When entering a new position that has an established team, how would you best approach the team to gather info about each member, find out their strong and weak points, find out “what they do” and what makes them tick? I know this could come off as a “bad thing” day one, so I am trying to see how best to go about this to get good feedback and input without coming off as negative?

The Team Doc Says…

This is a really good thing to do when you first join a team. It’s a good way to get acclimated to the style of each team member and to learn about what the team is doing. If your team leader hasn’t set this up for you (they should!), you need to suggest it in the spirit of “onboarding” to the team.

A good way to accomplish this is to jot down a few questions ahead of time that will help you achieve what you are trying to find out. Plan on spending about an hour with each team member. Create your question template, put together an interview plan and then discuss it with your team leader.

Once approved by your team leader, coordinate with your teammates to develop a workable schedule of interviews. You may find during the discussion that you want to spend more time with one member or another. If that’s the case, set that up before the time with them ends.

By the time you are done with your interviews, you should have a good handle on what’s going on with the team, what team members are working on and a bit about their style of working. The biggest value you will get out of this is the relationships you will be starting to build with others on your team. That’s something that will help you for a long time to come.

What about you reader? Do you have other suggestions? Please leave a comment.

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I have a team leader that likes to bark orders in a rough voice. What can we do?

The Team Doc Says…

Oh my goodness! A barking team leader is never a good thing. And coaching the boss is tough for many people. Your best bet would be to provide your team leader with feedback about how he (assumption on gender!) comes across. It’s possible he just doesn’t realize it.

If you or another team member are willing to do this, you should use the feedback model as a guide. That means you will frame your feedback in the “When you ________, I feel ________” format. Here’s an example. “When you use your current method of screaming orders at team members, they (I) have a tendency to get defensive and shut down. It would be better for you to be directive without being so rough.”

Then have a dialogue around the topic. Try this and let me know how it goes.

What about you reader? Do you have other suggestions? Please leave a comment.

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1. Team Member Feedback Should Yield No Surprises
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I am a team leader of 10 people and have a group of 6 of them who stick together and disagee with me on most issues. Always looking for me to do something wrong to report to my supervisor. Even the smallest thing. The bad part is our new supervisor believes them. This is a very stressful situation for me. Any advice?

The Team Doc Says…

Yes. Get another job. Okay so that’s not the best option in this day and time, so try a couple other things first.

1. Set up a meeting with your supervisor. You want to make sure you focus on facts, not emotion during this discussion so do some preplanning. Here is a process you can use:

Open —-> Clarify —-> Develop —-> Agree —-> Close

Open: Initiate the discussion by focusing on the problem not the person.
Clarify: Define the problem in neutral terms.
Develop: Identify alternatives and solutions.
Agree: Evaluate the alternatives to determine a “win-win” outcome.
Close: Verify commitment. Create an action plan to implement the solution.

I would think your solution would be support from your supervisor. At the very least, you’ll want to get agreement that when your staff goes to her, she doesn’t get in the middle of the discussion.

2. Once you have things squared away with your supervisor, it’s time to talk with your staff. I’d talk with them one-on-one. Use the same process to get clarification of the issue and to help you figure out why they are going behind your back. Use a lot of “help me understand…” and “when you do this, it causes this…” type language. Be ready for some frank feedback and be prepared to take action on that feedback.

Set up a plan to communicate on a regular basis with your team and your boss to help build your credibility.

What else reader? Please leave a comment.

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1. What To Do When Your Team Falls Apart While You’re Gone
2. How To Facilitate A Conflict Between Two Team Members
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We implemented a new process over a year ago that a long-time colleague continues to resist. Despite continued efforts made over the months to work with this team member and ensure they understand, they continue to do old process, hampering productivity and reducing compliance. Team lead is aware but does not seem to be having any effect. As a colleague, I have no authority for offering incentives or discipline. Based on experience, anything coming directly from me is seen as a challenge and results in hostility and increased conflict. This team member’s work plays an important part in others’ work flows and therefore hampers our team’s overall success. Any suggestions would be welcome.

The Team Doc Says…

It’s a sad state of affairs and can totally demoralize an entire team when one team member refuses to contribute to the goals of the team by resisting. I’d say you’re stuck if the team leader refuses to take action. It’s a shame that this scenario is played over and over in the business world because of leadership who will not deal with the real issue.

Sometimes all it takes is a bit of communication to resolve an issue. If you can get all the team members on board with you, it might be worthwhile to have a meeting to walk through the processes your team is responsible for completing – discussing at each step the reason why something is done a certain way, identifying dependencies, and getting confirmation from each team member that they will properly complete their step of the process.

Has anyone on the leadership team noticed that your team’s results are not what they expect? Are you in a situation where the team process gets audited so the failure to complete processes properly would stand out? These are a few questions you can ask to get the ball rolling toward improvement, but the bottom line is that as long as the leadership is willing to let this behavior go nothing will change. That means you need to decide if this team is the right one for you or if it’s time to consider moving on.

What do you think reader? Please leave a comment.

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What are codes of conduct?

The Team Doc Says…

A team code of conduct defines the standards of behavior for team members. In the work environment, this would include things like:

• Communicate openly

• Share issues with the team

• Use consensus for team decisions

• Actively participate in meetings

• Be present and engaged

• Others…

It’s very common for a team to develop a code of conduct. What’s not so common is for the team to have success holding team members accountable for abiding by the code of conduct. The team members either ignore the behavior and just stew about it or it elevates into a full scale unresolved conflict. Not a good thing.

It takes team growth for the team to be able to work through these issues. Establishing a team code of conduct is a good thing for the team as long as you’re prepared to deal with any roadblocks that may occur.

Reader, what do you think?

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