I have just been promoted into the team leader of a large department in my company. This team has been working together approximately five years with the same team leader. Due to ill health he took early retirement and that has caused a great deal of upset among the team and nobody could replace him. Team output is not as good as some of the other teams in the company. They don’t join in with other teams, they seem to perceive themselves as being different, superior and special in some sort of way, and there also been some instances of conflict between this team and other teams in the company.
The Team Doc Says…
Congratulations on your promotion! Sounds like you have your work cut out for you. First, I think this team has suffered a loss that they need to acknowledge. Losing someone you have worked with for a very long time is like losing a family member. The team members more than likely are fearing the unknown — a normal reaction when an organizational change occurs. It’s probably perceived as a really big loss if the team members thought a lot of their team leader and felt like he was their advocate and champion in the company.
The first thing you need to do is find out where each team member stands. Conduct individual meetings with each of them. Find out what they value, what most satisfies them at work and what obstacles are in their way. Ask them how they think losing their previous team leader has impacted the team and what they think should be done about it. Ask what they expect from you as their team leader.
Once you’ve gathered your information, have a group meeting. Acknowledge the loss of the previous team leader and without revealing exactly what they told you, address the issues of losing the team leader. Then talk about the new beginnings and future you and your team will build together and how you will work with the rest of the company to achieve organizational goals. Make sure you conduct this as an interactive workshop, where they are coming up with the answers too.
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