Julie Zhuo, former Facebook manager and co-founder of Sundial, shares her experiences and advice on managing team dynamics. Topics include handling an employee bossing others around, helping an underperforming team member, and leading small teams.
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Quick takeaways
Understanding desired outcomes and having conversations about leadership style are crucial for managing team dynamics.
Recognizing the strengths of experienced employees and creating opportunities for them to shine can lead to better outcomes for the team.
Deep dives
Managing Team Dynamics
Julie Zoo, former manager at Facebook, offers advice on managing team dynamics. She suggests understanding the desired outcomes and having a conversation with the team member about their leadership style. Recognizing the need for feedback, she recommends discussing what success looks like and addressing any behaviors that may be limiting the team member's effectiveness. Zoo emphasizes the importance of open communication, making decisions with input from the team, and fostering a culture of trust and feedback.
Managing More Experienced Talent
The podcast discusses managing employees who are more experienced and older. The speaker encourages the manager to recognize the strengths of the employee and focus on providing great outcomes for the team. They suggest creating opportunities for the employee to shine, representing their work, and advocating for their growth. The episode emphasizes the need to overcome feelings of insecurity and embrace the potential for the employee to excel, even if they eventually become a peer.
Developing Executive Presence
The podcast addresses the challenge of building executive presence. The manager shares her concern about an employee who struggles with confidence, speaking up, and commanding the room. The speaker recommends open and honest feedback, clearly articulating the situation and its impact. They suggest encouraging small steps to improve, such as active participation in meetings and seeking feedback from others. The episode also highlights the value of utilizing available resources, nurturing growth over time, and setting the employee up for success.
Supporting Development without Budget
The episode explores the manager's concern about not having a training budget to support employee development. The speaker suggests a collaborative approach, involving the employee's permission to inform others about her top priority for improvement. They discuss the potential for seeking outside resources, such as online courses or practice opportunities outside of work. The episode promotes empathy, supportive conversations, and the importance of small steps towards growth.
Julie Zhuo was Facebook’s first intern, and she became a manager there in her mid-twenties. Those early years as a manager at the company—now named Meta—were tough. She says she often felt like she was in over her head and she made a lot of mistakes.
But Zhuo did eventually learn how to manage team dynamics. When she left Facebook in 2020, she was leading a team of hundreds, as vice president of product design.
Now the co-founder of Sundial, she takes questions from listeners who are struggling to manage their own team dynamics. She offers advice for when your employee is bossing around others on the team, and how to help an underperforming team member.
Zhuo is the author of the book The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You.
HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you. New episodes every week.