My Team Is Great...But I Have Nagging Pains
My Team Is Good, But I'm Constantly Frustrated
When I ask a leader about their team, they typically tell me their team is “good”. After a couple of probing questions, I hear about a variety of factors that frustrate them – frustrations with team members, leaders and team performance.
Most of the frustrations center around the following themes:
Team members are unwilling or unable to make difficult decisions.
When team members do not make critical decisions, the leader needs to spend time assessing the situation, understanding the work that has occurred, making a decision and then explaining that decision to everyone who is involved. In most cases, leaders say it would have been easier to just handle the situation from the beginning. However, they don’t have time to keep jumping into situations and solving operational problems.
Leaders won’t hold team members accountable.
When a leader doesn’t manage their employee effectively, an executive needs to step in to address performance issues. In these situations, an executive typically becomes more involved in performance discussions and their image in the organization begins to change. They transform from a highly respected visionary to an authoritarian who enforces the rules.
Employees don’t think to go the extra mile.
Employees often fall into a routine of doing what is asked of them, and nothing more. This behavior then results in managers becoming much more specific when describing the tasks and duties to perform. As a result, employees don’t learn to understand when and how to take the extra step. Instead, managers learn to be more clear when giving instructions which perpetuates the problem.
In nearly every conversation, the pain points are identified within a short period of time and could be resolved with development and coaching. So why do executives continue to ignore these pain points and suffer through the consequences? Why do you deal with that lingering pain in your leg or constant allergies?
Many of us are predisposed to “suck it up” and deal with the symptoms instead of finding solutions to address the source. Your team needs a doctor to understand the symptoms and create targeted and effective strategies to address the issues. Find out how we help alleviate the painful symptoms of leaders on our website!
Stay tuned for next week’s episode: “I eat like crap and I'm willing to accept the consequences.”
