What to do with people that aren't team players

In partnership with

Ahoy,

So it’s time to come clean…

Last week I wasn’t entirely honest with you.

I told you that by asking questions to the team I was able to get everyone to buy-in to the plan. (If you missed last week’s you can check it out here).

The truth is, I couldn’t get everyone to buy into the plan.

And this isn’t new.

Over the years I have been in many situations where no matter what I did, there was always one or two people that wouldn’t go along with the plan.

• Plans to fix a particular defect.

• A plan to conduct training and maintenance concurrently.

• And here, the plan to share more information.

Sometimes you just can’t get everyone on board.

So what do you do about it?

In this situation, carrying on from the information sharing problem from last week, we had one particular outspoken individual.

But here’s the interesting bit…

This isn’t the first time this has happened.

This wasn’t the first time this individual fought back against change.

And really, I should have been able to see that this person was going to argue against this change before I even presented it to the team.

So the first key point I want to raise here is this:

Understand the politics of those you work with.

No, I don’t mean what political party they vote for, I mean understand the different personalities and the way people behave in the team.

By understanding this properly, you can make decisions that will go down better with them and you can approach particular topics with different degrees of political astuteness.

Everyone is different, and adopting a “one size fits all” approach can really hamper your ability to deliver great points.

So understand the nuances of your team.

So you’ve got a right nuisance in your team?

They don’t buy into anything.

You understand they’re difficult, and you’ve taken a few different approaches to try and get them on board.

But no matter what you do, they just don’t want to play the game.

Providing you’ve actually tried a few different approaches to getting them on board, it might be best to remove them from the team.

This can be really challenging.

They might:

• be technically competent

• have carved out a unique role

• have formed a close relationship with a senior manager

Either way, you need to ask yourself this question:

Does having this person hamper the team’s ability to achieve the mission?

If the answer is yes, it’s probably worth the short term loss.

People are our most important asset.

We should always do our best to take care of our people.

However, if a member of the team poses a risk to the rest of the team, you need to cut them lose.

Think about the culture you’re trying to build in the team.

How does having this person around effect the culture you’re trying to build?

What effects will this person have on the rest of the team or the environment you’re building?

We care about our people.

And we care about the mission.

Therefore, understand your people and take multiple different approaches to get buy in from a team member.

But at the end of the day, if they don’t fit the culture, you need to think strategically.

Protect the rest of the team by cutting them lose.

It’s not easy. Nobody says it is.

But you’re here to do what’s right, not what’s easy.

A bit of a tough one today!

But to end things on a more cheerful note…

Have a great day!

Reece

Use AI as Your Personal Assistant

Ready to embrace a new era of task delegation?

HubSpot’s highly anticipated AI Task Delegation Playbook is your key to supercharging your productivity and saving precious time.

Learn how to integrate AI technology into your processes, allowing you to optimize resource allocation and maximize output with precision and ease.

Download Now!