Chapter 2
 The Barriers to Team Success

In This Chapter

• When plans are inadequate
• Leaders without leadership skills
• When members have poor attitudes
• Training that doesn’t train
• Communications breakdowns
• Team members don’t get along
• Rewards and recognition programs that don’t work

The team can be a great boon to an organization. It can revitalize organizations that are going downhill; it can stimulate employees to become more creative and more productive. It can develop leaders for the future. But teams don’t always work. Although most companies report success in using them, there are a good many organizations in which shifting to teams has been disappointing.

Why should this happen? In this chapter we’ll look at the many barriers that impede team success. The balance of the book will address these problems and discuss how they can be overcome. Understanding the reasons for failures and learning how to avoid them will keep you from repeating the mistakes others have made.

Poor Planning

You just don’t shift from work groups to teams by an edict from top management: “Effective this date you are a team.”

You have to take the time to plan exactly what you want to do and how you intend to do it.

Planting Your Goalposts

Unless you know what exactly you want to achieve, there’s no way to measure how close you are to achieving it. Specific goals give you a standard against which to measure your progress.

The goals you set for accomplishing your team’s mission must be in line with the larger goals your company sets for you to accomplish. If the objectives you plan to achieve for your job, department, or team aren’t coordinated with the objectives of your organization, you’ll waste your time and energy.

In most organizations, overall goals are established by top management and filtered down to departments or teams to use as guides in establishing their own goals.

The process of setting goals takes time, energy, and effort. Goals aren’t something you scribble on a napkin during a coffee break; you must plan what you truly want to accomplish, establish timetables, determine who will be responsible for each aspect of the job, and then anticipate and plan resolutions for any obstacles that may threaten to thwart the achievement of your goals.

Not “Sounding the Depths”

Before you can set goals for your team, you have to diagnose the “as-is situation.” Too often, managers deceive themselves about the true condition of their organization. Of course, they know the figures: sales volume, market share, production, payroll, and all the tangible statistics. But they delude themselves on such vital information as employee attitudes and morale, the currency of the skills of their people, the willingness of their people to cooperate and extend themselves, and the commitment of staff at all levels to company goals.

Each of us tends to accept as truthful information that which is compatible with our own perceptions. To us it is reality. However, in the minds of others, be they superiors, peers, or subordinates, the same information may be perceived totally differently. Just as in our bodies, many critical problems may not show up in routine tests; subtle and incipient conditions exist in an organization that may not be uncovered by traditional business analyses.

You must go deeper. To do this you must get to know the people with whom you interrelate: members of the team, other team leaders and managers, and others within and outside the firm. You must learn their strengths and weaknesses, attitudes toward the job, the company, and the leaders. Some companies accomplish this by employee attitude surveys, focus groups, or using a special consultant to interview the staff.

Flying by the Seat of the Pants

Some leaders run their department without real planning. Like the pioneer aviators, they fly by the seat of their pants. They make decisions based on their experience and intuition, and often they are right on the money.

But as airplanes became more sophisticated, pilots could no longer depend on their intuition. They had to learn to fly by instruments.

This is true of the supervisors and leaders in today’s world of business. The technology and complexities of running a team, a department, and entire enterprise have made “seat of the pants” management obsolete.

Like the old aviators, the supervisor, now a team leader, has to use all available instruments and tools to make planning the work a collaborative effort.

Poorly Conceived Organization

To make teams work, the traditional hierarchical organizational structure has to be modified. I bet your company has an organizational chart showing where each department fits in the company. It looks like a pyramid, and somewhere near the bottom you’ll find your team.

The function of the organizational chart is to show employees which activities they are responsible for, to whom they report, and who reports to them. In addition it enables anyone to view the entire corporate structure.

However, rigid adherence to this structure can impede the work of teams. Teams often cross structural lines. They don’t fit neatly into a box. For example, a product development team may engage in functions that fall under Engineering, R & D, Marketing, and Finance. Artificially placing it under just one of those departments would complicate its work.

Better ways to organize teams of this sort are discussed in Chapter 25.

Poor Leadership

Blame it on the boss! And often the boss is to blame. The team leader has the responsibility to make that team succeed. No matter how competent the team members may be, unless they are guided by a knowledgeable, dedicated, inspiring leader, it will be tough for them to achieve their goals.

