Whose side are you on anyway?
I was leading a team of professionals developing a new solution for my client and had one engineer who seemed to argue about anything that wasn’t his idea, even though many of the ideas were being requested by the client.
After many frustrating interactions and team meetings, something had to change. He seemed to feel that he was in competition with me and our internal team and was thus not collaboratively solving issues with everyone else. I had some one-on-one interactions with him where I started to discuss the other companies we were competing against for this business opportunity. Once this started registering with him, he became more a part of the team.
What he needed to realize was that we could lose the war if we fought ourselves. He was confused as to who we were really in a fight with. He was fighting with his internal team and the client, not realizing that the real battle was with our competition.
Here are some questions to ponder:
- Is your team focused on a common mission and vision for their future?
- Are you putting up with behavior from a team member that should be addressed?
An ancient proverb states “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” If someone is having difficulty seeing your bigger purpose, how can you use this reality to crystallize your team around a common objective?
