If you’re a leader of people and teams, you’re probably (hopefully) thinking deeply and often about psych safety and meeting your team’s existential need for INCLUSION. But what are you doing to meet their need for AUTONOMY?

Being or feeling excluded from the group can be experienced as existential threat. As conscious leaders, managers and colleagues, we work hard to create an environment of inclusion.

But being IN the group can ALSO play to us as a threat. We nonconsciously fear the loss of our identity, individualism and autonomy. We may fear being dominated by others. We may fear surrender of our values and judgements, if and when swayed by others.

This paradoxical tension between inclusion and autonomy holds just as much for cooperative teams, too. The team is supposed to reach agreement on major decisions. Will I succumb to the pressure to agree? Will I feel obliged to compromise, so I don’t stand apart?

As a leader of people and teams, we must give a piece of our attention (and intention) to the individual’s need for autonomy, balanced with the team’s collective need for inclusion and collaboration.

To help foster a team environment strong on autonomy:

🔹 Make it easy for your people to speak up.
🔹 Give permission to offer alternative opinions.
🔹 Acknowledge and build on every contribution.
🔹 Agree clear boundaries.
🔹 Allow for disagreement.
🔹 Allow for “mistakes”.
🔹 Celebrate experimentation and innovation.
🔹 Assign side projects that individuals can own.
🔹 Selectively delegate decision-making authority.
🔹 Reward autonomous work contributing to the team.

In your next team meeting, take a moment to silently check-in on the levels of inclusion and autonomy you’re creating for each and every person at the table.

How can I make this person feel included?
How can I bestow on this person a sense of autonomy?