In dragon boat racing, teams need rowers and a drummer. 

At first, this seems like a strange concept. But give the idea further thought, and you’ll see how it makes sense. 

In reality, no two rowers are exactly the same. Some have stronger arms, and others have better technique. The trick to winning isn’t changing everyone to be the same – it’s helping them align.

In other words, winning requires people moving:

• In the same direction
• With the same goal
• And at relatively the same pace 

Coordination can turn even a random group of people into champions. And it’s the drummer who sets the pace. They create a rhythm that everyone can understand and align with.  

Over a century ago, armies faced the same issue. If a general like Napoleon wanted to conquer a country, he would have to get enormous groups of people to march in unison without anyone getting lost or left behind. There was always someone with a drum to keep everyone marching in time. 

Managers like you face a similar task of coordinating very different team players to achieve a common goal. To do so, you have to drum.

You set the rhythm

If you’ve spent any time as a human, you know how difficult it is to coordinate other humans.

As an engineering manager (EM), I work with my fellow managers to organize teams of: 

• Engineers
• Designers
• Testers
• Analysts
• QA specialists
• Administrators
• And more to create our products and features 

And because each group has different priorities and perspectives, they’re more likely to step on others’ toes if they aren’t in alignment with the broader vision.

Of course, there are always some individual contributors (ICs) who take others into account, which is a great thing. Unfortunately, these make up a very small percentage of the larger whole. Everyone else needs a drummer – namely, you.

As this drummer, you create the rhythm for everyone else to follow, specifically the:

• Goals
• Expectations
• And timelines for them to understand and act on

There are a few key ways you can do this.

Drum with your words

The first way you create a rhythm for your team is through verbal and written communication. The main components for success here are:

• Clarity
• Consistency
• And timeliness

Clarity means being explicit and direct with what you say. 

For example, maybe X problem needs to be completed in Y amount of time. So, speak about this in terms of your monthly or quarterly goals. This gives your team members: 

• A clear idea of where you are now
• Where you’re heading
• And what needs to happen to get there

But these messages have to be consistent over time. 

If you discuss one set of goals this week and then another next week, your ICs will get confused and discouraged. Furthermore, people won’t know what’s high-priority and could end up working on something less important.

Timeliness means giving your ICs enough notice so they can anticipate what’s around the corner. 

Think about how dragon boat drummers alert their rowers to upcoming rapids or patches of rocks. Knowing what’s ahead helps the team maneuver gracefully and with a minimum of effort.

But keep in mind dragon boats are not slave ships.

In other words, you’re not barking out expectations or threatening punishments while communicating. Instead, you’re giving people the necessary information to pool their strengths and build cool things together.

Drum with your actions

The next way you create a rhythm for your team is through your actions. And, like communication, there are several elements to this. 

Follow-through

People will only take what you say seriously if your actions match your words.

Here’s an example:

• You tell your ICs to show up to meetings on time
• You explain the importance of this, how it affects results, and so on
• Then, you show up late to a meeting 

Like some, you may start arguing this exception in various ways. For example, you might say:

• It only happened after being on time for many meetings
• You had a really good personal reason
• You were only a few minutes late
• Or, worst of all, you have lots of important things to do as a manager, so your team should give you a pass

What’s harder to realize is that it doesn’t matter why you were late or when – what matters is you were. 

And the only way to salvage this mistake is to own it as such, apologize, and show up to meetings on time in the future. Without all three of these steps, you’ve just created one of two situations. Either:

• You’re allowed to be the exception because of self-decided privilege
• Or they’re also allowed to be the exception because you showed what you said wasn’t as important as you made it out to be, making your words meaningless

The first creates resentment, distrust, and loss of respect. The second puts you right back where you started, with people not showing up to meetings on time.

Initiative

Beating the drum with your actions also means taking initiative when you say something is important. 

Imagine this scenario: 

• You share the most important KPIs for the upcoming quarter with your team
• After, you assign someone to track and provide regular updates on progress
• Over time, it becomes clear you’re not meeting goals 

Starting the course correction process is not up to your team – it’s up to you. If you don’t take this initiative, you’ll be like a dragon boat drummer seeing the shallows coming but never telling the rowers. 

This ties back to follow-through because by becoming a manager, you’ve “promised” your team to lead them away from problems and toward solutions. Even more, you’ve promised to lead them away from setbacks and toward progress.

As soon as you don’t, you’ve lost some (if not all) of their trust. They’ll start thinking they need to take matters into their own hands, leading to wasted: 

• Time
• Effort
• And resources as you do twice as much work to fix everything

Drum with your presence

Think of presence like a container holding water. The container doesn’t have to do anything – the water naturally takes its shape as it’s poured in.

In the same way, you can create a “container” for your team by being present in ways that express and build trust in your long-term vision.

The relationships you have with your ICs are the primary place where this happens, especially in your one-on-one meetings. These moments of interaction create space where your values and priorities often show through, even if you’re not explicitly discussing goals and plans. 

For example, as the EM, you’re invested in developing your engineers’ skills. You can spend one-on-one time mentoring and helping them grow in areas you know the team (and they) will need moving forward. This guidance implicitly nudges them to think about the team’s vision and direction. 

Having your team members’ trust facilitates this growth. People generally feel more comfortable following the lead of people they know care about them. 

So, get to know your team. Take time to celebrate their achievements and highlight the successes that bring you closer to your goals.

What’s more, there will always be some ICs who need regular check-ins to not feel: 

• Lost
• Rejected
• Or left on their own

This doesn’t make them weak, but if not handled properly, it can easily lead to frustration, misalignment, and higher turnover.

Rhythm requires regularity

A dragon boat drummer who creates a rhythm only for the first ten minutes and expects their team to remember it isn’t doing anyone any favors. 

In managerial terms, communicating your expectations and goals through your words, actions, and presence is something you have to work into your routine. If you start a rhythm, you have to keep going.

This isn’t like reviewing and tweaking your goals, which you can do monthly or quarterly, depending on the projects you’re working on. Keeping your team aligned is something you need to do weekly, even daily, if you don’t want things to fall apart. 

Think about the way a washing machine works. While it spins, there’s a centrifugal force keeping the clothes in place. The moment the cycle stops, all the clothes fall into a pile. 

In other words, your ICs will lose alignment if you stop for too long.

This isn’t because of malice or laziness, though. Some will misremember your goals. Others will only focus on what their immediate team is doing, forgetting to take into account what other teams need or are working on.

So, your job isn’t just coming up with a vision and strategizing about getting there – it’s also helping your team get there, too.

The short version: learn how to play the drums

Teams are made of professionals with very different backgrounds and specializations. Their different focuses mean managers need to keep everyone aligned in much the same way a drummer helps the rowers on a dragon boat team.

So:

• Know you set the tone: understand how central you are as a manager to keeping people on track
• Drum with your words: communicate your vision clearly, consistently, and on time
• Drum with your actions: show the team your commitment to your words by following through on what you say and taking the initiative when things need to be done
• Drum with your presence: draw attention to your goals through relationships and trust-building
• Drum with regularity: continue building alignment within your time weekly and even daily

Following these steps on a regular basis results in a team that knows where they need to go and how to get there. It also builds trust with you as a manager, which is key to leading people to success.

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Originally published on Medium.com

Content in this blog post by Alex Ponomarev is licensed under CC BY 4.0.