6
Barb:
Well, generally.
Coach:
How can you get specific with her? I wouldn’t want you to
get all the way to Donna’s department before discovering
a glitch. Other than that, let’s do it. Great job!- Employees become overly optimistic about projects.
This is difficult to detect, especially because optimistic
enthusiasm is exactly what coaches like to hear! But
watch out. Team members may bite off more than they can
chew in the interest of pleasing you or making the team
look good. The danger is that unrealistic optimism sets up
your team for failure — maybe even repeated failure.
Make sure someone who is objective monitors project
goals, and make sure your people know they don’t have to
be super-humans to be superstars on your team!- Employee anger or stress increases.
Reasons for irritated team members can be many and
varied, but you can usually identify them through
counseling. You may discover a well-concealed dispute
between two or more members that has team-crippling
side effects.
Maybe general dissent exists over a new policy or
procedure. Ask questions — and ask as many team
members as it takes until a consensus begins to surface. Is
there a grievance, condition, event or personality that runs
like a thread through each counseling interview? Does the
name “Joanne” surface repeatedly in a negative way?
Does the plan to relocate the department to another floor
keep coming up? Or the companywide salary cut? The
starting point for uncovering widespread dissension is
talking to your team.- Absenteeism
Absenteeism is also a strong signal that something is
wrong. As in No. 4 above, getting involved with your
people and pinpointing likely causes of the problem are
critical to finding solutions. In the meantime,Integrating the Individual and the TeamTeam members
may bite off more
than they can
chew to please you
or to make the
team look good.Absenteeism is
a strong signal
that something
is wrong.