Characteristic Seven of a Healthy Team
Dr. David Rafeedie
Note: This is the seventh article expanding on the article, Characteristics of a Healthy Team. https://davidthecoach.com/blog/2017/11/14/characteristics-of-a-healthy-team
Characteristic 7: Individual members of a healthy team have permission to “get in the face” of a member who drops the ball.
The team was functioning well. The members were making good progress at becoming a Performing team. https://davidthecoach.com/blog/2018/1/18/team-building-moving-your-team-to-maximum-effectiveness. She thought her team was hitting on all eight cylinders. But then Bill made the mistake. It had cost them the sale. They had worked hard on doing their homework. They knew they would hit a home run when they presented to the client. Then in the middle of the meeting, it happened. Bill, who was usually reliable, fumbled his part of the presentation badly. That took the air out of the room and the team in the middle of the presentation. Everyone was disappointed.
The question Mary, the team leader, had to deal with now is what she does about it. How does she handle dealing with Bill and assuring the team? Maybe comforting the team was just as important. The issue had to be confronted. Some kind of action and discussion needed to take place.
Before she could act, Jill, a team member, approached Bill and spoke to him. She asked Bill, “What happened in there, were you prepared?” And the conversation started. Bill explained he became nervous when the unexpected CEO arrived. Power had always intimidated him. He made a minor error and mentally could not get past the mistake. He began to fumble the presentation after that and realized he was. He felt terrible because he realized the team had prepared well to present. They were confident, and he dropped the ball.
Jill agreed, Bill did drop the ball. But she explained she understood his nervousness, but that was no excuse not to rely on the work they had done, or to rely on other team members who were in the room. Jill did not excuse Bill dropping the ball, but she also came up with some constructive criticism on how to react in the future when a similar feeling or event took place.
At the next staff meeting, Bill apologized to Mary and the team. He relayed his conversation with Jill and received more constructive criticism and good advice. People were still upset, but they rallied around Bill. Bill’s response cleared the air, and Mary had the freedom to refocus the team on the future and the next project. Mary also realized that she had a healthy team.
For peer correction to take place and received well, several factors must be in place. Both in attitude and perspective. Here are some attitudes and perspectives that must be in place for healthy peer correction.
Without trust, there can be no peer correction. To receive peer correction, the person confronted must believe his colleague has the team’s and his best interest in mind.
The person confronting must come with the perspective that she wants what is best for the team and for the individual she is confronting. Keeping the team first must be a core value of the team.
The confrontation must be corrective, not punitive. All parties must treat each other with respect. It is important to be firm and direct but not harsh. Be constructive with the criticism.
Speak the language of the person who dropped the ball.
Approach the person with the idea of asking them their opinion of what occurred? As to honestly discover the answer, rather than approaching to reproach. They no doubt feel terrible already.
Dealing with an issue when it occurs, confronting a person in the manner above, is a leadership characteristic. Leaders deal with the hard stuff, and good leaders do it well.
Those confronting a colleague should have the attitude that you are serving your teammate. And it is important to receive constructive criticism with the same attitude in which it is presented.
The above characteristics must be built into the team through an intentional team development regime that takes into account the other characteristics of a healthy team as well. A regular professional development regime is foundational to building a healthy team.
Bill could have reacted quite differently to the constructive criticism he received. He could have become defensive, or he could have quit. Instead, he received it in the spirit it was given, and the team was stronger for it. Someone has defined wisdom as hearing good advice and following it.
On a healthy team, teammates can “get in the face of each other” for the good of the team and the individual team member.
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