Resolving Team Problems

Quick reference

• 00:04 Hello I'm Ray Sheen.
• 00:06 Some team problems are caused by the team leader's leadership traits, or
• 00:10 the team member's followership traits.
• 00:12 Let's take a look at how we can approach these issues.
• 00:17 Let me start with the top 10 mistakes that team leaders make.
• 00:20 Chances are, you'll have a tendency toward several of these.
• 00:23 As I review them, do a self assessment and see if they might apply to you.
• 00:27 Top-down attitude- instead of servant leadership.
• 00:30 In this case, the leader views the role of the team is to make them look good
• 00:34 rather than viewing the role of the leader is to make the team members look good.
• 00:39 Dictatorship decision-making- not using the team in the decision making process.
• 00:43 The leader makes all the decisions without input from the team.
• 00:47 This of course will mean very little buy-in by the team in the decisions.
• 00:51 Dirty delegation- micro-managing and attaching strings.
• 00:55 Telling team members that they have responsibility for an action and
• 00:58 then overriding them or doing it for them.
• 01:01 This will discourage a team quickly and
• 01:03 make it more difficult to get them to take responsibility for future actions.
• 01:08 Putting paperwork before peoplework.
• 01:09 Not staying connected with the team members but
• 01:11 rather focusing on administrative or management activities.
• 01:15 The absence of affirmation.
• 01:17 The failure to provide feedback to team members or thanking them for
• 01:20 the work that they have done.
• 01:22 Even the common courtesy of thanking goes a long way to encouraging others.
• 01:27 No room for mavericks- stifling creativity.
• 01:29 A heavy-handed leadership style that requires team members to only do what
• 01:32 they've been given the authority to do and to only do it in the authorized way.
• 01:37 Any suggestion for improvements are discouraged.
• 01:41 Communication chaos- infrequent, unfocused communication.
• 01:44 The team members do not know if they are doing things correctly.
• 01:47 They do not even know if anyone cares what they do.
• 01:51 Missing the clues of the corporate culture.
• 01:53 The organization and the team have norms and expectations based upon traditions and
• 01:58 history of the organization.
• 02:00 Ignoring these unnecessarily offends team members.
• 02:03 If they must be changed, talk about why.
• 02:06 Otherwise, leverage them.
• 02:08 Don't fight them.
• 02:09 Success without successors- not preparing the next generation.
• 02:13 If the team is a functional team, expertise needs to be built up across
• 02:17 the team members so that the team is more versatile.
• 02:20 If it is a project team,
• 02:21 you should be helping the team members learn how to run their own projects.
• 02:25 Failure to focus on the future, while living in the present.
• 02:28 The team should be striving to be successful both in the short term
• 02:31 and the long term.
• 02:33 The culture and technology are constantly changing.
• 02:35 And the team needs to be changing with it or it will be left behind and
• 02:39 become ineffective.
• 02:41 So maybe you have seen yourself in some of these mistakes and
• 02:44 you decide that the change is in order.
• 02:46 Even if you don't recognize yourself, change is coming.
• 02:49 For instance, new team members may require a different way of communicating.
• 02:53 Technical and personal relationships among the team members change
• 02:57 which can change how they interact.
• 02:59 Business conditions regularly change.
• 03:01 New goals, new metrics, new systems,
• 03:03 new requirements, all can impact how the team should operate.
• 03:07 And people change, team members will get new skills or
• 03:10 training that changes their capabilities.
• 03:12 They'll take on new responsibilities in their family and
• 03:15 travel may no longer be interesting.
• 03:17 They have health problems.
• 03:19 Many things can occur which will impact how the team operates.
• 03:22 So whether it is changing your leadership style or accommodating changes in team
• 03:26 members, the team norms and routines will need to undergo periodic changes.
• 03:31 When that is the case,
• 03:32 use the improvement cycle made famous by Professor Shewhart Plan, Do, Study, Act.
• 03:37 Plan the change, try the change out for a short time, study the impact and
• 03:41 results in team dynamics and team performance, then act to either accept and
• 03:46 adopt the change or to reject it and try something else.
• 03:50 There's one last perspective to talk about when discussing team problem solving.
• 03:54 That is understanding your team members or
• 03:57 as I will call them on this slide the followers.
• 04:00 We can divide them into different groups using the attributes of whether they're
• 04:03 active, that means doers, or passive.
• 04:06 The second attribute is whether they're Independent, Critical Thinkers who think
• 04:10 through the consequences of actions or if they are Dependent, Uncritical Thinkers.
• 04:14 Let's look at the different types of followers.
• 04:17 The first category is the passive critical thinkers.
• 04:20 They're often viewed as Alienated Followers.
• 04:23 They no longer want to work with the team, so they think through every decision and
• 04:26 action to find the flaw.
• 04:28 Even if it is remote, they're quick to point it out.
• 04:31 Next is the passive dependent thinker.
• 04:33 They are the sheep that are easily led.
• 04:35 They will go wherever the shepherd leads.
• 04:37 But if the shepherd does not lead, they will wander away and get lost.
• 04:42 Next is the active dependent thinker.
• 04:44 This is the Conformist Follower.
• 04:46 They're the yes men who are ready to run as fast as they can in whatever direction
• 04:51 they think the leader is going even if there are some obvious fatal flaws in
• 04:55 what they're doing.
• 04:56 And next is the active critical thinker.
• 04:59 These are Exemplary Followers and
• 05:01 a team leader can rely to them to be peer group leaders.
• 05:05 They think things through and they take action.
• 05:08 Finally, there's the group that is a little bit of all four.
• 05:12 We refer to them as Pragmatic Followers, sometimes active sometimes passive.
• 05:16 Sometimes they're Independent,
• 05:18 Critical Thinkers and sometimes they just go along with everyone else.
• 05:22 So why do we care?
• 05:23 Well, because as team leaders we need to provide different kinds of interactions
• 05:26 depending upon our team members' followship styles.
• 05:29 Independent, Critical Thinkers need goals.
• 05:32 Dependent thinkers need specific tasks so they know what to do.
• 05:36 Active followers need focus or they start bouncing around from one idea to another.
• 05:42 Passive followers need encouragement to get things done and to keep them going.
• 05:48 Team leaders need to be ready to change their leadership style.
• 05:51 Whether it is their own leadership mistakes, changes to their team or
• 05:55 reacting to their followers, good team leaders are constantly improving.

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