I am team lead working in the IT Security team where I work. Our team has been having biweekly standup meetings to discuss status on projects / assigned work, and any blockers that is preventing work from been accomplished so I can help to remove the impediments. This has been working well with all team members being very cooperative , and engaging in beneficial debate on how to accomplish certain tasks, or for using other team members as a sounding board to gather feedback on their ideas (evaluating new processes or security controls to be implemented, discussing vulnerability scanning results, prioritizing remediation strategy etc.), with exception of two team members from a different, non western culture.

On more than one occasion I have been mislead by the status of a certain task with end results of it been late. At the standup I simply asked what the status of these tasks are and whether there are impediments hindering timely completion. These team members responded the tasks were OK, and they are fine, which I interpreted to mean the tasks are on track and no help was needed. I have stressed that I value transparent communication within the team and that I am a mentor that anyone can go to when they have a blocking issue affecting their work. To me, trust in the team, transparency and clarity of communication, and minimization of hierarchy (i.e: me been seen as a boss dictating from above), is the ideal way to build a strong team.

However, I have often found that the actual status of projects is not the same as what is presented at the standup meeting, with reason being that team members say they did not present the true situation because they are afraid to be perceived as incapable or offending me. I was quite confused by such feedback as to me, there is no shame in not knowing and that seeking assistance is natural. I asked a simple question on project status so expected the response to be whole truth and never second guessed, due to no reason to.

Our team is also quite collaborative with members openly discussing best ideas and providing critiques to other team member's work (think pair programming or code reviews as examples). These team members are very quiet and do not seem to want to participate. Even when there are objective issues encountered (E.g: following a bad security practice), they still did not speak up or provide suggestions.

Team members being afraid to raise issues or not being transparent in communications are problem for the team, as leaving issues unsolved can lead to resentment.

1. How can I encourage team members to be more understanding of my role as a mentor who is there to help them, and that is there no issues or to speak to me?

2. How can I encourage the two above team members to feel more comfortable engaging in debate and proving critiques to their team members' ideas?

I am team lead working in the IT Security team where I work. Our team has been having biweekly standup meetings to discuss status on projects / assigned work, and any blockers that is preventing work from been accomplished so I can help to remove the impediments. This has been working well with all team members being very cooperative and engaging in beneficial debate on how to accomplish certain tasks, or for using other team members as a sounding board to gather feedback on their ideas (evaluating new processes or security controls to be implemented, discussing vulnerability scanning results, prioritizing remediation strategy etc.), with the exception of two team members from a different, non-western culture.

On more than one occasion I have been misled by the status of a certain task with the end result of it being late. At the standup I simply asked what the status of these tasks were and whether there were impediments hindering timely completion. These team members responded that the tasks were OK, and they were fine, which I interpreted to mean the tasks were on track and no help was needed. I have stressed that I value transparent communication within the team and that I am a mentor that anyone can come to when they have a blocking issue affecting their work. To me, trust in the team, transparency and clarity of communication, and minimization of hierarchy (i.e: me being seen as a boss dictating from above) is the ideal way to build a strong team.

However, I have often found that the actual status of projects is not the same as what is presented at the standup meeting, with the reason being that team members say they did not present the true situation because they are afraid to be perceived as incapable or offending me. I was quite confused by such feedback as, to me, there is no shame in not knowing, and seeking assistance is natural. I asked a simple question on project status, so I expected the response to be the whole truth with no second-guessing, due to there being no reason to.

Our team is also quite collaborative with members openly discussing best ideas and providing critiques to other team members' work (think pair programming or code reviews as examples). These team members are very quiet and do not seem to want to participate. Even when there are objective issues encountered (E.g: following a bad security practice), they still did not speak up or provide suggestions.

Team members being afraid to raise issues or not being transparent in communications are a problem for the team, as leaving issues unsolved can lead to resentment.

1. How can I encourage team members to be more understanding of my role as a mentor who is there to help them, and that is there no issue with coming to speak to me?

2. How can I encourage the two team members above to feel more comfortable engaging in debate and providing critiques to their team members' ideas?

