If you feel like team members are “playing it safe” (politically) or not being authentic. If they aren’t “having each others’ backs” or there’s an experience of general lack of trust. Your team is in trouble!

If your team meetings are boring and there’s no conflict or passionate debates over issues. Your team is in trouble!

When there is a lack of commitment to get on board, or a deficiency of buy-in. You guessed it, Your team is in trouble!

Your team members are not holding each other accountable? Your team is in trouble!

When the team isn’t delivering the results on time or worse  … at all. Your team is in BIG trouble!

Patrick Lencioni, writes in his best selling executive coaching book “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team,” ‘in studies of thousands of different kinds of teams, the research shows the lack of any one of five fundamental behaviors will ground your team in dysfunctional trouble.’

The good news is that he states that the positive, opposite adaption, of those behaviors will consistently produce a Highly Productive Cohesive Team!

So what are these behaviors? First the negative (unhealthy behaviors) that create dysfunctional teams:

1. Absence of Trust. Not willing to be vulnerable to the group. Not be open
to each other makes the basis of team trust unattainable. 

2.Fear of Conflict.Teams that don’t participate in spirited debate over important issues but rather maintain political safety will rarely generate creative or innovative ideas and solutions.

3.Lack of Commitment.When members have little trust, they won’t participate in passionate debate and therefore won’t be heard. When members don’t ‘weigh in’ they don’t  ‘buy in’ and then they don’t fully commit. 

4.Avoidance of Accountability. Not committing to a course of action, members
will not hold each other accountable and thus may be fostering behaviors that
are detrimental to the success of the team.

5.Inattention to Results. This happens when the team is not holding one another accountable and put their own needs (ego, career, their own division) above the goals of the team.

Healthy team behaviors that produce High Performance Cohesive Teams:

1. They express for Trust each other

2. Participate in healthy Conflict around Ideas

3. Commit to the decisions

4. Hold each other Accountable

5. Keep their eye on accomplishing the stated Results over and above their own agenda 

If it occurs to you that your team might be in ‘trouble’, consider picking up a copy of Lencioni’s book to benefit from the Leadership Development approaches and Leadership Coaching found therein.

Better yet, enroll your team in  “the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team” facilitated performance management workshop. This program, developed specifically for each team, is designed to powerfully transform your team into a High Performance Cohesive Team in the shortest possible time.

If you are interested in performance management and the organization
development of your team, PreiserConsultants.com, a Five Behaviors Partner,
offers a complementary consulting session for leadership development programs and the “Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team” facilitated workshop.  

Written by: Randall “Randy” Preiser, is CEO of Preiser
Consultants… an Organization Development firm that provides executive coaching and develops performance management programs like The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team. 

Randall@PreiserConsultants.com