ECB Team Management
Hi there! In this article, we are going to discuss more about mastering the management of your ECB team.
First things first, keep in mind that the size and structure of your ECB team depends a lot on your entity’s reality. The following recommendations should be generally valid but, still, you can always adapt things in your own way.
When it comes to having a healthy functioning team, there are a few considerations that you should follow.
Team Selection Process
The first and most important step in having a good and manageable team is the selection of your members. For this, here are things you can do before actually forming your team:
- Have expectation calls with your applicants. Explain the JD of an ECB member, your expectations towards their role and the time that they will have to allocate daily/weekly.
- Come up with a proper Application Form and some Tasks. Make sure that the applicants get to understand exactly what their role will look like if they get selected. Include some tasks that will resemble their future JD and personalize them based on each function that you have in your structure.
- Ask for help! Don’t think that if you are an ECB Chair you should do all of this by yourself. Make sure you include other people in this whole process as well. It is highly advised (even legislated on APIP*) that your MC actively participates in the whole process. Other people you can include are: your predecessor, your ICB BD Coach, former ECB Chairs from other entities, etc.
* 11.3.6.2. ECB Members Selection
11.3.6.2.2. The selection shall be conducted by the ECB Chair and at least one MC member, LCP or ICB representative, where they give recommendations regarding candidates, while the ECB Chair takes the final decision.
Team identity
After selecting the right people for your team, the next thing you should do is to create an identity for your team. While doing so, make sure that you include everyone in this step. Don’t rush this process and have a meeting dedicated only to this. By the end of the call, you should have at least the following: team name, team values, team statement, team expectations, and team rules.
Once your identity is done, be very loud and proud about it. Promote it on your communication channels, have some visuals, and personalize everything you do based on it. Furthermore, you can create hoodies/Tshirts or bracelets for everyone in the team, so that they feel even more connected to it.
Team Standards
This part is quite self-explanatory, as no team can function without a proper team standards implementation plan. Some things that you should keep in mind here are:
- Set a weekly routine from the beginning and sticking to it
- Separate the normal meetings from the working hours by allocating different times for each one
- Have at least one o2o each month with your members and constantly checking on their needs and their development
- Have informal team meetings once in a while, where you get to know each other better and have fun
The Blue Code can be really helpful with team standards (explanation, timeframes, implementation…) as well as other aspects it covers.
By doing all of this, your team should be ready to perform and work towards great achievements. Maintaining team spirit and retaining team members can be difficult at times, and this is why you should always care for each individual member. The most important part is, of course, to enjoy every moment of it and have fun while doing so!