Archive for teamwork
Leading difficult people: Grandstanding Gary
Posted by: | CommentsIf you’ve ever led a team, then you know how important good teamwork is. Professional basketball player Michael Jordan said, “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.” Jordan was an extremely talented player, but he understood the value of a good team.
If only every member of a team knew that… Do you have a team member who is more concerned with his individual achievement than the team’s? I call that fellow Grandstanding Gary.
Grandstanding Gary is the final person that we’re going to discuss in this series on Leading Difficult People. In past weeks, we’ve covered Fearful Fred, Slumped Susan, Excited Eddie, Disorganized Debbie, and Critical Carl.
Grandstanding Gary is the team member who plays to the stands. He wants to score the winning goal, and to make sure that everyone saw him do it. A talented, competitive individual can do a lot for a team, but for the team to win championships – to succeed in the long haul – all members need to cooperate and share credit.
As the leader, you need to understand Gary and teach him how to be a productive contributor to a team.
Understanding Grandstanding Gary:
- Behavior: Aggressive
- Motivated by: Desire to be #1
- Strength: Self-sufficiency
- Weakness: Lack of cooperation
Listening to Grandstanding Gary:
- Privately sit down to discuss Gary’s grandstanding.
- Ask him who he respects and why.
- Ask him to explain the value of teamwork.
- Point out areas where he’s not a good team player.
- Explain how that hurts him as well as the team.
- Find out if he’s willing to change.
Leading Grandstanding Gary:
- Lead from power and strength. If not, he won’t respect you.
- Ask him to take on projects.
- Reward him for teamwork.
- Decide which issues are worth the battle.
- Once an issue is settled, never give in.
Growth program:
Read The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player together
Ambition and competitiveness can be very good traits for a team member, but only if he or she knows how to function within the team. With proper guidance, Grandstanding Gary can be a high-energy and high-achieving employee.
Leading difficult people: Critical Carl
Posted by: | CommentsThere’s room in any organization for every type of person. From the big-picture person to the detail-conscious, all can make a valid contribution. But sometimes a team member’s strength can be their weakness. Attention to detail can become fixation on the negative. And the voice of reason turns into the voice of discouragement.
This is the problem we have with Critical Carl. He’s probably the most thorough and conscientious team member. He’s a great planner. But he seems to only see the negative. And he voices his criticisms to anyone who will listen.
We’ve been spending the past few weeks talking about leading difficult people. You can click the names to read about Fearful Fred, Slumped Susan, Excited Eddie, and Disorganized Debbie. Now let’s discuss how to understand, listen to, and lead Critical Carl.
Understanding Critical Carl:
- Behavior: Often negative
- Motivated by: Someone to listen to him
- Strength: Detail-consciousness
- Weakness: No filter
Listening to Critical Carl:
- Privately sit down and discuss Carl’s concerns.
- Discuss the way he’s chosen to voice them.
- Point out that he tends to focus on the negative.
- Find out if he wants to change.
- Share when, how, and with whom it’s appropriate to point out his concerns.
Leading Critical Carl:
- Ask the people negatively affected to meet with you and Carl.
- Ask for their side of the story.
- Ask Carl for an explanation.
- Share with them that Carl has a problem with criticism.
- Share with them the process you’ve asked him to follow.
Growth Plan:
Read Be a People Person together
What impact does Critical Carl have in your organization? His negative comments have the potential to discourage fellow team members and halt all forward momentum. By accepting at least some of his concerns as valid, and teaching him how he can – and can’t – share them, you might channel his attention to detail in a way that builds the team and contributes to every project.
Next week: The final difficult person in this series, Grandstanding Gary
Leading difficult people: Slumped Susan
Posted by: | CommentsHere’s a truth that I’ve believed for a long time: Leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less. If a leader has no one following, he’s only taking a walk.
Of course, not everyone is easy to influence. Some followers are difficult to connect with. Last week we talked about the art of influencing difficult people, with a focus on Fearful Fred. With Fred, the goal was to get him started, to go from no momentum to sustained growth.
But what happens when a follower who had a great deal of momentum begins to fall behind? What does a leader do when this follower stumbles or stops altogether?
Let me introduce you to Slumped Susan. This is the follower who was a good performer, someone who got results and approached her tasks with enthusiasm. But somewhere on the journey, she fell off the tracks. Now, with no momentum or confidence, she’s barely moving.
Just like last week’s Fearful Fred, leading Slumped Susan requires you to understand her, be willing to listen, and give her the tools to grow. If Susan believes that you support and believe in her, she’ll be more likely to start moving forward again.
Understanding Slumped Susan:
- Attitude: Depression
- Motivated by: Coaching
- Strength: Past Success
- Weakness: Pessimism
Listening to Slumped Susan:
- Privately sit down and discuss her slump.
