High functioning teams rarely happen by chance. They take ongoing effort and courage from the leader and team members to make it work. Whilst most organisations have numerous policies and procedures in place that govern the way people are supposed to treat each other at work, it is usually the stuff below the surface that drives what really happens.
I have been working a lot with teams of late, particularly in the area of ‘Respectful Relationships’ (not surprising given the state of political and corporate Australia at the moment). In my experience, the following unhelpful ‘team mindsets’ often get in the way and contribute to poor team culture.
Barriers to Respectful Team Relationships
The presence of any of these 4 barriers is a good indicator that work needs to be done.
- Unhelpful Team Norms – Team norms are a set of informal (often unspoken) rules or operating principles that shape team members’ interactions. Unhelpful norms might be things like “we are a strong team; no one takes sick days here”, or “this is just the way we speak to each other here; if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”
- Majority Rules – This occurs when one (or a small few) team member(s) are uncomfortable with things that are occurring but are reluctant to speak up as “everyone else seems to be okay with it”. I have seen teams where the leader has told a staff member “don’t be so sensitive” and “take a teaspoon of concrete and harden up”
- Intent over Impact – Ever raised an issue with someone, only to be told “well that wasn’t my intent; you took it the wrong way”? It is not uncommon that the way something was received (the impact) was not the way it was intended. This only becomes unhelpful when the person who was impacted is expected to continue to put up with similar ongoing behaviour, simply because the intent was good.
- “That’s just John” – This typically occurs with a person who has been in the team for a long time and who’s unusual or disrespectful behaviour has been tolerated. If the behaviour is raised by a new team member, they are quickly told “that’s just John; don’t worry about him; he’s always been like that – he’s harmless”. Sound familiar? Maybe you’ve even said those words yourself. It creates an expectation that everyone else must put up with it. This is often the case where the person may be technically fantastic at what they do or successful in bringing in a lot of money to the business.
Resetting Your Team
Teams usually book me for a ‘Respectful Relationships’ workshop when something has happened. This could be a formal bullying/harassment complaint or red flags appearing in an annual engagement survey.
It’s an interesting process. When team members find out they are attending a “Respectful Relationships” workshop, one of two things tends to happen. Either they approach it with a high degree of anxiety and caution (“what have we done wrong?”; “will I be blamed?”) or a compliance mindset (“let’s get through being told what we can and can’t do as fast as possible so we can get back to work”).
Either is understandable. Engaging in a process like that entails risk. Having meaningful conversations with your colleagues about the way you treat each other, who gets offended by what, and acknowledging the behaviours that need to stop, can be awkward. It requires courage. Most teams don’t want to go there. Most teams want to play it safe, hoping that those little niggles will resolve themselves and that the applecart remains firmly not upset!
Try the following 7 strategies to assist your team create a positive, healthy working environment:
- Don’t wait until something has happened – proactively bring your team together to check in, assess how things are going. If everything is going ok – great. Use it as an opportunity to look at how it can be even better. Get your team used to having these important conversations
- If you are the leader, don’t be seduced by silence – there is plenty of research to highlight that the higher you move up the leadership ladder, the less likely people are to raise issues and give you feedback about your own behaviour
- Avoid the compliance mindset – yes there may be a compliance piece where your team need to be educated/updated on corporate policies around acceptable behaviour. But this is just one component. Frame it instead as an opportunity to come together and be a part of actively shaping and creating the team environment you want going forward
- Ask your team to reflect on when the team was at its best (what did you notice/what were people doing/saying/what was happening/how did it make you feel). Now do the same for when the team was at its worst. This simple but effective activity anchors people to specific behaviours, rather than abstract concepts.
- Create a list of things you need to start, stop and continue doing
- Allow it to be a work in progress. It will be awkward and uncomfortable at first. Be up front about this, adopt a growth mindset and allow yourselves to learn
- Create a process for how the team members will hold each other accountable, rather than leaving all the responsibility with the leader.
Need some outside help to facilitate your team get together – reach out to me