Ever wonder "why aren't people participating more in meetings?" It may be because they feel their voice isn't included and we may have more to do with that than we realize. In The surprising truth about what motivates us, Daniel Pink asserts that a secret to high performance and satisfaction at work is the deeply human need to direct our own lives. As Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, and managers (among other roles) we can intentionally encourage autonomy or unintentionally discourage it.

In this session, we'll look at 10 habits that discourage people from making choices for themselves, and alternative approaches that encourage choice. Habits that discourage choice include paraphrasing, providing advice too early, using our own problem solving skills, ignoring options, and interrupting people's thinking (not just their words). Habits that encourage choice come from Professional Coaching and include reiterating, providing expertise with a coaching mindset, coaching, highlighting options, and waiting for permission.

You'll practice applying these concepts in real 1-1 sessions and group activities, self-reflect to recognize the habits, and come up with next steps for how to integrate the alternate approaches to provide more autonomy for your teams.

Learning Outcomes:

• Differentiate between behaviors that encourage autonomy vs those that sabotage it
• Use 10 techniques for providing more autonomy
• Describe how to apply professional coaching to teams
• Determine which supportive behaviors you are currently doing.
• Derive new ways to encourage others to thrive in their work.
• Formulate near-term steps to incorporate behaviors that encourage autonomy into your daily routine.