{"id":4769,"date":"2019-10-10T21:06:40","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T04:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/knowyourteam.com\/blog\/?p=4769"},"modified":"2025-01-10T10:43:37","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T18:43:37","slug":"4-essential-self-management-skills-to-develop-within-your-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canopy.is\/blog\/2019\/10\/10\/4-essential-self-management-skills-to-develop-within-your-team\/","title":{"rendered":"4 essential self-management skills to develop within your team"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The best employees are the ones who manage themselves<\/em>. How do you optimize for this? Here are the 4 self-management skills to hire for and develop internally within your team.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The best team members you\u2019ve ever worked with likely had one thing in common:  Strong self-management skills. As a manager, you don\u2019t want to be pulled into double-checking every detail of a project, or answering minute questions incessantly. After all, you have your own<\/em> responsibilities to focus on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, when hiring and training your team, you\u2019ll want to pay attention to your potential team member\u2019s self-management skills. Are they, as the founders of Basecamp described<\/a>, \u201cmanagers of one\u201d? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here at Canopy<\/a>, self-management skills one of the top<\/em> things we hire for and strive to develop internally, ourselves. I noticed this immediately when I myself joined as our Operations Manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on our own experience of hiring folks, and the experience of 1,000+ managers in our online leadership community, here are the four most important self-management skills that we look out for and continually hone within our own team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skill #1:  Do they know what to work on first?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One of the most important self-management skills a team member can enact is how they manage their time. In particular, this means they internalize priorities well, and know precisely what to work on first<\/em>. Your team can only make strong progress if everyone is each working on what is most important for the team, in any given moment. An employee with strong self-management skills can discern which activities should happen \u201cnow\u201d or \u201clater.\u201d They can decide that one task can be afforded to be done quickly, while another task requires more significant attention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do keep in mind though, as a manager, it\u2019s your<\/em> responsibility to share information with your team about company vision<\/a> and progress so that they have a frame for what to work on first. Otherwise, you leave even the person with the strongest self-management skills out to dry. You can learn more about this in our module How to Lead Well Remotely<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personally, I use our Heartbeats Tool<\/a> to share not only what I accomplished yesterday, but also my intentions for the current day. I also like to prioritize things from top to bottom, and in the order that I intend to work. In this sense, I answer the\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These Heartbeat check-ins are visible by our entire team. Here is an example:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Skill #2:  Can they give an answer when there is no answer?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, an employee is going to have to make the call. Perhaps you, as the manager, are out on vacation or out of the office for part of the day. Or perhaps it\u2019s a decision that an employee should<\/em> be making, as it\u2019s within their domain.  In most situations, that shouldn\u2019t require your direct report to call you on the phone or seek your approval:  They should be able to come up with an answer, even when there is no answer. Effective self-management skills call for confident decision-making. Your team should become comfortable with your company\u2019s mission, vision, and values and know how to respond to situations accordingly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently I read the book, The Effective Executive<\/em><\/a>, by Peter Drucker, and shared a summary of each chapter with our Leadership Book Club. In it, decision-making was frequently discussed as an important tenet self-management. And specifically, the ability to include <\/em>a variety of opinions (and your opinions!) in making sound decisions. Drucker in fact recommends to not<\/em> start with fact\u00a0\u2013 start with opinions. When you lay out opinions, you can then work backwards to figure out what all the potential courses of action could be, before then settling on the best decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This ability to think decisions through on their own, from all angles, should be something to seek out in your team members \u2013 or teach them \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skill #3:  How do they react under pressure?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

An employee can only prioritize tasks and make good decisions if they\u2019re able to manage their own stress, to begin with. Someone who has a propensity for angry outbursts \u2013 or perhaps worse, doesn\u2019t speak up when they\u2019re overwhelmed \u2013 will only hurt the rest of the team disproportionately. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideally, you want to hire someone who is self-aware enough to understand how stress affects them. Stress affects all of us \u2013 none of us are immune to it. And it all affects us differently, to varying degrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For myself, frankly speaking, I know I have a tendency to be a bit stressed out more than most. So, I\u2019ve had to develop my own self-management skill around managing this pressure better.\u00a0 For example, I\u2019m currently reading No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work<\/em><\/a> by Liz Fosslien<\/a> and Mollie West Duffy<\/a>, and a concept they espouse that I\u2019ve put into practice is to stop feeling bad about feeling bad. Don\u2019t blame yourself for being stressed out and\/or not being happy all the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They write:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cA better version of the familiar adage \u201cGrin and bear it\u201d may be “Sometimes you have to bear it, but you shouldn\u2019t force yourself to grin.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

So yes, people are going to have to deal with stress at work, but seeking out team members who understand how to pause, reflect, and calibrate their own reaction in a stressful situation is imperative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For myself, when I feel stressed out, I take a time out. This could mean getting up and taking a walk, switching my focus to a household chore, or even abandoning a work task all-together until the next day when I feel more clear-headed and fresh, especially when it comes to writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Figure out how your <\/em>team members should be handling stress \u2013 and lend a helping hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skill #4:  How proactive and thorough are they about solving problems?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Whether problems are technical in nature or interpersonal, an employee with strong self-management skills takes it upon themselves to solve them. At the end of the day, you as a manager should be the ones solving problems \u2013 you should simply be creating an environment for your team to solve problems on their own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you interview, hire, onboard, and train your team, you\u2019ll want to make sure your team member is both proactive and thorough in solving problems. Here are some questions to ask yourself as a manager \u2013 or to pose to your employees \u2013 around how to ensure they\u2019re able to solve problems well:<\/p>\n\n\n\n