Team Building | Ask the Team Doc

What to do As a New Member of an Established Team

Denise O'Berry — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:02:14 +0000

When entering a new position that has an established team, how would you best approach the team to gather info about each member, find out their strong and weak points, find out “what they do” and what makes them tick? I know this could come off as a “bad thing” day one, so I am trying to see how best to go about this to get good feedback and input without coming off as negative?

The Team Doc Says…

This is a really good thing to do when you first join a team. It’s a good way to get acclimated to the style of each team member and to learn about what the team is doing. If your team leader hasn’t set this up for you (they should!), you need to suggest it in the spirit of “onboarding” to the team.

A good way to accomplish this is to jot down a few questions ahead of time that will help you achieve what you are trying to find out. Plan on spending about an hour with each team member. Create your question template, put together an interview plan and then discuss it with your team leader.

Once approved by your team leader, coordinate with your teammates to develop a workable schedule of interviews. You may find during the discussion that you want to spend more time with one member or another. If that’s the case, set that up before the time with them ends.

By the time you are done with your interviews, you should have a good handle on what’s going on with the team, what team members are working on and a bit about their style of working. The biggest value you will get out of this is the relationships you will be starting to build with others on your team. That’s something that will help you for a long time to come.

What about you reader? Do you have other suggestions? Please leave a comment.

How to Handle a Team Leader Who Barks Orders

Denise O'Berry — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:01:34 +0000

I have a team leader that likes to bark orders in a rough voice. What can we do?

The Team Doc Says…

Oh my goodness! A barking team leader is never a good thing. And coaching the boss is tough for many people. Your best bet would be to provide your team leader with feedback about how he (assumption on gender!) comes across. It’s possible he just doesn’t realize it.

If you or another team member are willing to do this, you should use the feedback model as a guide. That means you will frame your feedback in the “When you ________, I feel ________” format. Here’s an example. “When you use your current method of screaming orders at team members, they (I) have a tendency to get defensive and shut down. It would be better for you to be directive without being so rough.”

Then have a dialogue around the topic. Try this and let me know how it goes.

What about you reader? Do you have other suggestions? Please leave a comment.

What to do When Your Team Gangs Up On You

Denise O'Berry — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:58:21 +0000

I am a team leader of 10 people and have a group of 6 of them who stick together and disagee with me on most issues. Always looking for me to do something wrong to report to my supervisor. Even the smallest thing. The bad part is our new supervisor believes them. This is a very stressful situation for me. Any advice?

The Team Doc Says…

Yes. Get another job. Okay so that’s not the best option in this day and time, so try a couple other things first.

1. Set up a meeting with your supervisor. You want to make sure you focus on facts, not emotion during this discussion so do some preplanning. Here is a process you can use:

Open —-> Clarify —-> Develop —-> Agree —-> Close

Open: Initiate the discussion by focusing on the problem not the person.
Clarify: Define the problem in neutral terms.
Develop: Identify alternatives and solutions.
Agree: Evaluate the alternatives to determine a “win-win” outcome.
Close: Verify commitment. Create an action plan to implement the solution.

I would think your solution would be support from your supervisor. At the very least, you’ll want to get agreement that when your staff goes to her, she doesn’t get in the middle of the discussion.

2. Once you have things squared away with your supervisor, it’s time to talk with your staff. I’d talk with them one-on-one. Use the same process to get clarification of the issue and to help you figure out why they are going behind your back. Use a lot of “help me understand…” and “when you do this, it causes this…” type language. Be ready for some frank feedback and be prepared to take action on that feedback.

Set up a plan to communicate on a regular basis with your team and your boss to help build your credibility.

What else reader? Please leave a comment.

How Long Should a Team Leader Remain a Team Leader?

Denise O'Berry — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:13:57 +0000

I was wondering if you had any information, or know of any sources that would have information on how long a team leader should remain in that position on high performance teams. I’ve found answers from 1 month to forever, but would really like to nail down a best practice for a Team leader handbook I’m taking part in.

The Team Doc Says…

As long as that person is being effective. I would not place any hard and fast rules or even identify best practices for how long a team leader should remain in that role. As soon as you give it a number, people are going to start using that as a measuring stick and that’s the wrong direction to go.

What you do want to do to determine when is the right time for a team leader to move on is ask questions. Here are a few to start with.

Is the team leader guiding the team where it needs to go?
Does the team leader aspire to something different?
Would the team leader, the team and the company get a better “win” if the team leader were leading a different team?
Has the team transitioned from one stage to another (e.g., idea stage to implementation) where the team leader is less suited to guiding the team?
Are the strengths of the team leader the right ones to continue leading the team?

This should get you started. What you can do for your best practice guide is develop a series of questions like the ones above to help drive the decision making for the best time to move a team leader.

What do you think reader? Do you have additional suggestions? Please leave a comment.

What’s the Best Way to Move Into a Leadership Role?

Denise O'Berry — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 22:13:08 +0000

I currently work as a Research and Development Analyst for an insurance company, but I am desperate to move into a management role preferably within the industry or in another. So far I have persuaded my boss to put me in charge of handling compliance matters on an ad hoc basis, and he has reluctantly agreed to this. Besides this, how can I move into a management role? I have no formal management skills but hold a Masters degree in Business Management, where my thesis was on Managing Diversity. Should I do a short course or something? Thanks in advance.

The Team Doc Says…

Two things bother me about your message. First the you are “desperate to move into a management role” and that your boss “reluctantly agreed” to put you in a role you desired. These are not good signs.

I think you need to examine why you are so desperate to get into a management role. You can do that by evaluating what it is you think you will be getting from being in that type of role. Are you looking for power, status, more money … something else? Determine your motives before you move to the next step. You could use a leadership assessment to help you here.

To achieve success, it’s important to have the support of your supervisor. Schedule a meeting to discuss why you want to be in a leadership role and how you can contribute to the success of the company by being in that role. Ask your supervisor what improvements you need to make before moving into a leadership role and set goals to achieve those improvements. You need to prove to your supervisor that you are competent for a management role by showing what you can do to enable the organization’s success. (You might want to pick up a copy of my free goal setting guide.)

What do you think reader? Please leave a comment with your suggestions.