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Article When Leaders Sabotage Teamwork A man took his young daughter to a carnival and she
immediately ran over to a booth and asked for some cotton candy.
As the attendant handed her a huge ball of it, the father asked,
“Sweetheart, are you sure you can eat all of that?”
“Don’t worry Dad,” she answered, “I’m a lot bigger on the
inside than on the outside.” The little girl didn’t
necessarily mean to, but she gave us a memorable image of the importance
of leaders being adults—being “bigger on the inside” regardless of
their external size. One of
the indicators that leaders may not be as “big on the inside” as they
need to be is if the leaders, unconsciously and sometimes consciously,
sabotage their own teams. Team leaders support and
enjoy the teamwork experience for the most part.
But for some, giving up authority and control is a tough
transition. Effective leaders have to constantly check to make sure that
they aren’t clinging to old behaviors that can hurt their teams. The following are some subtle ways leaders can sabotage
teamwork: 1.
Saving the Day—Some
leaders are so accustomed to putting out fires that they miss the
adrenalin rush of saving a project at the last minute.
Therefore, they allow a situation to deteriorate to near failure
only to jump in and save the day. Here’s
my suggestion. If you find
yourself rescuing your team again and again, find out why.
Are you withholding information that would help members do their
jobs? Do people need training
to perform their duties more efficiently?
Are you providing the appropriate level of coaching?
Are you mentoring the people who need to be mentored? 2. Hanging on to a Cherished
Duty—Team leaders often hold onto fun tasks even though their time
might be better spent elsewhere. There
are some jobs that we all enjoy more than others so we tend to hold onto
these jobs. We think that
these preferred tasks will, at the very least, bring us a break in an
otherwise tedious day. Here’s
my suggestion: examine your
favorite duties. Would you be
more productive if you delegated some of them?
If so, get started today. Team
members will appreciate your giving them up.
They may even realize you are making a sacrifice and you can move
on to more important matters. One
of the more common mistakes leaders make is to spend their time on things
that can be done by others and fail to spend time on things that can only
be done by the leader. 3. Maintaining Rigid Policies—Few
things kill teamwork faster than a fat policy manual. Rules and regulations may help you feel safe, but they will
rarely give you the level of motivation and team spirit that is essential
to crunch time. Here’s my
suggestion: create team
policies. Ask team members
for input and explain the reason behind every rule.
If you can’t explain the rule, it might well be that it should be
thrown out. 4. Holding Team Members to
Standards Higher than Those You Hold Yourself To—Sometimes team
leaders in their zeal to develop people or to raise accountability
actually impose upon their team members standards they are not willing to
meet themselves. In fact,
some of these can amount to judging team members’ behavior more harshly
than leaders judge their own behavior.
A humorous take on this attitude looks like this: I’m okay;
you’re not. Isn’t it
funny that when someone else takes a long time to do something, he’s
slow; when I take a long time, I’m thorough.
When someone else skips a task, he’s lazy; when I skip one, I’m
busy. When someone else takes
on a duty without being told, he’s overstepping his bounds; when I go
ahead and do something without being told, I have initiative.
When someone else states his opinion strongly, he’s bullheaded.;
When I state my opinion strongly, I’m firm.
When someone else overlooks a few rules, he’s irresponsible; when
I let a few rules slide, I’m doing my own thing and adding a creative
edge to the process. Leaders must be careful not to place themselves in the position of being legitimately accused of leading not by example, but by command. Ideally, the leader leads by example. Viable leaders must simply be “bigger on the inside” than they are on the outside. <End> |
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