Taking accountability for the role you play in the effectiveness of your team

Do you point to all the things your teammates or team leader are doing that are rendering your team ineffective?

In my role as a team coach, I hear these lines all the time.

“I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him.”

“Our team leader has no clue.”

“Team meetings are a waste of time.”

“If she would just LISTEN!”

“If he would get us in a room and tell us what he wants.”

“If they could just get along.”

So here is the problem with all of these lines. They underplay the role that you play in your team’s dysfunction. The first three lines are great examples of how team members view others as the source of all problems in the team. The second three show that most people think the solution to the problem lies in other team members changing THEIR behavior rather than in them changing their own.

The first step to improving your team is to take a look at your own behavior.

In my experience, if each team member could stop, take a deep breath, and ask, “How have I been a part of creating this dynamic and how can I be a part of changing it?” we would be much farther ahead.

Instead of focusing on what your colleagues are doing, ask yourself these questions. What did I do (even inadvertently) that contributed to where the team is at? What can I do (deliberately) to make the team more effective?

If the team isn’t working, then everyone around the table bears some responsibility.

You’ve either done something harmful, allowed something harmful to be done to you, or watched as your team mates harmed each other. Everyone plays a role. Figure out what role you have been playing and you will be ready to start making things better. You have a duty to make your team work.

For more, download my ebook The You in Team.

Further Reading

You Get the Team you Deserve

Team Building Exercise: Pass the Problem

The Secret of Effective Teamwork