Ensure your Team is ALWAYS aligned and Moving in the SAME direction!
100% of all team issues arise because there is a misalignment in some way shape and form. It can be something as simple as a breakdown in communication. Or as extreme as workplace conflict. In either case it is just as counterproductive and destructive!
In my work, I have witnessed shouting matches, without restraint, because things among team have gotten so toxic. I have also been part of situations where team members were intentionally ‘back-stabbing’ one another, or completely avoiding each other.
In every case it fed a toxic environment. Wharton management Professor Gregory Shea warns “that leaders and teams can turn toxic through the “misguided belief” that being tough and unforgiving is a productive way to manage every employee.”
Team ‘implosions’ due to misalignment, regardless of the form they take, are situations that must be resolved fast, otherwise reaching company strategies are at risk.
So what is the long term effect of such a situation? The cost of a toxic environment is higher than we might believe. INC Magazine reports that:
“It can be psychological, it can be emotional, it can be physical,“ Professor Shea says. “Obviously in extreme cases it would be hitting, but it could also be people who feel physically intruded upon, who feel there is no safe place to go.”
“The cost of a toxic culture is not just hurt feelings. Christine Porath, a Georgetown University professor of management, and Christine Pearson, professor at the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University, conducted a study on the impact of abusive and uncivil behavior on employees.
Porath and Pearson, interviewed and surveyed 14,000 CEOs, managers, and employees for the study, and found that incivility demoralizes people. Employees subjected to incivility “markedly loosened bonds with their work life.” Nearly half of employees “decreased work effort” and intentionally spent less time at work, while 38 percent “intentionally decreased” the quality of their work.
Further, 25 percent of employees who had been treated with incivility admitted to taking their frustrations out on customers. And 12 percent left their jobs due to uncivil
treatment. “Companies we’ve worked with calculate that the tab for incivility can run into the millions,” Porath and Pearson write in a separate article in Harvard Business Review about their findings”
On the flip side, I’ve also been involved with teams that are completely aligned and ‘moving in the same direction’ with the same priorities and focus. I was privileged to be part of a company that was looking at the potential of millions of dollars in losses for the next year, primarily due to the competitive impact of Amazon. If something wasn’t drastically done to turn the company around, no one knew the multiyear impact and what would be the total cost in lost revenue in the next fiscal year.
Everyone laid their ‘swords’ on the table. It wasn’t about title, which department was more important, or even who was contributing most to the bottom line. It was about doing whatever had to be done to converge, align and become ‘One Voice.’ One Voice on priorities, One Voice in mindset, One Voice in direction, One Voice in communication, and One Voice in Action. What was the result? In the span of a few months, the team managed to turn the company from being in the ‘red’ to having a net of a few million dollars in the ‘black.’ This feat was extremely challenging and painful. Yet, it resulted in something extremely positive. The reality: it would have never happened if they hadn’t first become ‘One Team’.
Some Solid Ways to Align Your Team
- Align Mission, Vision Focus and Direction: We spent ample time here so I won’t
- Align on Expectations: Often times, team members can get frustrated because they don’t know what the leader’s team expectations are in the areas of:
- Communication
- What does the leader need to know/not know?
- What is the best form of communication among the team? Email, text, phone, face to face?
- How do you like the content/information presented and reported? High level summary, detailed information, brief and to the point?
- Who communicates to the external and internal customers and when?
- Support Needs
- What does the team need MOST from the leader?
- What does the leader need MOST from the team?
- What does the team need MOST from the leader?
- Personal Value Needs
- How can we, the leader, BEST demonstrate that the team is valued?
- How can the team BEST demonstrate that the leader is valued?
- Align on Roles and Responsibilities:
- Are we as ‘clear as a sunny day’ on who does and owns what?
- What’s the difference between what you, the leader focuses on and what the team focuses on?
An Example: During my work there had been multiple situations where there appeared to be a mutiny developing. The team members thought the leader spent time doing nothing, while they were working harder. The leader’s activities were not obvious. Since the team members did not see the leader working as much and in the same way they were, they assumed that nothing was being done by the leader.
The situation improved dramatically once the ‘roles and responsibilities’ for the team and leader were clearly laid out, understood and followed.
- Team: Responsible for day-to-day delivery of key responsibilities and expertise areas
- Leader: Responsible for administration, coordination, prioritization, back-fill, Team Voice, ‘Bridge to upper’ management
Respect for the leader changed when responsibilities were clear. Once they realized that the leader was not only doing something but, was focusing on areas in which the team had NO interest.
Knowing CLEARLY what people are responsible for and how the responsibilities contribute to the ‘bottom line’ and/or over-arching goals of the company fosters a healthy sense of security and perceived value among team members. This understanding is critical to ‘taking care of your team.’
Rubi Ho
