I am the leader of a political group on a town council. We are the majority group, by a margin of one, which makes me the leader of the council. One of our number is the Mayor and therefore the chairman of the Council.

Initially he stood against me for the leadership of the group and when he failed to get elected by the group, he then put himself forward for nomination as mayor and was duly elected as such. I should add that his wife and daughter are also members of the group.

He is clearly resentful about not being made the group leader and is using his position as mayor to disrupt the cohesion of the group under my leadership. He is withholding information and excluding councillors from civic functions and events. He is also carrying out trivial acts to annoy and upset the opposition, which leads to endless political niggle that upsets my group. Attempts to address this issue with him are stonewalled.

This problem is probably akin to having a disruptive member of a board, who is supported by two other people whose loyalties are conflicted.

What should one do about this?

The Team Doc Says…

I would rarely call a political council a team. There are too many competing priorities with each of these people. And sadly one of those issues is typically ego. Way too many politicians have forgotten that they are in place to serve the public — and end up serving themselves.

It sounds to me like you and the Mayor need to have a heart to heart. Obviously you are both passionate about your town and you probably have some common interests and goals.

Rather than assuming he is doing things to undermine your leadership, call him on it. But first do it in private.

And, as with any conflict, you want to make sure and keep emotion out of the conversation (I know that’s really hard) and just deal with observable behaviors.

It would probably be a good idea for your council to hire a facilitator to help you develop some joint goals and objectives that are focused on your town and its people. That would go a long way to helping you and the Mayor become more collaborative and less competitive.

When projects are scheduled and team members are assigned to your team, it’s important that everyone understands your project end-to-end. Every once in a while, no matter how well you prep your team, you’ll end up with a team member who thinks they are special — you know who I’m talking about, the Prima Donna. This is the team member who thinks the scope and boundaries of the project, and the team ground rules don’t apply to him.

To survive as this team’s leader, you’ll need to monitor and manage this team member or your project could be in jeopardy. They have a tendency to do what they want, when they want so keep an eye on deliverables and commitments. Here’s what to do if the team member:

Thinks they can take more than the allotted time on their part of the project because it’s more complicated. Each team member should be held accountable for completing their portion of the team’s work during the agreed upon time frame. If one team member fails, the team fails. Conduct a one-on-one with this member, provide feedback on how his piece of the work is impacting the entire team’s results, and create an action plan to fix the problem.

Never meets commitments. A missed commitment should never be a surprise to you if you are leading your team properly. First you’ll need to get the immediate problem fixed, then deal with the commitment issue. Find out why the commitment was missed and you weren’t advised. Then set up a process between you and the team member to keep future deliverables on track. You’ll need to manage this team member closely until you have confidence the issue is resolved.

In the real world of team leadership, you will encounter all types of team members. Knowing how to deal with each type will be critical to your success.

Have you had a Prima Donna on your team? How did you deal with it?

Help! I’m in an office with lots of strife – gossip, rumors, back-biting, etc. My boss has decided to start a series of ‘team building’ sessions to improve things. That’s great BUT, his idea of our first session (next week) is to have everyone air out all their grievances about whoever else (without reprisal of course)! To me that’s not team-building. I feel that’s the worst thing that can be done – it’s one thing for me to THINK someone is talking about me behind my back, and it’s another for me to KNOW what someone has been saying. I don’t think the session will do anything but make things worse. Advice? Is there an article somewhere about what NOT to do in team-building, that I could send my boss? Thanks!

The Team Doc Says…

Oy. What a mistake.

I’m sure this will just turn into a bitch session and will probably result in a lot of hurt feelings. Also, I’d be really surprised if people share their real feelings in this type of meeting.

This type of work environment is typically the symptom of an organization that doesn’t communicate well and has week management at the top. I’m sure this will just make things worse until the real problem has been solved.

It is important that every member be heard during team discussions. There are some suggestions about having effective discussions here.

If I were talking directly to your boss, I would tell him to do one-on-ones with each team member to get specific behaviors and actions that are causing issues. He should then deal with those directly by team member and then have a group meeting to discuss any issues that are left over. He needs to lead here, not leave this open to consensus. And he needs to nip any subsequent problems in the bud before they are allowed to become huge, unmanageable issues.

What about you reader? What are your thoughts?

We have a team of 7 people (incl myself and my husband) at our vet clinic. Until recently, everyone has worked terrific together as a team. The work environment has been wonderful. Recently, we were shocked when our youngest team member told me that our team is no longer getting along, people are mad at each other, and that it’s starting to be a dreaded place to come to work. We have not noticed a problem and we’re unsure where the problem is coming from. Is this young person (whose own performance has gone down) the only one with a problem? How do we determine if/what the problem really is? We don’t want anyone of our small team to think we’re pointing fingers or placing blame, but we do need to get to the bottom of this issue. Suggestions?

The Team Doc Says…

First, you need to start noticing what is happening with the people in your business. Then you need to take action and you need to do it now. There is something happening in your clinic that could pose a real risk to your business. Be glad this person had enough trust in you to give you a heads up about something going on.

This young person’s performance has probably deteriorated because she(?) dreads coming to work. When people are not engaged in their work, it shows. Big time.

Start paying attention to the interactions between the people on your team. What do you see happening? Are they snippy to each other? Do they avoid talking? You need to identify the behaviors you are seeing in your staff. Then you need to talk with each one of them about what you saw and ask them why it happened. Next define what is acceptable behavior and get their commitment to behave differently. If the behavior doesn’t change, you may have to let someone go. Be prepared to do that. It isn’t pretty, but keeping a toxic team member on your team will wreak more havoc than your business can afford.

Doing these things is not pointing fingers. This is being the boss. And sometimes you just have to do that.

What do you think reader? Provide your thoughts by leaving a comment.

When we have long meetings, it’s important to take short breaks. But what’s supposed to be a 15 minute break always seems to turn into 25. How do you implement punctuality?

The Team Doc Says…

It’s important that the team set meeting ground rules at the beginning of the session to guide their actions. Punctuality should be one of those groundrules. All members of the meeting are responsible for making sure the groundrules are followed. That saves the facilitator from always being the “bad guy.”

Plus, the facilitator needs to demonstrate the expected behavior and make sure that he / she is there on time every time the meeting reconvenes. The facilitator needs to go ahead and start whether everyone is in the room or not. Often just the embarrassment of walking into a room that has something in progress will help a person change their behavior.

Also, if the late person tries to divert the discussion to what they have missed, nip it in the bud and advise him / her that you will bring them up to speed at the break.

In no way, shape or form should the offending party be allowed to control the session by this type of behavior. If you need additional help, you might want take a look at my special report How To Conduct Meetings That Achieve Results.