The role of the leader was discussed in the first chapter. Now let’s look at how poor leadership can impede the team’s success.

Confusion in the Ranks

If the leader doesn’t lead, the team can’t follow. Worse, if the leader leads badly, the team will perform badly.

Let’s look at how one team leader abdicated his leadership role. When Rick D. was appointed leader of a marketing development team, he studied books on team leadership, attended seminars, and asked advice of other leaders. He was convinced that his team would be participative, that he would give his members enough autonomy so they could use their talents and grow by making decisions on their own.

When the team was assembled, Rick presented a broad outline of the team’s purpose and asked them to determine what should be done and who would do it. When a member had questions about his role, Rick responded, “That’s for you to determine.”

Theoretically, that’s how a participative team works. But what happened? Some members selected aspects of the project that they felt competent to do and began to work on it. Others spent weeks figuring out their roles; still others began working on part of the project only to find that somebody else was doing the same thing. Without leadership, there was total confusion. It didn’t take long for Rick’s boss to note the lack of progress. When questioned about this, Rick responded that he was taught that giving team members autonomy would result in long-term benefit to all. What he failed to understand was that a project has to be completed in a timely manner. If a team has never done a project of this type before, it needs strong guidance from the leader, frequent feedback on progress, and active steps to keep the team moving on track. All this could be accomplished within the parameters of participative team leadership.

Poor Training

A team is like a rocket. The rocket is made up of a series of components. If that rocket is to be successfully launched, each component must be in tiptop condition. Only then can the components be integrated to work together to get that rocket off the ground. Each team member is a component of the team. Unless all are able to perform their functions excellently, the team will never be able to move ahead. So the first training objective is to perfect skills. But that is not enough. In order for the team members to work as an integrated unit, they must also be trained in working together as a team.

You’ll find advice on making training more effective in Chapters 8 and 23.

Poor Attitude

Another barrier to team success is the poor attitude that many team members have about the team process, the team leader, and often their teammates.

“It’s not my job.”

In the traditional work group, the duties and responsibilities of a job are specified in a formal job description. Job descriptions have their place in the team setup, too. They give the members a guide to the work they are expected to perform, but all members are expected to do any work that will propel the team toward its goals.

Yet, there are still members who look upon their jobs as being limited to the job description. When asked to help other members or to take on any assignment not specifically listed in the job description, they complain, “It’s not my job.”

The concept of the team is based on the principle that its members all work together to achieve the desired results. This means that all team members do whatever has to be done to accomplish the job. This includes doing work you don’t enjoy, helping slower members catch up, and putting aside pet projects to keep the team on target for higher priority assignments.

Members find all kinds of excuses to avoid doing work that they don’t like. They’ll say

How to deal with assigning unpleasant tasks in a manner that is fair to the entire team is discussed in Chapter 7.

Lack of Trust

The basis for any relationship, on or off the job, is trust. When team members do not trust their leader or one or more of their teammates, the team will never get off the ground.

The success or failure of a team leader depends on the trust of his or her team. If people trust you, anything you say can be heard. If people don’t trust you, then most of what you say will be ignored.

It doesn’t take much for a person to lose trust in another. The team leader makes a promise and then fails to live up to it. Trust is lost. A member withholds needed information from other members; nobody trusts him or her again. Rebuilding trust is not easy. If the lack of trust is among team members, the team leader can step in to alleviate the problem. However, if the team leader has lost the trust of the team members, it will take extraordinary effort to reestablish a trusting relationship.

Some suggestions on dealing with this problem will be found in Chapters 10 and 11.

“My teammates don’t pull their loads.”

Sandra was mad. Once again the team was behind schedule and that meant she would have to work overtime. And whose fault was that? Not hers. She knocked herself out to get work done on time, but some of her teammates, like Carl and Tricia, just plodded along. When she complained to Rita, the team leader, she was told that they were doing the best they could.

This is not an unusual situation. True, some people work faster than others, some are more thorough than others, some are more creative than others. It’s human nature for the Sandras of this world to resent the Carls and Tricias who, in their opinions, are not contributing as much to the team effort as they are. This is exacerbated when the Sandras have to make up for these deficiencies by doing extra work.

No team can succeed unless every member does his or her share. The team leader cannot accept the excuse that Carl and Tricia are doing their best. She has to identify the reasons for their poorer performance and take steps to correct it. Perhaps they need additional training; perhaps they have personal problems that are impeding their performance. How to get the entire team working at optimum capacity is discussed in Chapters 8, 12, and 13.

