Coaching Churches

I consume everything I can on teamwork.  There is so much confusion between the value of collaboration and the demise of direction and delegation.  I think all of these have value and Harvey Deutschendorf has some great thoughts:

“Most business leaders can agree that teamwork is important for getting anything done. But the agreement usually stops there. In many cases, the company’s immediate needs take over, and there’s seldom enough time for deep thought about how to actually develop an effective team.”

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Probably nothing is more difficult for me to deal with than negative people.  They not only drain me but I see them pulling down the whole team.  On the other hand, the power of rightly spoken positive words can save an entire project with the momentum they bring.  Michael Hyatt nails it again:

“Is there anything more frustrating than trying to accomplish a big goal with someone who’s negative, unimaginative, and defensive?  Thankfully, it’s been a while since I’ve tried. But I’ve had my share in the past, and I can tell you that nothing will kill an organization’s productivity and vision like a can’t-do person.”

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Working through teams is a hot topic and the idea of collaboration has been around for a long time.  Certainly no one wants to go back to the bad old days of a few top down decision makers meeting in private and then telling the whole organization what to do.  Surely with all the emphasis on involving everyone on your leadership team those old habits have finally died.  Not really, they are alive and well.

Effective teams are honest with each other and deal with conflict in a healthy way.  They value the combined strengths and gifts of the team over the limited skills of the few.  Some leaders though are still playing the game of valuing everyone on the team publicly but in reality privately they are not willing to pay the price to build a strong consensus.

There are several clear indicators that will let you know that the leader is not all in on collaboration:

1.  Lots of talk but no real decisions.   At some point in time in the meeting everyone realizes that the impression of listening to everyone has really become how can we end this meeting without making a decision.
2. Overvaluing the input of everyone.   In every team environment depending upon the subject some people on the team will clearly have more knowledge and experience.  When leaders spend an equal amount of time hearing from everyone, they value the acceptance of the people more than the effectiveness of the team.
3. Making unnecessary assignments.  This is a classic delaying strategy by the leader to avoid the realities of the team moving toward a consensus decision.  It sounds a lot like collaboration but in reality its organizational constipation.
4. Meetings with selected individuals.  When a leader does not like the potential direction of the team, they will meet ahead of time with certain individuals to ensure their opinion will be expressed by others.  These team members will do the dirty work while the leader can remain above the conflict.
5. Giving passive approval.  Finally, when it is obvious that the collective team is moving toward a consensus decision to move forward, the leader will give passive approval.  The right words get said but in reality the leader is living to fight another day and has no intention of supporting the groups decision.

If you really don’t want your teams to help you make the decisions then just tell them.  They have plenty of other work to do and they hate playing the game.

I can clearly remember when teams where the newest fad in leadership development.  Initially, they were purely token with positional leadership still firmly in control.  All of that is changing now and many good people don’t fit the team culture.  Mark Miller takes on this critical subject in this new post:

“Each week, I respond to a question submitted by a reader. Today’s issue is one I’ve faced more than once over the years. The question is: In an increasingly team-based world, what is the role of the individual contributor?”

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