6 Steps to Building a Dysfunctional Team

If you’ve been in business long enough, you have most likely been a part of a dysfunctional team at some point. Maybe your team members didn’t communicate well with each other, or maybe they didn’t communicate at all. This lack of communication resulted in a lack of trust. The lack of trust led to negative assumptions where one team member automatically assumed another team member didn’t like them, was out to undermine their success, or wanted to take all the credit for the team’s success. More often than not, dysfunctional teams have one or more team members with strong opinions and egos.  According to these individuals, they are right and the other team members are wrong. All these issues build on each other, creating a dysfunctional team with plenty of resentment and finger-pointing going around.

We can all recognize a fully dysfunctional team, but how do these problems get started in the first place?  Our research with teams have pinpointed the following factors involved with team dysfunction, that ultimately help keep us as consultants in business.

Only hire technically strong individual contributors: When hiring a new team member, you want the best. So you hire someone who is technically gifted and can get the job done. This individual is really smart. When we say really smart, we’re talking about their IQ, not their social intelligence (EQ). Individually, these high IQ team members are technically competent and can produce the needed results without any help or collaboration with other team members.

Promote individual rewards:  When team members are rewarded for individual results, there’s no reason to work as a team if you’re going to receive your full bonus anyway. Sometimes we actually see individual players rewarded for not collaborating with others. If individual results are prioritized, recognized, and rewarded instead of leadership, teamwork, communication and collaboration, you are unlikely to see any improvement in the area of teamwork.

Avoid Conflict: Managers who don’t like conflict tend to only deal with team issues one-on-one, rather than meeting with team members together to discuss and resolve the conflict. These same managers fail to take a stand and hold people accountable for their actions. When there are no consequences for people who treat others disrespectfully or fail to collaborate, there’s no reason for these individuals to change their behavior.

Don’t create a compelling positive vision and goals: There has to be a reason or purpose for a group of people to work together. That reason may be that when everyone works well as a team, each individual and the team as a whole can produce better results than if each individual worked on their goals alone. Or, that purpose could be that teamwork is more efficient. Or, when we work as a team, there’s less stress and more fun. With a common vision, values and goals, the end result should be greater than what any one individual can achieve on their own.

Make negative assumptions about other members of the team: Believing that other team members only make decisions that benefit them personally will cause others to withhold information and avoid collaboration with this Lone Ranger. If you’re looking for only negative reasons to explain a team member’s behaviors, you will often prove yourself right. Whether you actually are right or not is a different matter, and this situation as a whole undermines teamwork and relationships between team members.

Be everyone’s friend: Leaders who have a higher need to be liked than to be respected tend to avoid holding team members accountable for behaviors that support the success of the team. This allows conflicts to fester and negative behaviors to continue unchecked.

A dysfunctional team is not beyond repair. Though a leader plays a critical role in the improvement of the team, every team member needs to make an effort to improve communication, collaboration, and overall teamwork.