Articles - Employee / Labor Relations

Any executive coach who addresses the issue of dysfunctional teams and workplace bullying will agree that conflict is a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, contention can seed healthy competition, which fosters creative problem solving and challenges underperformers to step up their game.

But when conflict escalates as a result of bullying, harassment or abuse, then any benefit that might have been gained by an organization in an atmosphere of healthy competition is lost.

Here is a simple four-step process that can be used to expose and eliminate problems, and return a dysfunctional team to a healthy stasis.

Step 1:  UNCOVER THE PROBLEMS

• Determine the collective goal(s), then assess whether or not team members are working towards the same objective.
• Identify and assess the effectiveness of the team leader.  (Hint: If the leader were effective, the team would likely be functional.)
• Distinguish those who exhibit healthy behavior such as cooperation, respect, accountability, and the ability to follow through with commitments.
• Observe whether team members are being held accountable for their actions.
• Verify whether someone might be using aggressive tactics, including bullying, intimidation or stonewalling to obstruct progress: Such behaviors might also include gossiping, failure to attend meetings, a lack of accountability and the tendency to place blame on others.
• Investigate to see if there might be any intra-team conflict that might be derailing progress.

Step 2: STRUCTURE AN INTERVENTION

• Evaluate people’s strengths and decide who can benefit the team the most.
• Clear the air. Have a facilitator provide a safe environment where people can reveal their hostilities and share their feelings.
• Challenge the team to commit to the goals and to each other by holding one another accountable.

Step 3: RESET THE TEAM

• Remove any and all members who have shown that they cannot work within a team structure.  This will demonstrate commitment to a safe and trusting environment where all team members are free to speak openly.
• Appoint a team leader, give them the responsibility of holding members accountable, and empower them to make any changes necessary to achieve the collective goals.
• Assign tasks with deliverables, dates, and consequences.

Step 4: ESTABLISH ACCOUNTABILITY

• Schedule regular meetings in which 100% team participation is mandatory.
• During the meeting review team goals.
• Develop strategies for achieving the goals.
• Have each member provide a progress report – No exceptions.
• Empower members to hold one another accountable.
• Assign new tasks.
• Maintain these strategies until the job is completed.

A word on accountability and consequences:

It’s nice to think that everyone will have the same vested interests in a team’s success but this is not always the case. Most professionals assume a certain degree of autonomy, but when the assumption runs amuck, serious performance problems arise. Chaos sets in as subversion undermines the spirit of cooperation.

If a manager demands performance from someone who is unwilling to cooperate, it creates antagonism. The response is usually ugly, aggressive and manipulative, inspiring confusion and embarrassment.

The bottom line is, team leaders must be prepared for conflict, and have the backbone to deal with it.

Once we begin to see improvement, team leaders can then focus on rewards instead of consequences.  In the meantime, team members need to understand the rules that govern the incentives.

BIOGRAPHY

Kathleen Schulweis, CPhil, CPCC, PCC

Kathleen is dedicated to the empowerment of women and men facing workplace and interpersonal communication conflicts including dysfunctional teams, abrasive managers and bullying. As such, she empowers her clients to create and put into action specific paths that end conflicts and transform relationships.

Kathleen's shrewd and compassionate approach is based upon her research, expertise and hard won experience. Her experience includes 1) Handling thousands of cases involving interpersonal and team conflicts at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); University of Southern California (USC); and California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and, 2) A decade of private practice working with executives, entrepreneurs, business professionals and academics.

Her expertise and solutions derive from her training and knowledge as a CPhil, Sociologist (UCLA) , a Certified Executive Manager (USC), a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (Coaching Training Institute), Professional Certified Coach (International Coaching Federation) with research interests in workplace harassment and bullying, assertiveness, team-building and leadership and communication best practices. As such, she understands both the personal and interpersonal complexities inherent in workplace conflict.

Kathleen’s strategic understanding of workplace conflict is also recognized within the professional community, as evidenced by her presentation at the 7^th International Conference on Workplace Bullying in Wales, June 2010.

Connect with Kathleen on her website: http://www.confidenceconnections.com