Shake Things Up

Shannon’s been on a team for years and now a new person is starting Monday. She interviewed the person and thinks they’ll be a good addition.

Scott is that new person. It’s like the first day of school. He’s nervous, but excited.

Any time someone joins or leaves a team, the entire dynamic of the team will change. In some situations, there will be an entirely new team formed. Some people may already know each other while others may not. There could be different managerial levels involved. There will definitely be different personalities involved.

How do you adapt?

It’s important to first understand the stages of team building: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Every leader wants to get to performing as quickly as possible. Team building activities help speed up the forming time so the team can get to know each other.

Storming is obviously the most challenging phase of team building. Some teams never get out of it. This is where you, as a strong leader, come in. It’s important to encourage positive communication and allow all ideas to be heard. It’s also good when there’s conflict to ask why an idea is not a viable option or play devil’s advocate to share a different perspective. Sometimes you just need to put two people on a task together to sort their stuff out and find common ground.

I’m part of a team right now that has just entered the storming phase. Every person on the team is considered a leader and we have to come up with a group project. When every person is in charge, no one is. What I think it’s going to take are several small group or 1:1 conversations to get buy-in on what the idea is (not my idea, though I have several) and then validate the entire group is on board. Wish me luck.

To elaborate further on the team dynamics, personalities, backgrounds, and egos will come into question. This is why personality tests were invented to understand how to interact with people who are the same and different from you.

A simple example is that some people will be more quiet than others so a leader needs to ask them directly to get their input. Others might be more vocal, but take the team in a direction you didn’t intend so you will have to step in to redirect the conversation and remind them of the goal.

When it comes to egos, tread carefully. “I really like that idea, but…” “Do you have any examples of when that worked before?” When in doubt, egos love compliments, but don’t go overboard. Most people with a reasonably sized ego will see through it.

Here’s an example of successfully navigating egos: A leader on a team left the company and their position was back-filled. The leader came back, but had to report to the person that replaced them. The leader who left and came back made it clear they didn’t want to be in their former position anymore as they enjoyed being more hands-on and supported the new person in the position. The new person included the former leader as applicable and delegated as appropriate. I commend both of those people for how they handled the situation from an outsider’s point of view.

Advice to Shannon: As the person familiar with the other people on the team, welcome Scott. Introduce him to the other members of the team. Take some time to get him up to speed on what has been done before and what everyone’s roles were. When the work gets started, ask Scott’s opinion to make sure his voice is heard if he doesn’t speak up himself.

Advice to Scott: Take time to listen and observe before jumping right in. Get to know the other members of the team and learn how you would be interacting. Schedule recurring 1:1s with a couple of people you want to get to know better or learn from. Ask questions. This will make it easier in the long run. The other members of the team want to know you value their opinion just like you’ll want them to value yours.

There’s a lot more that could be said on this topic, and maybe one day it will. You’ll have to

Add a comment or reply if there’s something you want to read or talk more about. Until next time.