Overcoming dysfunctional teams

Building an effective team is so much more than a nice thing to do, nowadays it can be mission critical as increasing numbers of businesses have to sell or deliver solutions through third parties rather than directly to the customer. Add in the move towards  matrix management and this can be a real recipe for disaster for all parties.  As with so many things, though this can be avoided by effective team set up at the start.

I was recently asked to help a team that was dysfunctional by their own admission and relationships were almost irreverocabily damaged. This was at crisis point between the two companies and was jeopardising the entire customer contract. A series of interviews, facilitated intervention and effective use of a neuroscience based profiling tool PRISM proved to be enlightening and pulled this team back from the brink. I take my hat off to the overall sponsor who although removed from the project directly, recognised the problem and was prepared to take ownership for resolving it, even when that involved paying for an external and objective party to intervene such as myself.

Key learning:-

• Profile the team and raise awareness of personality preferences and plug gaps at the start
• Ensure the leader/programme director sets up clear goals, objectives and accountabilities with all parties buying in, ideally 2 days facilitated at the start of the project
• Don't assume that two different companies follow the same processes e.g. One may not schedule scarce resource without an authorised project plan and the other may not sign off a project plan until it is perfect - end result, missed deadlines and blame throwing
• Schedule regular reviews on how the team is performing against its goals, objectives and desire behaviours - every 3-6 months

The potential for savings in time, money and customer satisfaction are huge

Minimising bias in performance appraisal

We shouldn’t shy away from appraising employees for fear of being seen as biased to coin the well known gallup question ” I know what is expected of me at work” It is essential for employees to have clarity for them to perform – too many managers assume that both parties share the same clear picture of what good performance looks like!


The balanced scorecard is a great place to start and as many will know, SMART objectives should fit within this structure. Rule of thumb no more than 8 objectives at any one time – it removes focus, there may be sub objectives/milestones.

However good objectives are only the tip of the iceberg as it is all down to regular review, dialogue and coaching from the line manager to deliver performance against it.



With respect specifically to objecitvity, SMART (consider random audit to improve “smartness”) helps. A competency framework with proper definitions offers “objectivity” about “subjective” issues and finally facilitated round tables or calibration sessions are the only way really at an organisational level to reduce bias and increase fairness. This can be a cultural issue and managers need support and guidance to develop their anti-bias radar!

A major high street retailer was facing rising grievance and tribunal costs on a quarter-by-quarter basis. Problems with enforcing paper-based Health & Safety training and compliance procedures left the company exposed, as evidence to defend against claims was lacking. This is an increasing challenge for all businesses as their paper based performance management systems are erratic and unlikely to be found compliant in an audit. 

Automated performance management increases the effectiveness of this key people management process leading to increased productivity, employee morale and compliance

Measure your Employee Experience to predict next years results!

Businesses that are serious about beating the competitition need to stop burying their heads in the sand and recognise that the Employee Experience that their business offers directly correlates with their business results. The evidence is overwhelming but I consider Allan Schweyer's of the Human Capital Institute's findings in "The Economics of Engagement" worth taking action over:

"Employee engagement data is today broadly accepted as a leading indicator of performance whereas financial data is a lagging indicator"  So you can use your Employee Experience scores as an early warning system so that you an take action to prevent a slide or more positively you can be confident that the action you take this year to improve your Employee Experience will pull you ahead of the competition next year.

But if you are doing nothing and they are working on their Employee Experience, you know the rest...!

For help measuring engagement in your organisation using our Employee Experience Survey contact me directly

How do you identify an exceptional executive coach?

 Coaching is a huge investment in an individual and can reap serious rewards, but with the many different accreditations and bodies out there, how do you work out where to put your money?

In this month's International Coaching Psychology Review (Vol 5, No 1 March 2010) the key attributes of exceptional coaches are identified. They are: skilful at challenging, credibility, diagnostic skill and insight and a philosophy of 'personal responsbility'.  Flexibiltiy and range of approach comes next.

What does this mean? Well, if you are about to invest in coaching, are you prepared to be challenged in order to grow?  Will you take responsibility for your actions and your current results or do you seek excuses for your current situation?  Save yourself or your business money if the answer is no to either of the above in fact most credible and exceptional coaches would rather turn down your business than take money from someone with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

Whe looking for a coach, ask them how many different tools they use and if they favour one tool or intervention ask them why?  Too many coaches in my opinion align themselves to one or two psychometrics which means they are more likely to use the tool that they are most familiar with than the one that is right for you.  Ask them if they ever walked away from a coaching relationship and what personal development they do ?

On the other hand, if you are a coach - do you feel courageous and confident enough to challenge professionally and rigorously to enable insight and provoke change?  How flexible are you and how often do you refresh your toolkit to ensure that you are able to diagnose and prescribe the best coaching solution?

This is a significant relationship which can transform your leadership ability and results, however it is also highly influential and powerful so make sure that the person that you select to guide you here is credible, flexible and feels 'right' for you.

Work on Employee Experience to build profit

The Corporate Research Forum published it's official review on Employee engagement and organisational performance last month.and the evidence just keeps stacking up on the relationship between offering a rich and engaging employee experience and sustainable business performance. Whether we look at profitability, productivity, customer service or overall repuation there is a significant relationship between engaged employees and high performance in these areas.

To deliver an engaging employee experience, it requires quantum shifts in traditional leadership behaviours at all levels of management.  Mutual trust and adult to adult relationships are essential pre-requisites for success here and we overlook these at our peril

Snow and business!

The recent, ongoing wintery conditions are playing havoc with business productivity, with small businesses being the hardest hit.  However, some employees, when set up with the right homeworking technology will have used this undisturbed time at home to be highly productive.

What is the difference?  It all comes down to employee motivation or how "engaged" employees are in their role or the business that they work for. Businesses that offer a positive employee experience are proven to be more profitable in normal weather - I wonder how far the gap widens when the opportunity for dis-engaged employees to take advantage of the "snow excuse" arises?

Happy New Year

Any one made any resolutions? It is amazing how short lived they can be isn't it! We've all seen how busy gyms are in January, only to be virtually empty a mere 6 weeks later.

A colleague said to me recently that they couldn't see the point in a specific fitness goal such as running a marathon or reaching a certain weight if we weren't prepared to create a lifestyle that incorporated that for the rest of their lives. He felt that if it wasn't a long term commitment to be fit by exercising at least twice a week for example then why bother? I found this really interesting as someone who has a tendency to exercise in bursts of enthusiasm, followed by troughs of apathy. If the purpose of my exercise is to deliver a sustainably healthy body then regular moderate exercise has to be better than 3 steps forward and 3 steps back.

Leadership is the same, it is not enough for us to focus on our people just around the times of objective setting, annual reviews or poor performance. If the purpose of being a leader is to deliver sustainable high performance then we need to spend regular, quality time with our people all year round to achieve this.