I am team lead working in the IT Security team where I work. Our team has been having biweekly standup meetings to discuss status on projects / assigned work, and any blockers that is preventing work from been accomplished so I can help to remove the impediments. This has been working well with all team members being very cooperative , and engaging in beneficial debate on how to accomplish certain tasks, or for using other team members as a sounding board to gather feedback on their ideas (evaluating new processes or security controls to be implemented, discussing vulnerability scanning results, prioritizing remediation strategy etc.), with exception of two team member from a different  , non western culture.

On more than one occasion I have been mislead by the status of a certain task with end results of it been late. At the standup I simply asked what the status of these tasks are and whether there are impediments hindering timely completion. These team members responded the tasks were ok, and they are fine, which I interpreted to mean the tasks are on track and no help was needed. I have stressed that I value transparent communication within the team and that I am a mentor that anyone can go to when they have a blocking issue affecting their work. To me, trust in the team, transparency and clarity of communication, and minimization of hierarchy (i.e: me been seen as a boss dictating from above), is the ideal way to build a strong team.

However, I have often found that the actual status of projects is not the same as what is presented at the standup meeting, with reason being that team members say they did not present the true situation because they are afraid to be perceived as incapable or offending me. I was quite confused by a such feedback as to me, there is no shame in not knowing and that seeking assistance is natural. I asked a simple question on project status so expected the response to be whole truth and never second guessed, due to no reason to.

Our team is also quite collaborative with members openly discussing best ideas and providing critiques to other team members work (think pair programming or code reviews as examples). These team members are very quiet and does not seem to want to participate. and even when there are objective issues encountered (E.g: following a bad security practice), still did not speak up pro provide suggestions.

Team members being afraid to raise issues or not being transparent in communications are problem for the team, as leaving issues unsolved can lead to resentment.

1. How can I encourage team members to be more understanding of my role as a mentor who is there to help them, and that is there no issues or to speak to me?

2. How can I encourage the two above team members to feel more comfortable engaging in debate and proving critiques to their team members' ideas?

I am team lead working in the IT Security team where I work. Our team has been having biweekly standup meetings to discuss status on projects / assigned work, and any blockers that is preventing work from been accomplished so I can help to remove the impediments. This has been working well with all team members being very cooperative , and engaging in beneficial debate on how to accomplish certain tasks, or for using other team members as a sounding board to gather feedback on their ideas (evaluating new processes or security controls to be implemented, discussing vulnerability scanning results, prioritizing remediation strategy etc.), with exception of two team members from a different, non western culture.

On more than one occasion I have been mislead by the status of a certain task with end results of it been late. At the standup I simply asked what the status of these tasks are and whether there are impediments hindering timely completion. These team members responded the tasks were OK, and they are fine, which I interpreted to mean the tasks are on track and no help was needed. I have stressed that I value transparent communication within the team and that I am a mentor that anyone can go to when they have a blocking issue affecting their work. To me, trust in the team, transparency and clarity of communication, and minimization of hierarchy (i.e: me been seen as a boss dictating from above), is the ideal way to build a strong team.

However, I have often found that the actual status of projects is not the same as what is presented at the standup meeting, with reason being that team members say they did not present the true situation because they are afraid to be perceived as incapable or offending me. I was quite confused by such feedback as to me, there is no shame in not knowing and that seeking assistance is natural. I asked a simple question on project status so expected the response to be whole truth and never second guessed, due to no reason to.

Our team is also quite collaborative with members openly discussing best ideas and providing critiques to other team member's work (think pair programming or code reviews as examples). These team members are very quiet and do not seem to want to participate. Even when there are objective issues encountered (E.g: following a bad security practice), they still did not speak up or provide suggestions.

Team members being afraid to raise issues or not being transparent in communications are problem for the team, as leaving issues unsolved can lead to resentment.

1. How can I encourage team members to be more understanding of my role as a mentor who is there to help them, and that is there no issues or to speak to me?

2. How can I encourage the two above team members to feel more comfortable engaging in debate and proving critiques to their team members' ideas?