“I’m not paid to make decisions.”

Employees who have been accustomed to working in traditional settings have been conditioned to taking orders. For years, they were excluded from the decision-making process. As team members they feel uncomfortable when asked to participate in decision making.

Often they’d been told that one reason supervisors and managers were paid more than rank-and-file workers was they had the responsibility of making decisions. Now, they as team members—not paid any more than before—are given this responsibility. It’s logical for them to feel that making decisions is not their job.

Team leaders and their bosses have to build time for training into the regular work schedules. One way is to schedule the training to be done after regular work hours. This is often resisted by companies because it is costly when training nonexempt workers who must be paid overtime. Many people, whether they do or do not receive overtime pay, resent being asked to give up personal time for training that many feel they will rarely use.

In most companies, team leaders do get higher base pay than team members, but as you’ll note in Chapter 17, the compensation system is changing to overcome this. There is a trend to create greater parity between leaders and members. This should result in members being less reluctant to participate in decision making.

Poor Communications

You’ve heard it over and over again. The reason (or maybe an excuse for a failure) is a breakdown in communications. You say one thing and your associate hears something quite different. Why? It could be how you said it, or how the associate received it. Trite as it may sound, poor communications is a major barrier to the success of team efforts.

“What did he say?”

You thought your instructions were clearly stated. But the minute you leave the room, your associate turns to another team member for clarification. You didn’t get through.

Why? Maybe it was your fault. Perhaps you spoke indistinctly. Perhaps you used language that was not familiar to the listener. Perhaps your body language sent a different message from your words. Maybe the problem emanated from the associate. He didn’t fully listen. She didn’t take you seriously.

Whether you are the team leader or a team member expressing your views, you have to be alert to how you come across to others. Get feedback from your associates. Ask them for critiques on your presentations at meetings or just in team discussions. If you are making a planned presentation, rehearse it in front of a mirror or videotape it. You can find many more ideas on improving communication skills in Chapter 4.

The Leader Who Doesn’t Listen

Successful team leaders make it a point to listen to their members. Unless you keep your ears and your mind open, not only will you not benefit from the many ideas your team members can contribute, you will miss cues of team discontent or impending problems.

You can learn to overcome this. It takes commitment and effort to achieve it. You’ll learn how to become an active listener when you read Chapter 4.

Meetings That Waste Time

Got a problem? Call a meeting. One of the big complaints about teams is that too much time is wasted in meetings.

There are three major reasons meetings are time wasters.

1. There was no need for the meeting.
2. The meeting got out of control: The main objective of the meeting was lost in digressions, pointless arguments, extended discussions, and grandstanding by some participants.
3. The meeting was poorly planned or not planned at all.

If you are concerned about whether or not to call meetings and want to make the most of the meetings you conduct, you’ll find suggestions in Chapter 6.

Poor Rapport Among Team Members

The essence of team success is a close, comfortable, coordinated, collaborative group of team members. If the members don’t get along, the team dissolves into chaos. Instead of working out problems, members bicker among themselves. Instead of following the motto “One for all and all for one,” it becomes “Every man for himself.” Let’s look at some of the causes of conflict among team members. The solutions will be found in Part 3 of this book.

Conflicting Agendas

The purpose of a team is to work in a coordinated fashion to accomplish the team’s objectives. When different team members push their own agendas ahead of the team’s, there’s no way the team’s goals will be achieved.

I recently observed a good example of how conflicting agendas destroyed a team project. The company, a small but growing fast food retailer in the New England states, set up a task force to plan how to expand its product line. One of the members, Margo L., had made up her mind that the best approach would be to introduce a breakfast menu. In addition to the operational problems and a major marketing program to attract breakfast customers, this would involve opening the stores at 6 A.M. instead of the current 10 A.M. It would require a major recruiting campaign to get additional help, and store managers would have to put in many more hours.

Margo was so sure she was right that she refused to listen to objections and the alternative solutions offered by other members. She pressed so hard for her agenda that the meetings became exercises in futility. After several months of bickering and recriminations, the task force gave up and made no recommendations.

Jealousies and Rivalries

Starting with Cain and Abel, jealousies and rivalries have been part of the human experience. Of course, you’ll find them in your company and in your team.

