaming name for: emotional temors.

These are things I might only rarely touch on in one of my personal blogs, particularly one that’s concerned with more or less hidden diseases, disorders, and chronic pain. I don’t usually think about these as topics for “normal” people and leaders, but of course they are.

Now James has a good post over at MasterWP about the learning and growth he went through as he learned the difference between managing work and leading people. Instead of trying to do — and add to — the work of the team, James writes:”

Today, when I manage a team, I’m looking to understand what it is my team is responsible for, what the business expects from them and how I can help them grow and deliver meaningful results without losing their souls.

Kind of an important but not commonly noted point there at the end, about souls.

My other favorite workplace blogger named James is the semi-anonymous Misanthropic Developer who is also concerned with the human spirit and its health in potentially dehumanizing workplaces. In his latest post he points out the importance of setting up your team for wins. If that never happens, they may never gel as a team at all:

One of the worst bosses I’ve ever had never celebrated any of the victories that his team achieved (no matter how big they were) and paid zero attention to the morale of the team. It was no surprise to anyone except him when basically the entire team left within the span of about a month or so.

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