Team Leadership: Handling Team Problems

Team working is not always smooth and easy. So, an essential part of team leadership is handling team problems. Here we look at the basics of how to handle 8 common team problems.

Watching this video is worth 3 Management Courses CPD Points*.
(See below for more details)

This video is part of course module number 4.3.3
Program 4: Managing & Leading Groups
Course 3: Teams
Section 3: Team Leadership

Other videos in this section include:
- Team Leadership and the Tuckman Group Development Stages https://youtu.be/qtwMA6EQRKo
- Servant Leadership: Leading Your Team in the Tuckman Performing Stage https://youtu.be/_YEKWXbmMp8
- John Adair's Action Centered Leadership https://youtu.be/uVmjr1Jp4YA
- LEAD Your Team: 4 Team Leadership Priorities https://youtu.be/PERd_fnUalQ
- Four Quadrants of Team Leadership https://youtu.be/kvEWWST-oh8
- Team Leadership Continuum https://youtu.be/-OL_p2Cx3Jc
- Daniel Goleman’s 6 Leadership Styles for Team Leaders https://youtu.be/xN7sjQYNkhg


LESSON NOTES
Here are 8 common team problems:

Trust
At root of many others
Rebuild trust of your team by confronting lack of trust and making commitments/taking actions to underpin it. Act ‘as if’ with your team.
Consider team social events.

Poor Communication
Get the team together and discuss it – act as an impartial facilitator and hear from everyone. Enforce respectful behavior and promote good listening. Agree processes and act on it diligently.

Lack of information sharing/transparency
Reinforce processes by agreeing standards and acting as a role model. If necessary, work with the team to redesign the processes and assign a knowledge manager role.

Conflict
Encourage people to resolve low level conflict and act as a mediator and arbitrator to de-escalate anything serious

Competing
Reiterate the shared goal and reinforce it by recognizing and celebrating collegial behaviors.

Silos or different directions
Mix up team members between workstreams. Facilitate frequent meetings for workstream leaders, to help get them working together.

De-motivation
Speak with individuals to diagnose the problem. Then set about addressing it. Hygiene factors and Motivators - check out our video on Frederick Herzberg's two-factor theory: https://youtu.be/f_qyDfZYfXQ

Under-performance
Often an effect of other causes. Set clear performance expectation. Understand people’s concerns about meeting them and provide coaching and support to help people address shortcomings.


RECOMMENDED EXERCISE
1. Take some quiet time to reflect on your team. Are there warning signs of any team problems? If so, which? (2 MC CPD Points)
2. Thinking about your team, what tips can you write down for yourself for handling team problems that you are seeing? (2 MC CPD Points)
3. Take action to resolve the most important of your tea's problems and monitor your performance and the outcomes your choices have on your team's performance for two weeks. Reflect on what you learn and what your next priorities are. (3 MC CPD Points)

DOWNLOADS
Free Resources
- CPD Tools - https://gum.co/MC-CPD
Paid resources
- Management Courses Onboarding Kit - https://gum.co/MC-ObK ($3)

RECOMMENDED READING
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team https://geni.us/wbIE
- The Wisdom of Teams https://geni.us/7i1AL
- The Belbin Guide to Succeeding at Work https://geni.us/Kzc4GV4
- Dream Teams: Working Together Without Falling Apart https://geni.us/oAgEOdA
- Pulling Together: 10 Rules for High-Performance Teamwork https://geni.us/zUVV3G
- HBR's 10 Must Reads on Teams https://geni.us/0DLsNe4

Managers need a basic set of kit to do your job well. Here are my top recommendations: https://kit.co/MikeClayton/manager-s-work-kit (the links are affiliated)

Management Courses Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Points
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