People envy those who are smarter, who are more attractive, who have more money, who they believe have been given better breaks than they have. There’s no way a team leader can eliminate this, but an astute team leader can keep it from interfering with the team. It requires a keen understanding of each team member’s personality and attitudes, diplomacy in dealing with rivals, and establishing a program to resolve conflicts.

Personality Conflicts

When people work together, another common problem is personality conflicts. You’ve probably met people with whom you just couldn’t get along. You may disagree about how to do a job. You may have conflicting ideas on goals. You may just not like each other. What can a team leader do when he or she doesn’t relate well to a team member? What can a team leader do when members of the team can’t work together? In Chapter 11 you’ll find some interesting approaches to this delicate subject.

Carrying Poor Performers

One of the most common complaints team members make about associates is that they don’t do their share of the work. Their poor performance may be caused by technical incompetence or perhaps a lack of motivation. Whatever the reason, the better workers have to make up the work.

As noted earlier in this chapter, the team leader has to identify the cause and take steps to correct it. But often this does not work. The member just isn’t going to make it.

Many leaders are reluctant to remove a poor employee. It’s often difficult, if not impossible, to find another spot in the organization for which they are better suited. The alternative, termination, is not an easy decision to make, either.

As a team leader, your responsibility is to develop and maintain a successful group of team members. If a member is not productive and you have exhausted all your options to make that person succeed, you have no choice but to remove him or her from the team.

How to deal with poor performance and how to terminate a member legally and tactfully are discussed in Chapters 13 and 14.

Poor Recognition and Rewards Programs

People expect that when they perform well they will be rewarded. It may be in the form of financial reward, such as bonuses or raises, but it is not limited to money. Such tangible recognition is a great way of rewarding high performance, but it is not the only way—and maybe not the best. There are many ways of letting people know you appreciate their work. It can be as simple as a pat on the back or as formal as an awards ceremony.

Individual Accomplishments

For years companies have based their recognition programs on individual accomplishments. Employees who stood out from the others by high production, creative ideas, or outstanding accomplishments were rewarded.

It is still important that superior performance be rewarded, but with the increased emphasis on team building, awards for individual accomplishment have been supplemented, and sometimes replaced, by rewards for team achievement.

Good idea? Not necessarily. Some high-achieving members want to be rewarded for their performance and resent sharing rewards with less productive team members.

There are ways to reward both the individual and the team equitably. You can learn how in Part 4.

Team Achievements

Programs to recognize entire reams are relatively new. Much has still to be learned from the experience of companies that are experimenting with this.

In Chapter 18 I look at some approaches and suggest some ideas that may be appropriate for your team.

Do barriers exist that may impede your team’s success? This quiz will help you identify some of them. Circle the answers that apply to your team:

1. Yes    No
   Members complain that they’re not getting information they need when they need it.
2. Yes    No
   Team meetings bog down in interminable discussions and arguments over petty matters.
3. Yes    No
   Some members tend to dominate the team.
4. Yes    No
   Team members don’t listen to one another.
5. Yes    No
   Some members never participate in discussions about team projects.
6. Yes    No
   Poor performance of some team members slows down the work of the entire team.
7. Yes    No
   The amount of training in the soft skills is negligible.
8. Yes    No
   The team leader micromanages most of the team’s work.
9. Yes    No
   Team goals are not clearly understood or accepted by some team members.
10. Yes    No
    Individual achievement rather than team accomplishment is the basis of the company’s reward and recognition program.

A “yes” answer to any of these questions is an indicator of a barrier your team must overcome if the team is to succeed.

The Least You Need to Know

• You don’t shift from work groups to teams by an edict from top management.
• Take “soundings” of your team to uncover hidden problems.
• If the leader doesn’t lead, the team can’t follow. Worse, if the leader leads badly, the team will perform badly.
• The effective leader does not micromanage the team. Micromanaging stifles creativity and independent thinking.
• The concept of the team is based on the principle that its members all work together to achieve the desired results.
• The basis for any relationship, on or off the job, is trust. If it is lacking, the team will never get off the ground.
• Whether you are the team leader or a team member expressing your views, you have to be alert to how you come across to others.
• Successful team leaders make it a point to listen to their members.
• It’s important to reward individual superior performance, but equally important to supplement, and sometimes replace it, with rewards for team achievement.