Leading Teams213
CASE STUDY
Focusing team members on a shared goal
Kelley Johnson, the owner of an eco-lodge in Belize, regularly has to deal
with team dynamics. Since the lodge is in a remote location, it employs over
twenty-fi ve full-time staff who live onsite for weeks at a time. This close-knit
work situation can often lead to confl ict if not managed correctly. The lodge
has four managers, including Katja, a German expat who runs the front of-
fi ce and oversees the staff when Kelley is off -site; and Carlos, a Belizean
who is in charge of client services. Katja is incredibly organized and me-
ticulous about her work. Carlos is a genius when it comes to client service,
making each guest feel special. “He has an ability to make every guest feel
as if they are the fi rst one to ever see a snake,” says Kelley.
But last winter, Katja asked Kelley to fi re Carlos because she felt he
wasn’t doing his job. He regularly forgot to do tasks and was sloppy with
his paperwork. She was frustrated and felt as if she was working twice as
hard as he was. Carlos had also previously complained about Katja. He
resented her criticism and felt she was too cold to their clients.
As Kelley saw it, they were both failing to understand each other’s
talents. Kelley responded to Katja by asking her to take a step back and
look at the situation. Carlos was failing to do part of his job description,
but he was invaluable to the lodge. Katja conceded that his job descrip-
tion should be changed so that he could live up to expectations.
Kelley spoke to both employees, explained why each one was ex-
tremely valuable to the team, and asked them to appreciate what the
other brought. They were part of a profi t-sharing plan, which meant a
piece of their salary hinged on the business. She asked them to focus on
the larger purpose and to put their disputes behind them. With expecta-
tions reset, Carlos and Katja found a way to work together by accepting
they had completely diff erent styles but both cared ultimately about the
same thing—making the lodge successful.
Source: Adapted from Amy Gallo, “Get Your Team to Stop Fighting and Start Working,”
HBR.org, June9, 2010.
214Managing Teams
Step 3: Get back to work.
“[T]he best way to heal war wounds is to start working again,” says Amy
Gallo, the author of the HBR Guide to Managing Confl ict at Work. “Get a
relatively easy task in front of the group to help them rebuild their confi -
dence as a team. As the leader, you can model moving on and focusing on
work.” You can also model forgiveness. Hurt feelings and damaged egos
are collateral damage at these times, and people may need to be reminded
that it’s possible to let their anger go and that, in fact, you expect them to.
“Going forward, it will be useful to establish a practice of regularly check-
ing on how you all are working together,” adds Gallo. “This will help you
identify problems before they turn into full-fl edged disputes.”
So much of what you do as a manager is empowering diverse individuals
to come together as a team and deliver shared results. Along the way, you
need to bond team members to your purpose, establish shared norms, and
navigate disagreements. Creating this kind of strong team culture is an
essential prerequisite to the hard work you do as a high-performing team.
In the next chapter, you’ll learn how to leverage all of this hard-won
teamwork to get the creative juices fl owing.
Recap
■
Bringing unique individuals with diff erent points of view together in the
workplace brings opportunities and challenges.
■
Eff ective teams have a mix of competencies and backgrounds.
■
Your role as a team leader is to create a work environment that allows each
person to contribute fully.
■
Defi ning group norms helps everyone understand how a good team member
acts despite their diff erences and makes team members’ behavior more
predictable.
Leading Teams215
■
Building strong relationships on the team will help you engage valued team
members who might otherwise feel marginalized by the group.
■
Cross-cultural and virtual teams run higher risks of confl ict and misunder-
standing because communication is more diffi cult and cultural assumptions
may be diff erent.
■
Team confl ict can be constructive or destructive, depending on whether they
produce better work and/or stronger intrateam relationships.
Action items
To build a team and its culture:
❏
Use the team audit in exhibit 12-1 to evaluate the strengths and weak-
nesses of the team’s culture, and exhibit 12-2 to evaluate.
❏
Recruit a team that has a mix of training and skills, professional back-
ground, work style, motivation and goals, and life experience.
❏
Hone your sense of purpose together, asking the questions given earlier.
❏
Set team performance goals that you can be accountable to as a group,
not as individuals.
❏
Defi ne group norms that describe what it means to be a true team
player, drawing from the “Rules inventory.”
❏
Build relationships within the team that can sustain your work together
going forward.
To manage a cross-cultural team:
❏
Observe closely. Be proactive in identifying potential sources of confl ict,
before they erupt. Areas likely to cause trouble are: direct versus indi-
rect communication; trouble with accents or fl uency; diff ering attitudes
toward hierarchy; and confl icting decision-making norms.
216Managing Teams
❏
Foster open-mindedness. Help your team members become aware of
opposing cultural norms and encourage them to embrace new ways of
doing things.
❏
Intervene judiciously. If your team members can work things out on their
own, reorganize their work or take direct action to resolve indecision.
To manage a virtual team:
❏
Pick the right tools. Make sure your team’s technology infrastructure
matches their real needs.
❏
Clarify your expectations for engagement. Explain what behavior you ex-
pect from engaged team members and then hold people accountable.
❏
Have a backup plan. Ask your people to make their own plan Bs for when
technology runs amok.
❏
Foster social bonds. Institute routines that help team members connect
on a personal level.
To manage confl ict on your team:
❏
Manage constructive confl ict by setting clear ground rules, establishing
shared processes, and providing criteria for how to make contentious
trade-off s.
❏
Resolve destructive confl ict by fi nding its root cause, facilitating a reso-
lution, and normalizing any remaining tensions by getting right back
towork.
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