Throughout my entire career, I have never, until this moment, faced a team of staff that exhibited a completely absent sense of teamwork and camaraderie, by choice. The biggest frustration with a situation like this is the reported desire, by the subordinate team, to be part of a team with members who support each other, while those same members actively choose not to hold each other accountable for behaviors and interactions. of others. The situation is essentially an environment where ‘everyone wants to work with team players’, but nobody wants to ‘make an effort to build teamwork’; nor is there a demonstration of ‘waiting from others’. It is an absolutely stagnant stalemate with little motivation and initiative to overcome challenges where cliques, dissent and discrimination run wild with no personal restraint.
So how can a situation like this be improved?
Although I am entering the frontline team development stages with my leadership team, I have developed a model for this dilemma. The approach is a step-based action item process to drive progress through collaborative accountability with built-in expectations.
Step One: Align Leadership
The first step in working towards a solution is understanding and admitting that there really is a problem. With respect to leadership, each member of the leadership must be willing to take charge of the problem at hand; in this case, teamwork.
Leadership members must also share the common goal of developing the problem in a positive direction. Members of leadership must also know the organization’s mission, vision, purpose, and objectives. The overall process is only possible if all members of leadership have a genuine interest and motivation as a complete “whole,” as a leadership team.
The top leader must identify the leadership mindset of subordinate team leaders and subordinate managers. Without leadership consistency, efforts will not be carried out as desired, leaving the efforts of the key leader of the group compromised. If the leaders do not accept the change, the need for change, the goals and objectives, their roles must be evaluated to determine if they fit their role, since the leaders must possess behaviors to institute and drive change for development.
Step two: bury the past
Once leadership is aligned, meet with followers and explain that there is a ‘troubled past’ that has value, meaning and purpose. However, the ‘past’ is behind the team now, and a future is being structured. For a future to begin to take shape, the subordinate team must be challenged to develop a future state vision with a supporting mission. In doing so, the team develops a clear picture of what the team will become as it develops in a positive direction.
In this critical piece of work environment development, the key leader must identify historical challenges and use rapport to connect with followers while creating focus on the circle of influence with a clear message Focus on moving forward. The leader must communicate the past. like the past and the first behavioral steps into the future for this to be effective. Group members need to understand that the focus is moving away from external influencing factors to internal controllable factors. To build this journey, the leader must create a vision – with the group. This is essential for group support and group accountability. Leadership research has shown that when groups and teams create solutions together, there is greater commitment among group members and, ultimately, greater accountability among peers. The group should be the collective voice in support of the vision. It may be necessary to work through vision. with them to instill the need for change. Next, the leader must Create a support mission. An example could be, “To provide the best care within our abilities while being a catalyst for change in our organization through collaboration, teamwork, peer support, and integrity.”
Step Three: Identify Change Agents
Once the subordinate team has developed a mission and vision for future development, members of leadership must be change agents while creating ‘internal champions’. An internal champion should be someone who has values that show and support cohesion and the advancement of teamwork.
By Identification of change agents, the leader can to create leaders among followers. These individuals can be trainers, committee members, committee chairs, development supervisors, and any other role that influences and supports change.
Step Four: Build a Support Structure
The use of change agents will drive development from the front lines, where members of the leadership team are not constantly present. Change agents can also be the tools for accountability and responsibility for other subordinate staff members.
This front-line approach, along with leadership members driving change, will continue to drive and build progress in a positive direction, resulting in an effective support structure from the inside out.
This step must also include the communication, publication and emphasis on the vision and mission developed.
Once these individuals are identified, the leader can begin to Build a support structure. This can be done in a number of ways, including departmental performance committees, training teams, recruiting and peer interview panels, employee focus group committees, and other areas of training and development.
Step Five: Group Development
Group development is about reinforcing positive behaviors, clearly communicating expected behaviors, and de-escalating with correction of behaviors that inhibit change.
Once these teams and committees are established, the group development You can start by penetrating the working group with these change’s agents.
Step Six: Execution
Performance arises by creating action plans and purposes for each of these change agents, committees and focus groups. From this point, a group standard of behavior can be developed to reinforce Responsibility.
Step Seven: Responsibility
Once this behavior standard is developed, put it in writing and clearly communicate it as the behavior expectation; if possible, post it at every work station and in all areas of operation. Use of this standard, in conjunction with organizational policies and procedures, provides a basis for addressing future poor performance and behaviors for development, retraining, or, where necessary, removal of a group member through dismissal and termination. Leaders should post standards of behavior with other visual aids, such as the circle of influence and the steps to success outlined above that illustrate the transition from Leadership Alignment a Responsibility.
In general, leaders must understand a clear reality: not everyone is open or willing to change. For this reason, leaders must hold the group accountable. This can be difficult for followers to accept, as they feel they are gossiping each other for failing to meet behavioral expectations. But above all, to sustain change and drive continuous change, the leader must-must-must-must hold subordinate leaders accountable for exhibiting behaviors and hold subordinate team members accountable for behaviors.