Four Years Into a Self-Managed Team

Do not walk behind me, I may not lead.

Do not walk in front of me, I may not follow.

Just walk beside me and be my friend.

Albert Camus (?)

On the brink of turning fifty and after almost thirty years of working for different organizations, I decided to join two colleagues (we are now four and growing) and long-time friends and we started a joint coaching practice.

After having led, and being led, for more than twenty years, in seven different organizations and having worked as a free-lance, with more than a hundred different companies, what could possibly surprise me?

I genuinely enjoy my colleagues. I believed I knew them very well (for at least 10 years), and we were in the business of helping teams and groups better collaborate and work together. But I was in for a big surprise. We are a self-managed team that decides how we select partners, how we divide roles and responsibilities within the team, how we compensate each member and how we solve disputes. And all of these bring challenges of their own and there is not a boss that we can criticize or ask to make the final decision (and then criticize).

Self-management brought in the first three years with my new team, a lot of joy and a lot of pain. I had to understand at a much deeper level, how different rhythms (how quickly we act vs reflect) or how we make decisions (how we weigh facts vs emotions) impact how we relate. In fact, self-management has represented a unique opportunity to understand diversity and inclusion at a much deeper level. A team apparently homogeneous (in terms of gender, age, and cultural background) “hides” a profoundly diverse set of preferences, perspectives, work, and life experiences.

And... how the way I express disagreement can be felt as “harsh” and intimidating.  It might lead others to feel unsafe because they need more time to reflect or because they are afraid of expressing themselves. How entering “questioning mode” leads others to feel I am being critical and distant. How sometimes my “serious” face is sensed as being upset/annoyed. It also helped me understand how invaluable (and difficult) “exploring” these differences in our team is... and how it helps me within my own family or with my clients.

I understand better, "challenged" by my teammates, how my life stories have shaped my preferences...and theirs. And, when I gain awareness of where that preference was born and grew, where it comes from, that I can choose a new path.

I have become more aware that it is much harder to include than to discard and much more sustainable for us to continue to grow together. 

I have also learned to go deeper in exploring my emotions, my discomforts, and that this has brought me clarity and greater freedom. The world around me has also gained new (and more) colours, more nuances and greater potential.

I recently participated in a conversation with colleagues that help bring self-management practices into organizations.  Reflecting on an experience with a client, we became aware of how self-transformation precedes and supports (or blocks) the process.

Self-management is both a wonderful opportunity and extremely hard. To make it work, we need to be open to - first and foremost - be willing to explore and question some deeply held beliefs about ourselves, others, and the world. I am deeply grateful to self-management and my dear colleagues for all the lessons learnt so far and the many more to come.

Ana Duarte Ribeiro