Aligning > Assuming: The Surprisingly Strategic Tool for Teams
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We spend a lot of time helping leaders get better at understanding others.
But what if one of the most effective moves is making yourself easier to understand?
That’s the idea behind a deceptively simple tool we use with clients: the “How to Work With Me” guide.
It’s not a personality test. It’s not a communication framework.
It’s a document that helps teammates articulate their rhythms, quirks, and needs before they become friction points.
Assumption is the enemy of alignment.
Even high-performing teams get tripped up by invisible expectations:
A teammate doesn’t reply to Slack until after lunch. Are they disengaged or just deep in focused work?
Someone always asks tough questions in meetings. Are they being difficult or are they clarifying the big picture?
A peer gives blunt feedback. Are they unkind or just efficient?
The answer? It depends.
And that’s exactly the problem.
When we don’t make our working styles visible, we leave room for interpretation.
And unchecked interpretation often becomes unnecessary conflict.
Self-awareness is powerful. Shared self-awareness is transformational.
The “How to Work With Me” guide brings emotional intelligence into the operational layer.
It helps team members clarify:
When they do their best work
How they prefer to communicate and when they don’t
What energizes or drains them
Their pet peeves, feedback preferences, and misunderstood quirks
How to help them do their best work
One client - the COO of a fully remote team - rolled this out during a regular team meeting. Within a week, two long-simmering tensions began to ease.
Not just because they brought us in, but because people finally had the language (and permission) to understand each other.
Why this tool works
It gives people permission to be specific and proactive about how they work.
It replaces assumptions with transparency.
And it builds the kind of operational trust that prevents delays, confusion, and misalignment.
It’s one of the most time-efficient ways to boost team performance - and lower the emotional tax of collaboration.
Want to try it with your team?
We’ve put together a free template with the same prompts we use in client sessions and leadership workshops.
It takes 20 minutes to fill out, but the clarity it creates lasts for months.
👉 [Grab the free “How to Work With Me” template here]
👉 Or explore how to embed this into your leadership strategy with a free 15-minute call
Let me know what resonates, or better yet, forward this to a teammate you enjoy working with 😉
Cheers,
