By Dr. Z
You and your team are well on your way to victory. Well, so you think. Your team is almost at the finish line, you stretch your arms to cross the victory tape, but, something, or someone, went wrong. An important deadline was missed. A critical detail was forgotten. A random conflict erupted. Or, someone decided, at the last minute, to unilaterally move forward with their own bad idea. In the end, the negotiation broke down. The deal did not go through. The funding was not approved. The race was not won. In short, your team lost, not because of random circumstance, but because of dysfunctional members of your team who disrupted progress. The issues here go beyond the quirks of working with unusual team members. In this article, we describe 5 dysfunctional people, who are likely to stop your team from moving forward, killing any chance at winning.
1. Late Nate
There is always one team member who is always late. Late Nate is that team member. He is not just late on arrival, but also on deadlines and schedules. While other team members may be late occasionally, Late Nate has turned this habit into sport. There are probably a number of reasons that Late Nate is always late, but the most important reason is that he is neither willing nor able change the habit of being late. His perpetual lateness is actually his only means of power and control. It allows him to operate on his own terms, and control when things happen.
Solutions: As a team leader, you should identify Late-Nate’s pattern very early on, then hold him directly accountable for timely performance. Be clear and proactive about expectations; reward punctual behavior, provide immediate feedback; and be swift with consequences for repeated lateness.
2. Petty Betty
Petty Betty adds some value to the team because she is a detail oriented task master. The problems is that she is paralyzed by petty details. But, it is worse than that. Petty Betty is a single-person barrier to team success for a number of reasons. For one, she is a petty bureaucrat that may nitpick others on the tiniest and most irrelevant aspects of policies and procedures. She cannot see the big picture because she is to focused on the petty details. Also, Petty Betty is very easily offended or annoyed by the smallest of offenses, which hinders her ability to contribute significantly to the team,
Solutions: Team leaders need only to understand Petty Betty’s concerns, then redirect her to the team’s more important priorities.
3. Wrong Juan
Wrong Juan is always misinformed. He always falls short in his performances and contributions to the team, because his information is wrong. He has either misread an Email, missed an important memo, failed to accurately record event dates and locations, used inaccurate or outdated data, or just makes the wrong decisions based on his assumptions. Moreover, he does not use the playbook to guide his contributions to the team. In the end, Wrong Juan’s misinformation can lead to disastrous consequences for the team.
Solutions: Team Leaders will be able to identify Wrong Juan quickly because is always seems to be out of the loop. Wrong Juan’s performances can be improved simply by providing information and tools to make certain he is up to speed. However, be warned that Wrong Juan is not likely to access important information on his own. So, he must be directed to do so before participating in important team processes and experiences. Wrong Juan must also be informed about consequences that misinformation has for the team, so that he understands the importance of having the right information.
4. Lazy Daisy
Lazy Daisy deliberately makes little to no contribution to the team. She refuses to work. Quite honestly, she may not have started out that way. She may have signed on as a willing participant. However, through either poor leadership, team dysfunction, or her own personal issues, she had become apathetic and withdrawn from team activities. This may manifest as her taking shortcuts, making bare minimum contributions, shifting important responsibilities, or producing at amazingly slow speeds.
Solutions: The good new is that Lazy Daisy’s behavior can be reformed with solid leadership. She does not perform well in a group because she is likely to lean on the efforts of others. So, Lazy Daisy should be given individual tasks that only she will be held responsible for. Team Leaders can also follow up with her during accountability meetings that would require her to report progress updates. If all else fails, steps can be taken to transition Lazy Daisy from the team.
5. Know-it-All Paul
The name here says it all. There is very little room for growth and learning for Know-it-All-Paul, because he already knows it all. He has been there and done that, has experienced all that life has to offer, and just needs your undivided attention to impart his all-knowing wisdom. The problem here is that he is not open to new information or different perspectives. This is a very special form narcissism that involves forcing people to see him as the one-stop-shop to everything that anyone will ever need to know. This becomes problematic for the team because Know-it-All-Paul is not willing to learn new strategies, or allow others to contribute their knowledge on a particular subject. To make matters worse, Know-it-All Paul may sabotage bet against the team if his wisdom is not followed.
Solutions: Team leaders will never change Paul’s know-it-all nature. Instead, focus on that fact that he is after power. In this regard, leaders may be able to grant him a special kind of power called Expert Power. This refers to the kind of power that one has through their knowledge and experience on a particular topic. Using this concept, leaders can compartmentalize his role so that he becomes the team’s go-to expert on a particular set of procedures and skills.
Photo by Nick MacMillan at Unsplash