One of the things that the pandemic has taught us in the last two years is working in-sync, on-remote, and being flexible. When it comes to self-managed teams, they’re mostly perceived as lifesavers who can operate independently, with the least supervision involved. Members of such teams usually have high morals, are highly creative and motivated, and are great even at cross-team collaboration. However, just like everything else, sometimes such teams don’t always get established by the book and can be difficult to tackle, especially in their initial years. At its core, the principle of self-managing teams lies in having a shared vision, responsibility, goals, as well as trust – making them hassle-free to manage. For any manager, life doesn’t get better than this!

Credits: Betterup.com

What Exactly Does It Mean To Be Self-Managed?

Despite the self-managing team working as a single body, a self-managed team still needs diverse skills, experience as individuals to achieve shared goals. Furthermore, they also come with their own territory of ideas and thrive best under circumstances where certain decision-making is left upon them – something that may make many employers uncomfortable. What is needed to be understood about them is that they’re like a hivemind themselves, which when tapped into as a collective, only then can the best results be reaped. The team members help each other in continuously evolving their skills and abilities as per the challenges presented, causing organic growth of the team as well as the organization. Irrespective of the verticals – from hospitality to production line, it’s usually a Self-Managed Team that’s behind the planning, marketing, managing the workflow as well as other types of supporting tasks, which can be time-consuming too. Some of such examples could be:

  • setting up of sales targets and taking complete ownership
  • resolving complaints/queries
  • establishing market approach methodologies and executing
  • collaborating with other teams

Why Does A Self-Managed Team Stand Out?

When looked closely, the hivemind of the self-managed teams performs much better when they’re empowered to decide on certain pipelines, strategies, etc. It gives them a heightened awareness to pinpoint and manage any complex issues, much like how the ‘drone ants’ perform in a nest. In contrast to the traditional hierarchical teams that work on orders from above and therefore can have slower, less-effective turnaround times, with self-managed teams, they track, analyze, and adapt fast to work directly on the issue making them more effective and productive.

Because of their revolutionary way of work, SMTs are often misunderstood as teams that run on autonomy, self-direction, and short-sightedness. Let’s dig deeper into what exactly goes into making such teams work:

  • Promising Boundaries, Not Autonomy: What many don’t realize is that self-managed teams need creative liberties under a set boundary and not the whole yards to themselves. In fact, in cases where self-managed teams are given full liberty, higher the chances of them getting overwhelmed in executing their ideas. For example, for a product giveaway, the SMTs can conduct market research to correctly identify the right target groups, pricing, etc.
  • Collective Direction: Unlike popular belief, SMTs don’t narrate the brand and its entire gameplan. Instead, it plays along with the overall brand identity and works closely with other teams to refine the targets of the brand in their experience. Such improvising and team maturity help them to have the freedom to explore their potential seamlessly.
  • Practicality: SMTs are known for their resilience and their far-sightedness in planning as they count the uncertainties involved. Their preparedness and agility keep them one step ahead of the game.

All About Making Smts Thrive

Having SMTs in your enterprise doesn’t necessarily mean success. Instead, the reality lies in the strong candor, ingenuity, and the courage to ask meaningful questions by such team members that when leveraged in the right intent, can grow into strong pillars of an enterprise. To lead such teams also requires epic elements of empathetic coaching, trust, and perseverance to go beyond the known and work out your own paths. Something that can be a lot more easy and transparent, with the help of tech-based, HR tools, such as:

Breezy HR

An HR management tool that integrates easily with your pre-existing HR tools, can ensure no employee data loss, even during migration. Furthermore, they also connect to LinkedIn, AngelList, and other hiring platforms seamlessly and have your back.

Paycor

Perfect for self-managed teams, they are a one-stop-shop for everything HR and can save upto 70% of your time by automating administrative tasks that need to be done. From paperless employee records to being self-service, they are a great way to run things around in a fast-scaling enterprise.

Namely

An intuitive HR, payroll, onboarding system delivers a range of features specially created to empower mid-sized enterprises. They also allow employers to pick and choose functionalities they’d like to configure into their tool, based on their preferences.

In case you’re looking for more than just HR tools, and rather contribute to the making of one such professional tool, we’d like to suggest PYPA HR. Currently, they’re under beta testing and just the place to be, if you’ve always wondered about intelligent systems to manage your team!