Overcoming the Top Challenges of Self-Managing Teams

The Corporate Rebels' research highlights the top three challenges:

1. People struggle to adapt – With most being new to self-management, it’s not easy to unleash the right mindset and behaviors, leading to untapped potential and suboptimal leadership.
2. Leadership vacuums form – Without formal leaders, teams sometimes lack direction and struggle to make strategic decisions, potentially leading to drift or missed opportunities.
3. Letting go of old habits – People often fall back on ingrained command-and-control behaviors, undermining the self-managing structure and creating friction within teams.

Historically, Corporate Rebels have specialized in sharing stories and examples from organizations worldwide that inspire others to upgrade their organizational structures and processes to support self-management—covering topics like recruitment, onboarding, decision-making, and salary management.

However, upgrading structures and processes isn’t enough. At the end of the day, we are ‘human beings,’ not ‘human doings.’ Our mindset—how we perceive ourselves, others, and the world—determines how we act, speak, and ultimately, the results or outcomes we achieve.

Apps and operating systems – both need an upgrade

At Tuff Leadership Training, we often refer to this as apps and Operating Systems. If we only upgrade the apps (organizational structures and processes) without upgrading the Operating System (our mindset and way of being), the new apps won’t function properly.

We describe the default Operating System in the workplace as a ‘parent-child’ dynamic. Leaders, or anyone with power, expertise, or experience, are conditioned to be responsible, advice-giving problem-solvers. So, even when we want self-organized teams where everyone is empowered to make decisions and solve problems, this outdated Operating System gets in the way. Even if we’ve introduced coaching or Agile practices, it may still be a ‘parent’ coaching or facilitating, leaving others feeling that they are not truly responsible, causing people to avoid stepping in.

On the flip side, individual contributors (non-managers) have also been conditioned. They’ve learned to be good worker bees but often look to managers or HR when problems arise. They hesitate to stick their necks out and risk the consequences, preferring to hide behind their manager’s authority. After all, that’s why the manager is paid the big bucks, right?

So, when we declare, 'We’re a self-managing organization now!' it takes far more than just giving permission for people to become self-managing. Beyond changes in structures and processes, it requires unlearning many old habits from the outdated Operating System and developing new skills that weren’t needed before but are now essential for everyone to be 'leaderful,' not just the former bosses.

The pendulum of doom

One common pitfall when transitioning to self-managing teams, in an attempt to move away from command-and-control habits, is swinging too far in the opposite direction. I call this ‘The Pendulum of Doom.’

In this scenario, we may develop an allergy to anything that resembles leadership or hierarchy, leading to symptoms such as:

• People with experience and expertise abdicating responsibility (“I’m not allowed to step in anymore, I’m not a manager!”)
• Unclear roles and chaos (“Who is responsible for what?!”)
• Autonomy over alignment (“We can do whatever we want, remember? We’re self-managing!”)
• Buddy culture (“We can’t give each other feedback, we’re all equals and care too much about each other!”)
• Leadership and accountability vacuums (“How do we hold each other accountable without being boss-like?”)
• Tyranny of structurelessness (as Jo Freeman described in the 1970s, when there is no structure, unwanted forms of leadership often fill the void).

This can obviously lead to all kinds of new dysfunctions that are just as toxic as top-down management hierarchies.

How can we upgrade the operating system?

One of the most challenging aspects of upgrading the Operating System is that it often operates outside our awareness. We’re frequently unconscious of how much of a ‘parent’ or ‘child’ role we are playing, especially when we’re in reactive mode.

So, in order to shift toward a more adult-adult mindset and way of being, we need help. Tuff Leadership Training has been supporting people in developing the mindset and skills necessary for self-managing teams for 20 years. We’ve found that what helps people the most is:

• A safe (and brave) space to practice, where it’s okay to make mistakes and be a beginner
• A skilled trainer and coach who provides feedback on your pitfalls and tendencies and support you to try new ways of being, abilities, and leading
• Lots and lots of practice in the most challenging interpersonal situations until you find what works for you

Introducing the Self-Management Bootcamp

That’s why we at Tuff have partnered with Corporate Rebels to offer the Self-Management Bootcamp, an intensive and practical training for developing the mindset and skills that allow self-managing teams to thrive. Participants will learn how to coach (for real), give feedback in an adult-adult way, facilitate groups without creating dependency, navigate tensions and conflicts, and much more.

In the years I’ve been leading these programs, participants have shared feedback such as:

• “I didn’t realize how parental I was! It was so useful to identify my pitfalls and have the chance to try something new.”
• “I felt I could make all the mistakes I needed to and get them out of the way so that in the real world, I’m more likely to succeed!”
• “My team has noticed how much I’ve changed.”
• “People no longer look to me to make all the decisions. It’s so liberating!”

Nearly everyone we speak to in self-managing organizations tells us: “This is not easy! It takes development and commitment.”

This bootcamp is designed to kickstart that development journey.

Check out the full program and join the waitlist to benefit from exclusive discounted pricing here.