What To Do When Team Members Don’t Respect Each Other

I try and emphasize the team concept in our office. All team members are tasked with providing customer service in a call center environment to our federal customers. The office is comprised of Technicians that answer calls and are lower graded than the Analysts that support them and have more responsibilities. Yet often the Technicians don’t respect the Analysts as the Analysts seem to convey the impression the Techs do not know anything more than answering the phones. In reality, the Techs often know more system details than the Analysts who are not on the phones as much. How can I get team members from both groups to respect each other more and build trust along with open communication?

The Team Doc Says…

This is an age old problem. The team members who make more money think the people who make less know less. Your job as team leader is to help your team see themselves as just that — a team. Plan on scheduling at least weekly one hour team building sessions over a couple of months to move this in the right direction.

The first step in that process is to create a team mission statement.

Once you have your mission solidified, it’s time to take a look at creating team goals. Try not to overwhelm the team with too many goals. Three to five goals should do it. You want to make sure the team can achieve the goals and celebrate success as a team to keep the momentum going.

Next it would be helpful to map out your business processes so team members can see how their work is tied together to and dependent on each and every team member.

The key to all of this activity is to open the lines of communication so your team members see each other as dependent to create the the best outcome for the customer. There are probably built in culture issues that you’ll have to overcome, but with consistent action and strong team leadership on your part, you’ll get there.

If you need help organizing your meetings to ensure they are the most productive, pick up a copy of my team building special report “How To Conduct Meetings That Achieve Results.”

Do you have a suggestion for resolving this issue? Please leave a comment.