Hello, I'm Nishijo, the leader of the direction team.
Time flies and it's already February, and it's been a year since I changed jobs to Monosus. The year has flown by, but I'd like to look back on the past year and talk about how I've been carrying out my daily work as a leader since I changed jobs.
From freelance to company employee
Just before joining Monosus, I was working as a freelance director. At that time, I had a team that I worked with, and I was always nominated for work, and I was involved in many projects, from government sites to major corporate sites.
The team at that time consisted of a producer, a planner, a director, and an information architect, and when it came to design and coding, we would request help from partner companies on a case-by-case basis.
Because we worked as a team, we were able to divide up the work and everyone was able to focus on the tasks that best suited their strengths. In addition, we were not tied to specific working hours, and each person managed their own working hours, which is similar to the current Monosus full-flex system.
That's how I decided to put an end to my freelance work and start working as a company employee.
It all started when I was approached by a senior who I regularly meet at university alumni reunions and who works in human resources. Through a number of introductions, I happened to find out that Monosus was recruiting for a leadership position.
As I listened to the specifics of the story, I realized that I wanted to lead the fledgling direction team in order to make building websites for B2B companies the pillar of Monosus' business, so I decided to change jobs.
What I did in my first team management:
What I couldn't do
This was the first time that Monosus had hired someone for a leadership position from outside the company, and it was also my first time in a leadership role, so the challenge was figuring out how to manage the team.
Therefore, after joining the company, I actively participated in regular meetings with other departments to ask for hints about the issues and management methods of each department.
The direction team I was part of still had some inexperienced directors, so I was tasked with supporting the team members as a leader to ensure they could function smoothly while also handling individual direction tasks at the same time.
In addition, the team's manager has indicated that the team's policy is not to leave everything to the leader, but to work together to develop the leader, and the leader will walk the path as a leader with the support of everyone.
At weekly regular meetings with my boss, Nagai, we shared the status of projects within the team and how each member was doing, and also had repeated discussions about team management, such as how to hold meetings, how to follow up with members, and how to bring the team together.
Through these discussions, we have undertaken various initiatives, one example being "feedback on action plans."
At our morning meeting every day, we ask team members to report their action plans for the day (their plans for the day and their achievements from the previous day). We decided to add a reflection section to these reports so that team members can reflect on their actions for the day in detail.
- What I accomplished today
- What was the highlight of your day and how did you feel about it?
- What did you do wrong today? What could you have done better (improved)?
- Today's good actions and realizations
The next day, I provide feedback with my opinions and questions, helping them to understand what they have done wrong or been ambiguous about.
By getting into this habit, the members seem to be able to identify their weaknesses and make steady progress one step at a time.
In fact, in the case of one staff member, I saw a post saying that he or she was now able to do tasks efficiently that he or she previously couldn't do alone (or that took a lot of time), and I learned that the person was using their own ingenuity to get to work. In my feedback, I ask what kind of ingenuity they used and offer suggestions, etc., to follow up on the members.
Here are some other plans I have in mind for the coming year:
- Weekly KPT meeting
Based on Amano Masaru's book "All you need! KPT", we aim to have participants identify areas for improvement in how they work and strengthen their team management.
- Weekly personal interview
While a regular progress meeting requires solutions to specific issues, one-on-one meetings aim to prevent issues from arising and instead provide an opportunity for action or to change the other person's perspective.
I had been thinking about all of these things, but last year I was so busy getting used to the way Monosus works that I wasn't able to put my ideas into practice. I'd like to continue taking my time and working on them one by one.
Team issues emerge under new manager
This year marks my second year as leader.
With the organizational change, the head of the direction team has changed from Nagai to Kamii. Under Kamii's leadership, the team will be run in a new way.
My predecessor, Nagai, was the type to basically leave things to others, so my style was to come up with ideas, plan, and take action myself, and then receive guidance as appropriate.
On the other hand, Kamii places great importance on the initial policy and output, and is the type of person who will provide detailed guidance until those images are shared. With the goal of raising the level of the direction team, he has identified the team's issues from a project management perspective and has begun efforts to improve them.
For example, in some of the projects that the team was in charge of, they were too conscious of managing the production side of things, and were not able to grasp the overall picture of the project and lead it to the goal. There were many parts where they relied too much on the producers in the departments they collaborated with to lead the project, so in the future it will be important to clarify the roles of each department and hand over the parts that were not clearly defined to our own areas.
What is needed to achieve this?
In addition to my traditional duties of managing production progress, under Kamii's guidance, I would like to assist in running the team while supporting the members as a leader so that all team members can acquire new knowledge and skills.
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