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Category Archive: Teamwork

Toxic Teamwork Making Destructive Comments

Posted by on July 11, 2016

One of the hallmarks of leadership in the 21^st century is participative team building and problem solving. We have moved from the old top down decision making model to one that allows and encourages everyone’s involvement in the process.

If you are a good leader then you will make sure that everyone has an opportunity to give their opinion and respectfully discuss and even debate the issues so that the best possible solution can be reached. For some people this type of give and take environment comes easy and for others it is very hard to open up and participate.

As a team leader one thing I watch very carefully is when someone starts to take on another team member personally rather than dealing with their ideas. This can be very subtle in the beginning but eventually something is said that really stings.

There is a big difference between I do not agree with what you are saying and here is the reason compared to you are wrong and just don’t get it. Certain people with strong personalities will go after another person when they feel threatened because they know they can intimidate them to back off.

During the meeting when I see this happening I will usually make a point to come back to the person who was attacked and draw them out again. After the meeting, I will go to the person making the destructive comments and make sure they understand that type of behavior will not be tolerated.

After clearly communicating with someone privately and they continue to demonstrate this type of behavior then they will lose their seat at the table and everyone will know why.

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What Does Accountability Really Mean For Teams

Posted by on July 8, 2016

The is probably the single most difficult issue I see while working with almost all size companies. The move to collaboration has assumed that teams are the highest expression of leadership effectiveness. However, where does that leave delegation and directive leadership roles? This post offers some help:

“At the end of a meeting, most leaders know that they should recap next steps and determine who is accountable for each. As prescribed in the commonly used responsibility models — RACI, RAPID, and the others — accountability should fall to one (and only one) person per item, even if the work involved requires input and contributions from others. Unfortunately, over the years we’ve spent advising organizations, we’ve found that the word “accountable” can mean different things to different people.”

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How To Resolve Team Conflict

Posted by on June 15, 2016

Its impossible for creative and strong people to work together in a team environment without conflict if they are doing their jobs. These people are passionate and there must be a culture where the truth can be told but where people are not personally attacked. I have been on the wrong end of this stick too many times and these are the things that help me be more effective:

Own my part of the problem: Even if someone else throws a bomb my way, that does not give me an excuse to throw another one back. If there is conflict, the first question I must ask is where was I wrong and admit it to the team.
Know when to back off: Once I have clearly and respectively shared my opinion then it is time for me to let it go. If other team members are not jumping in, then I was probably wrong to begin with. Saying something over and over with even more volume does not make it right.
Listen to understand: A lot of conflict is produced when people are listening to frame up their next argument to support their position. Instead, if we would listen in order to understand the other person, we might not react so strongly at what they are saying.
Find the win/win solution: One person does not always have to be right and the other person wrong. Many times if our motives are right we can take the best from both and make the end product even better.

Collaboration can be painful and people can be ugly. However, if you own your attitude and you sincerely want whats best for the entire team then magic can repeatedly happen.

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The Most Effective Teams Adapt To Change

Posted by on June 8, 2016

The ability to lead change well is both art and science. The development of the plan and the definition of the metrics are often the easy part. When to make the change and at what pace are challenging. The role of teams in leading change is defined in this Forbes post:

“A recent Economist article stated that “teams have become the basic building-blocks of organizations,” and I disagree. I disagree because they’ve always been the building blocks of performance, and it’s only now that leaders are beginning to realize the power of “we” and networks after working so long for “me” in hierarchies.”

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4 Things To Do When Your Team Is Smarter Than You

Posted by on April 9, 2016

So we have heard that leaders today don’t have to be able to answer all the questions. They hire smarter people and let the combined collaboration generate more effective results. So if you are the leader, then what is your role? Fast Company has a helpful post:

“If you think the boss should have all the answers, you might be confused about what it means to be a good leader. As a general rule of thumb, every person hired should be smarter than the manager at what they’ve been hired to do, says Ian Siegel, cofounder and CEO of the employment platform ZipRecruiter.”

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How To Disagree With Someone More Powerful Than You

Posted by on April 4, 2016

I have blown this one in every way possible. With that admission comes some degree of what works and what does not. I have to be able to say the right thing, the right way and most importantly at the right time to have a chance of being heard. This HBR post is excellent:

“Your boss proposes a new initiative you think won’t work. Your senior colleague outlines a project timeline you think is unrealistic. What do you say when you disagree with someone who has more power than you do? How do you decide whether it’s worth speaking up? And if you do, what exactly should you say?”

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The Benefits Of Peer-To-Peer Praise At Work

Posted by on February 29, 2016

One of my biggest failures as a leader is making positive comments that encourage other people on an intentional ongoing basis. With performance metrics being driven more by collaborative relationships than directive responsibilities this is a fatal flaw that I must resolve. This HBR post takes the goal of praise and builds it into the ongoing organizational culture:

“In The Happiness Advantage, I describe an experience with a leader at a Fortune 100 company who told me, “We don’t need a happiness program, we pay people to be engaged.” This is a surprisingly common refrain from unenlightened leaders, an assumption based upon the belief that pay equals engagement.”

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How To Boost Your Teams Productivity

Posted by on February 3, 2016

I have never experienced a time where there has been more confusion between planning and execution or directive leadership vs. collaboration. Many leaders are over delegating and wondering why projects fail to meet expectations and other leaders are still micro managing and minimizing productivity. This HBR post is one of the best I have see on this subject:

“We all have too much to do and too little time to do it. As a boss, you may have already learned how to plan, prioritize, and streamline your work. But how can you help your team members do the same? Should you dictate the processes and tools they use? How do you keep people from taking on too much and burning out or continuously spinning their wheels?”

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5 Critical Characteristics of High Performing Teams

Posted by on November 9, 2015

Most leaders agree that we have moved from a leadership model that prioritized the positional power of the leader to one that involves the input of others included on their team. However, there is still a lot of misunderstanding about the changing role of the leader and the appropriate role of the team members.

One of the best books I have read on this subject is The Performance Factor by Pat MacMillan. The book not only deals with all of the philosophical issues involved in this major leadership transition but goes into great detail about practical execution.

The critical characteristics of all high performing teams are:

Clear and Common Purpose
Accepted Leadership
Effective Team Processes
Solid Relationships
Excellent Communication

As in all current accepted leadership theory, they place an extremely high priority on getting the right mix of people on the team. The key here is diversity of skill sets and experience so that the combined synergistic effect will reach its maximum potential.

The leader’s role is still very critical because they have to be able to draw everyone into the project at hand with passion and then be able in the end to reach a decision that works best for bottom line. This is not a personality contest or group therapy it is still about producing outstanding results that accomplish critical priorities.

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4 Critical Team Dynamics for Leading Change

Posted by on November 4, 2015

How many teams have we put together over the years to help us lead the change process only to realize several months later that nothing happened that was sustainable? In John Kotter’s excellent book on Leading Change he gives four key characteristics that must be in place for the team to be successful.

Position power: Are enough key players on board, especially the main line managers, so that those left out cannot easily block progress?
Expertise: Are the various points of view- in terms of discipline, work experience etc.- relevant to the task at hand adequately represented so that informed, intelligent decisions will be made?
Credibility: Does the group have enough people with good reputations in the firm so that its pronouncements will be taken seriously by other employees?
Leadership: Does the group include enough proven leaders to be able to drive the change process?

When I have been responsible for leading major change initiatives all of these types of people must be involved. The other important dynamic is that you must avoid people who will try to take over the group and lead by positional power and the other extreme of individuals who will not engage and confront the brutal facts with their active participation.

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