It is quite easy to explain to the managers we work with in agile coaching the application of certain practices, for example: test automation, the notion of “done”, iterations, etc., and certain values: inspection & adaptation (for -for example- scrum). For managers, the gains brought by these practices and values are self-evident. When we talk about trust, respect, it’s always much more difficult. These agile notions (from Lean) too often appear linked to a philosophy, even an ideology, and therefore are not appreciated at their true value by profiles whose objective is above all to produce results, to make profitable in a way their teams, their products, etc.
To better convince them that these values are as important as the others, remind them of the Pygmalion effect (or Rosenthal).
Take two teams, explain to the managers that one is made up of very high-performing members, and the other of very unremarkable members. In both cases it’s totally false: the two teams are equal. The managers will behave differently by having more respect and trust with the so-called high-performing team, even attributing to themselves (to them the managers) potentially along the way some of the failures. This approach (which is not very far from the Coué method) will not only make the supposedly more performant team appear better, but will truly make it better (even if according to studies this performance difference doesn’t necessarily hold over time).
So by having respect, trust and consideration for their teams, managers make them concretely more performant.
Consideration costs nothing and does a lot of good. Don’t only see the cynical side of this sentence. We too often forget to congratulate people when something good happens.