- Let her talk about the good old days.
- List what she did when things went bad.
- List what she did when things went well.
- If she desires to change, develop a game plan.
Leading Slumped Susan:
- Remove her from others while she’s in the slump.
- Reprioritize her workload.
- Remain with her as much as possible.
- Require her to do what is right, not what she wants to do.
- Remember to encourage her as much as possible.
Growth program:
Read The Winning Attitude together
Are you a Slumped Susan? Or do you lead one? With coaching and positive attention from the leader, Susan can regain her confidence and begin to shine again.
Next time: Excited Eddie
Leading difficult people: Fearful Fred
Posted by: | CommentsSomeone once said, “90% of the art of living consists in getting along with people you cannot understand.” Haven’t you found that to be true? I know that if everyone were just like me, then relationships would sure be a lot simpler.
But people ARE different, in wonderfully complex ways. And there IS an art to living together. If you’re a leader, the differences are amplified, because you have to not only get along but also influence the other person. So it’s especially important for a leader to learn how to handle personalities and attitudes that are different from your own.
I’ve led a lot of people over the years, and not all of them were like me. Some were especially difficult to lead. And over the years, through trial and error, I’ve discovered ways to effectively lead most people.
For EVERY person you lead, it’s important to get to know them well. Understanding is the key to success in leading a difficult person. That’s because people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. For the next few weeks, I’m going to share some tips for dealing with the difficult people that you may lead.
Let’s talk about one type of difficult person today, so you can understand who he is and where he’s coming from. This will make you a more effective leader for him and others like him.
Fearful Fred
Have you met Fred? He’s a nice guy, certainly not trying to be difficult. He’s just a person living under the influence of his fears. And their influence is amazingly strong. What Fred is most afraid of is the unknown. He avoids anything new or different, so it’s hard to lead him where he’s never been before. And his fears paralyze his productivity.
To lead Fred, you need to understand him, be willing to listen, and give him tools to grow. People truly don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. If Fred trusts you and believes that you have his best interests at heart, he can be very loyal and even courageous.
Understanding Fearful Fred:
- Attitude: Low Enthusiasm
- Motivated by: Support
- Strength: Steady Worker
- Weakness Fear of Risk
Listening to Fearful Fred:
- Privately sit down and discuss Fred’s fears.
- Identify his fears and the reasons why he has them.
- Evaluate his desire to overcome his fears.
- If his desire is high, develop a game plan.
Leading Fearful Fred:
- Plan a project together. This gives him Strategy
- Give guidelines to follow. This gives him Structure
- Do a project that is easy. This gives him Safety
- Do a project together. This gives him Security
- Do a project that is winnable. This gives him Success
Helping Fearful Fred Grow:
Read Failing Forward together.
Do you lead a Fearful Fred? Or maybe YOU are a Fearful Fred. I’ve found from personal experience that by attempting to understand and meet him where he is, a leader can successfully influence Fred and help him to grow. And a motivated Fearful Fred can also lead himself through these exercises and find courage.
Next week, we’ll talk about another difficult person: Slumped Susan.
One is too small a number
Posted by: | CommentsA Chinese proverb states, “Behind an able man there are always other able men.” The truth is that teamwork is at the heart of great achievement. The question isn’t whether teams have value. The question is whether we acknowledge that fact and become better team players. That’s why I assert that one is too small a number to achieve greatness. You cannot do anything of real value alone.
I challenge you to think of one act of genuine significance in the history of humankind that was performed by a lone human being. No matter what you name, you will find that a team of people was involved. That is why former US President Lyndon Johnson said, “There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves.”
C. Gene Wilkes, in his book, Jesus on Leadership, observed that the power of teams not only is evident in today’s modern business world, but it also has a deep history that is evident even in biblical times.
Wilkes asserts:
- Teams involve more people, thus affording more resources, ideas, and energy than would an individual.
- Teams maximize a leader’s potential and minimize her weaknesses. Strengths and weaknesses are more exposed in individuals.
- Teams provide multiple perspectives on how to meet a need or reach a goal, thus devising several alternatives for each situation. Individual insight is seldom as broad and deep as a group’s when it takes on a problem.
- Teams share the credit for victories and the blame for losses. This fosters genuine humility and authentic community. Individuals take credit and blame alone. This fosters pride and sometimes a sense of failure.
- Teams keep leaders accountable for the goal. Individuals connected to no one can change the goal without accountability.
- Teams can simply do more than an individual.
If you want to reach your potential or strive for the seemingly impossible – such as communicating your message 2000 years after you’re gone – you need to become a team player. It may be a cliche, but it is nonetheless true: Individuals play the game, but teams win championships.
from Teamwork 101
