Team Building | Ask the Team Doc

How To Announce The Resignation of the Problem Team Member

Denise O'Berry — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 13:05:53 +0000

I have had conflict with one of my Team Leaders for a year now. I have been working with HR to deal with the insubordination, innuendos, and undermining for over a year now from her. She has rallied the staff and surgeons to take sides against me this past week. Then HR received a corporate compliance report about the above mentioned Team Leader and had a meeting with her, giving her detailed expectations she had to follow. Now she has turned in her resignation. My question is what do I announce to the Doctors and staff about her leaving? How do I present it?

The Team Doc Says…

This kind of team member - especially in a Team Leader role - is toxic to your team. Congratulations for hanging in there and successfully getting rid of her. Your team will experience some “shock” time, but it will be better for it.

No one needs to know the details of her resignation except you. All you need to tell the team is that she has resigned effective (date). And you need to move forward and begin repairing the damage done to your team. Don’t look back.

It would be a good idea to get everyone together and reconfirm roles and responsibilities, and your team mission and goals. Also take some time to strengthen the team communication channels by talking through what’s working and what’s not. Good luck and let me know how this works out for you.

What advice do you have for her reader? Please leave a comment.

How to Work for a Boss Who Doesn’t Believe in Teamwork

Denise O'Berry — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 12:03:05 +0000

As an experienced manager, how do I respond to a know it all supervisor who thinks she is a leader but is more a dictator. She has many other issues and will take off sick for two days or more. I am really here to help and do not want to be contradicted when providing information. Example would be “the clinic always has the medication in their facility”, when I definitely know that they do not have the medication in their facility. I just tend to walk away because she is the BOSS!

The Team Doc Says…

I’m going to ask the obvious question. Have you had a conversation with her one on one? Perhaps she really believes the things she says. Or, as is often the case for people at the top, she is getting filtered information from the staff.

If none of the above are the case, then you’ll either need to keep doing what you’ve been doing or start looking for another job where your expertise and opinion is valued.

What do you think reader? Can you offer additional advice? Please leave a comment.

How to Shift a Small Business to a Team Based Culture

Denise O'Berry — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:28:29 +0000

We are a small company that has never really used the “team” concept before. Historically, everyone has had their little department to protect and promote. Now that we are growing, we need to foster a more united effort. We are getting a lot of resistance and undermining from the leadership staff. How do we shift the culture?

The Team Doc Says…

This is very common in small businesses. A lot of it happens out of necessity unfortunately so that the small business can accomplish its objective — selling stuff and making money.

You don’t say how big this small business is, so it’s tough to say how difficult this will be for you. But you do mention a huge red flag — resistance from leadership.

If the resistance is coming from the owner, you are sunk and might as well forget any type of team initiative. It just won’t happen. If the resistance is from another person on the leadership team, you need to get the owner on board, assess where you are at and develop a plan to move forward.

You’ll be met with resistance all along the way. It’s a normal occurrence in reaction to change — whether the change is perceived as a good thing or not. One of the best books on the market for dealing with change is Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change.

If you decide to move forward, make sure you involve your staff and prepare a communication plan that keeps everyone in the loop.

What do you think they should do reader? Please leave a comment.

Carnival of HR - The Organizational Continuum

Denise O'Berry — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:00:13 +0000

I am honored today to host the Carnival of HR — a collection of blog posts from around the interwebs full of good advice for you and your team.

When I think about organizations and how they work, it often reminds me of a continuum with recruiting at one end and the company at the other with several points in between. At any given time, the points within the continuum can shift one way or another, but to have a successful organization you must have people coming in one end and a company focus with a purpose for being at the other. Here are some thoughts about a few of the points on the continuum.

HR Store asks, Do you keep interactions active after a job offer is made? HR Store thinks too many organizations drop the ball when it comes to recruiting, a critical starting point on the continuum. To build the company and accomplish organizational goals, your organization can’t just locate good candidates and then drop them when you’ve found a hot one. You need to walk the candidate through a candidate management process to ensure they get good footing.

Once you turn those candidates into employees, April Dowling at Pseudo HR asks, How do you measure your success? She thinks success should be focused on how you provide great customer service. Her key issue is with HR folks, but this applies across the board to every employee of the organization. If HR provides great customer service and creates shining stars throughout the organization, it will succeed.

And then Wally Bock over at Three Star Leadership talks about The Boss’s Work: Leadership, Management and Supervision. Wally says that if you’re the boss, your work is divided into three parts — from leadership to management to supervision. You must be all three if you’re going to be successful and inspire your team to accomplish the company goals.

Dan McCarthy at Great Leadership calls for A Ban on What Makes CEOs Successful Studies. He thinks we should stop interpreting all those studies and statistics about life at the top of the organization and just get on with developing the skills our company leaders need to be successful. Now that’s a great way to populate the points on the continuum!

At the end of the continuum, Chris Young of The Rainmaker Group talks about How the Mighty Fall and Why Some Companies Give In By Jim Collins. He ponders “How do we / I inject systemic humility, personal accountability, and self-review into the business model [of a company] to avert driving a perfectly good “bus” off a cliff?” because no company can stay successful forever and “we don’t know what we don’t know.”

So there you go. Thoughts from one end of the organizational continuum to the other. The next Carnival of HR will be held on June 10, 2009 at Fortify Your Services.

What do you think? Please share your thoughts about this great advice from wise minds around the interwebs by leaving a comment.

How To Reengage Team Members

Denise O'Berry — Sat, 23 May 2009 22:00:32 +0000

I have been promoted to head a department of 32 people, and will start next month. There has been high turnover for the last 2.5 years despite annual bonuses. I have the impression that they have been left on their own far too long. The former boss said that the staff do not care about the job. They leave office on the dot. I have no idea how should I approach the situation on my very first few days there. Any idea? Thanks.

The Team Doc Says…

This does somewhat prove the point that money isn’t everything in a job, doesn’t it? Perhaps they have been left on their own for too long. Or perhaps they just had the wrong leader. Hopefully that person revealed more to you than bad news about the team. And before I forget, just because people leave work “on the dot” doesn’t mean they don’t care about their job.

I find it hard to believe that there are 32 people on a team who don’t care about their work. Your primary objective during your first month will be to find out more about your team members — what their goals are, how they fit in the big picture, and what they need from you (as their leader) to do their job to the best of their ability.

It would be a good idea for you to put together an action plan for your first few months on the job. There are two really good books that can help you do that. You can pick them up at amazon or other book stores. To find out more about them, just click on the title.

Planning your entrance to the team will set the tone for years to come. Good luck!

What about you reader? What action should this person take? Please leave a comment below.