Most managers are unprepared for their roles, with 82% having no management training at all. Effective team leadership needs structured, accessible tools to help managers build psychological safety, connection, and engagement with their teams.

Jennifer Dulski is the founder and CEO of Rising Team, a software-guided interactive learning platform for managers to develop their teams. Rising Team helps leaders build insights and deeper connections with their teams through structured development kits and short sessions that can be conducted virtually or in-person.

Three reasons to listen

• Learn how software is helping managers develop their teams more effectively
• Understand how to measure and improve psychological safety, connection, engagement, and retention in teams
• Discover practical tools for team development that work for both office teams and frontline workers

Episode highlights

• [00:10:01] Rising Team
• [00:21:26] The four Cs of developing leaders
• [00:23:20] The increase in overwhelming challenges faced by managers
• [00:26:50] "Can every manager really do it?
• [00:29:50] Making space for different cognitive styles and skillsets
• [00:32:30] Create a personal user manual
• [00:34:45] Advice for senior execs
• [00:37:21] Jennifer's media recommendation
• [00:39:00] Takeaways from Pia and Dan

Links

• Connect with Jennifer via LinkedIn
• 6 Lessons All Leaders Can Learn From Maverick
• Rising Team
• A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity, by Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn
• Lessons in Chemistry – Jennifer’s TV recommendation
• Track and improve your team performance with Squadify
• Leave us a voice note

Engagement surveys and team data are tools for understanding and supporting teams, not targets to achieve or sticks to beat people with.

Simply gathering data for the sake of a good score is counterproductive and potentially disengaging. This information should be used to genuinely understand team dynamics, spot trends, and identify areas where support is needed to build authentic engagement and commitment to the organisation.

Jenni McNeil is the head of Information Security at Contact Energy in New Zealand. She leads a geographically diverse team focused on protecting the cyber resilience of the organisation. Jenni started in sales and became a manager at 25, switching to technology as an IT support technician before pivoting to cybersecurity.

Her current team includes a mix of experience levels, from recent graduates to industry veterans with 25 years of experience, spread across different locations.

Three reasons to listen

• Learn how to effectively monitor team dynamics in a remote work environment through digital listening and virtual water-cooler spaces
• Understand the true value of engagement surveys as tools for understanding workforce trends and identifying areas for support, not just scoring metrics
• Discover strategies for managing geographically dispersed teams while maintaining connection without micromanaging

Episode highlights

• [00:08:53] Leading a geographically-spread team
• [00:11:21] Pros and cons of engagement surveys
• [00:18:24] Ethics of AI in employee engagement
• [00:24:17] What to read when gathering data
• [00:26:30] Holding the data lightly
• [00:29:17] Jenni's media recommendations
• [00:30:32] Takeaways from Pia and Dan

Links

• Connect with Jenni via LinkedIn
• A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J Maas
• In Pursuit of the Secure Board (Spotify-only show)
• Track and improve your team performance with Squadify
• Leave us a voice note

Organisational effectiveness isn't just about making team members more productive, but properly structuring teams and understanding how they work together.

Small teams with high trust can make decisions quickly and maintain better context of what they're building, while being mindful of the cognitive load placed on members.

Matthew Skelton is the author of Team Topologies. He developed patterns for team organisation and devops that were adopted by companies like Netflix and Accenture. His work focuses on how to structure teams effectively in organisations, particularly looking at concepts like team cognitive load and team interaction modes.

Three reasons to listen

• Learn how small teams can achieve faster results and deliver value more effectively to users
• Understand the principles behind Amazon's "two pizza team" approach, including how trust enables quick decision-making in small groups
• Discover how organisations often lack self-awareness and how this becomes a major obstacle to their success

Episode highlights

• [00:11:47] The road to Team Topologies
• [00:17:18] Why collaboration is not the only answer
• [00:22:05] Creating flow for small teams
• [00:23:34] Making work humane
• [00:28:10] The Uswith example
• [00:30:45] Alternative schools of thought
• [00:34:56] Impact on team leaders
• [00:37:31] Conway's law
• [00:40:48] Decoupling of teams and architecture
• [00:46:08] Matthew's media recommendations
• [00:48:59] Takeaways from Pia and Dan

Links

• Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow –Matthew’s book
• The jazz ensemble: the ultimate team? – We Not Me
• Team Topologies’ Uswitch case study
• Conway's law
• Empowered Agile Transformation: Beyond the Framework, by Alexandra Stokes
• Architecture Modernization, by Nick Tune
• Frozen II (2019)
• Leave us a voice note