Tuning up a dysfunctional team

To the uninitiated, a professional football game can look like a war. They jab one another, jump on each other, steal the ball and run for their lives. You know, kind of like some of the teams you’ve seen at work. In fact, "team" is a term that is loosely applied when it comes to groups of people who work together. Some groups are so dysfunctional, you wonder how they score any points at all.

One part of my job, that I enjoy the most, is working with groups of people who are at war. Okay, so maybe I’m a little crazy. But I enjoy diagnosing the cause of the problem, finding common ground and putting a better running team back on the field.

Often, the client’s first diagnosis is "a personality conflict." Interestingly, that is rarely the true cause of the breakdown. Of course, personality plays a part, but often there are other factors at the heart of the matter.

Here are some common causes of a team breakdown:

• Camps form when one or more people harbor some grievance against the manager, or each other.

In one organization, three people banded together against their new manager. They felt that one of them should have gotten the job. The team was divided sharply. Communication in meetings was a disaster and they were attempting to sabotage his leadership with peers and employees alike. Once the problem was identified, the manager could stop beating himself up ("What am I doing wrong?") and deal with the real problem...all three of them.

• Unclear roles and responsibilities.

Small companies fall into this trap more easily than big organizations simply because they dislike spending time on policies and procedures (a.k.a. "bureaucracy"). Job descriptions don’t exist and most small businesses need people to wear a lot of hats and "just do it." But while it can be fun to have your fingers in a lot of different areas, it can be a major cause of team breakdown.

Consider the case of the front desk administrator who was under the impression that she was the office manager, but the rest of the office staff thought they—along with the front desk person—all reported to the owner. By the time the finger pointing, hurt feelings and huffing subsided, there was a lot of damage done.

• Favoritism, Nepotism and Cronyism.

When you hire a family member, the person may as well wear a tiara to work. Even if the senior family member treats the newcomer harsher than the rest of the group, no one will believe that the new family member isn’t "in" on everything. If that person is given special privileges and/or doesn’t work as hard, it will drive a stake into the heart of a well-functioning team.

Favoritism can also split a team. Take the case of the manager who went to sporting events with her employee/friend and had photos of that employee/friend sitting on her desk. No one dared to come forward to complain about the friend, even when serious trouble was afoot.

• Competition as a motivator.

Some well-meaning—but misled—managers actually think competition builds team spirit. Duh. They praise the results of one person in a meeting and use it as a stick to "motivate" the rest. They’re motivated all right; motivated to resent the manager and scorn the "star."

Forced ranking processes—where the group is ranked in order from best to worst and money is doled out accordingly—can have this affect, as well. Individuals know that to help someone else look good may cause them to lose their own place in the ranking. It needs to be balanced with team goals and team performance measures.

• A lax manager.

Nothing will trip a team’s trigger faster than a member who doesn’t pull his or her own weight, is chronically tardy (or other performance problem) and the manager won’t address it. After repeated complaints to no avail, the team will either silently stew or form their own lynch party and demand that something be done. Unfortunately, by the time it reaches this proportion, it has escalated to the next level up.

The next time you find yourself struggling to solve a "team" problem, look deeper than personality, to the core cause of the conflict. Once you find it, you’ll be on the road to a real solution that will last.