I have been working as a Software Engineer Manager for about three years. I noticed that the best habits that I have, Ted Lasso were shown in his TV show.

I’ll show them in this article and explain how I use them daily.

First Lesson: We are all one

When we are leading a team it is essential each member feels matter for the team’s goal and becomes part of the process. As a Leader, it’s important to set personal and team goals where we go forward together to achieve them.

In Ted Lasso, we can see this behavior being used by Ted with the famous selfish Jamie Tartt the star of the team. Show to him although he is talented he needs to play with the team to achieve the win.

Coach, I’m Me. Why Would I Want To Be Anything Else?” — By Jamie Tartt

As I mentioned the team needs to know about the business goal and show up the results after their deliveries because this behavior gives them a sense of product ownership. Nowadays it’s necessary to have a team that worries about the real outcomes, it’s essential to set personal KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), each person in the team needs to know if they are in the right way.

In each season, Ted shows the team the principal goal, for with your team you can use the method S.M.A.R.T

The S.M.A.R.T criteria for setting objectives are as below:

• Specific: Goals should be clear, detailed, and have a well-defined focus to guide your efforts.
• Measurable: It’s important to have goals that allow you to measure progress, so you know how close you are to achieving them.
• Achievable: Your goals should be realistic and attainable, considering your available resources.
• Relevant: Ensure that your goals are pertinent to your broader aims, and fit into your overall mission or objectives.
• Time-bound: Set a clear deadline for your goals to create a sense of urgency and motivate timely action.

Second Lesson: Feedbacks’ Culture

This is the main approach if you worry about continuous improvement, it’s as important for you to give feedback to the team as they do to themselves.

We can use meetings like one-on-one to give feedback about good or bad actions, but so it’s necessary to know about our team, knows about their problems, goals, health, and family if it’s hard for you to receive this feedback from your team try to talk about yourself, show them that you have problems too.

Feedback is a gift that is positive or negative, you need to listen with attention and turn in actions, thinking how can I use this for my growth? If someone tends to give you feedback appreciate it, you can improve faster using this mindset.

Third Lesson: To be vulnerable

To be vulnerable is very hard when you become a Manager because some companies have a bias that can sound strange if you don’t know something and you need help to resolve it, though you are the reference in tech in your team, it’s impossible you know about everything if you are the person with more knowledge in the team, you forgot your goal that is to hire people better than you and improve them to be able resolves problems by themself.

When you show to the team that you commit mistakes too, you send a message to the team that this isn’t a weakness on the other hand you show to the team this behavior is common and they can say when they don’t know about something. This can sound unnecessary or uncomfortable but is very necessary for building a good environment for the team, in this way, we don’t spend time showing that we know about something than you don’t have an idea and we can ask for help.

Ted Lasso shows his problems to the team in many cases but for me, the most impacting is when he joined the team and talked about not having any knowledge about soccer (Ted Lasso was a manager about football before joined in this journey) he didn’t even know the rules about soccer’s game.

Fourth Lesson: Trust in your team

As a manager is very common to get all the responsibility to you, so you need to trust in your team and delegate responsibilities to who can do it. When we are delegating something is important to set the goal and what you waiting for as an outcome. This point is very important They need to know that you are close to the team to help them but they are responsible for the delivery and you trust them, this mindset helps the team grow organically.

Define cycles when you are reviewing their IDP (Individual Development Plan) and set goals for soft-skill and hard-skill. Make sure what you hope for their position in the team, which behavior you hope as outcomes in meetings for example increase your confidence in each other

Fifth Lesson: Don’t be alone

When we listen to other managers is very normal they talk as they are alone. It happens because when we become a leader we need to make decisions that we shouldn’t talk with our team about, however you can talk with your leader and pairs about your problems and exchange experiences about the subject, if you have a Business Partner with you ask for help and explain your questions it’s always important to listen to a second point of view, share with your leader your challenges and ask for tips, they are more senior than you, use this approach and you will notice that you will get near to each other for resolving the problems, you will grow up with this approach getting their experience and feedback.

An outside vision of your team maybe can be important for you so try to join in meetups, and leadership’s chapters, use your one-on-one with your leader, and get a mentor in the company or out of the company. Some books can help you like “The Elegant Puzzle”, “Team Topologies” and “The Manager’s Path”, in these books you will read about some problems and how to solve them and get ready for them.

Ted always gets closer to his staff and asks for support, asks for their opinion and his staff is free to talk with him about all subjects and point out his mistakes, that’s the moment when Ted shows his best skill “Listening to the team” and work together as a unit against the challenges.

Thanks for reading :)