How to Overcome Team Dysfunctions? Practical Solutions and Tips for Success
When we enter any organization, we examine the team's dynamics, specifically in the leadership team. This is because the behavior and patterns in the leadership team tend to have a trickle-down effect throughout the organization, resulting in various outcomes.
To foster a healthy and prosperous organization, the leadership team must function collectively. However, in most cases, it doesn't happen. Instead, individual leaders pursue their vision for the organization in isolation, often creating discord and conflict with other departments. As a result, it becomes difficult to achieve a common goal or vision for the organization.
Practical tips to overcome team dysfunctions
- Establish trust
Building trust within a team requires team members to make themselves vulnerable and trust that their weaknesses, skill deficiencies, mistakes, and need for help will not be used against them. Trust is an essential ingredient for any successful team, as it directly impacts their ability to achieve positive results. As a leader, your approach is crucial in fostering trust and building team spirit.
To cultivate trust, it is essential to avoid micromanaging and instead encourage your team to develop their solutions. Mistakes should be viewed as opportunities for coaching and learning rather than as sources of blame. Several factors can contribute to building trust, including openness, accountability, setting clear expectations and boundaries, being willing to tackle challenging issues, actively listening and developing relational skills, maintaining regular communication, and demonstrating trust in others.
- Embrace constructive conflict
Teams that engage in productive conflict around ideas produce the best possible solution in the shortest period. Leaders must acknowledge the positive impact of competition and encourage team members to engage in healthy debate. Teams that tend to avoid conflict should surface their disagreements to resolve them, and team leaders should allow the resolution to occur naturally, demonstrating restraint when a dispute arises.
Effective collaboration is essential for any team to deliver high-quality, creative solutions. Four key areas define good team collaboration, VACE: Values, Approach, Communication, and Empathy.
- To collaborate successfully, teams must share the same values. This means everyone needs to be committed to the same goals and objectives, such as meeting customer needs, working together effectively, and going the extra mile to deliver outstanding results.
- Collaboration requires an intentional approach that includes encouragement, support, and feedback. It is essential to build a collaborative culture by encouraging people to share and work together, setting objectives that prioritize collaboration, and sharing success stories.
- Clear and effective communication is essential for creating a collaborative environment. Team members need to understand each other's roles and responsibilities and have opportunities to share ideas through face-to-face meetings or technology-based communication platforms.
- Empathy is crucial for successful collaboration. MIT research has found that in successful team collaboration, all team members talk and listen equally and connect regularly. Collaboration requires balance, support, challenge, and the ability to listen to all ideas and perspectives.
- Ensure commitment
To ensure commitment, teams can review critical decisions made during meetings, set clear deadlines for making decisions, clarify the worst-case scenario for difficult choices, and push for closure around issues. The leader should create an environment where team members are encouraged to speak their minds and transparency and accountability are valued.
- Ensure accountability
Members of great teams hold themselves and one another accountable, respect each other, and have high expectations for one another's performance. Teams can achieve this by clarifying what needs to be completed, who is responsible for what, and when. Team members must regularly communicate transparently about their actions against stated objectives and standards. Reward structures should be shifted from the individual to team achievements.
Delaying difficult conversations about poor performance can negatively impact the team's motivation. To avoid this, it is essential to address poor performance early on.
Start by talking to the individual and making them aware of the situation. Show empathy and ask questions to understand if there are underlying reasons for the poor performance. When giving feedback, be clear and specific, and avoid emotional language. Instead, focus on particular examples of when their performance was good and ask questions to explore solutions together.
Provide support and encouragement while also setting clear expectations and timelines for improvement. Set specific objectives and goals and regularly monitor progress through review meetings.
- Focus on results
Team leaders must set the tone for a focus on results, and team members must commit publicly to specific outcomes to work passionately to achieve them. Rewards and recognition should be reserved for those who contribute fundamentally to achieving group goals. Teams succeed because they acknowledge their imperfections, overcome natural tendencies, and embrace common sense with discipline and persistence.
Conclusion
To develop a high performing team, it is essential to consider the various factors contributing to successful teamwork. The article mentions several vital elements, including trust, collaboration, communication, and addressing poor performance.
By having an open and collaborative discussion about these factors and identifying specific actions that the team can take to improve in each area, the team can work towards becoming a high-performing team that delivers quality work and achieves its goals.
Reference
- https://www.rathboneresults.com/resources/overcoming-5-dysfunctions
