Stuck in a Rut?

Are you and your team stuck in a rut?

As a team leader you may be blind to the fact that you a sliding down a slippery path that will adversely impact your results because your team is ‘stuck’ in some way.

Because you are in amongst ‘the soup’ – the daily activities and energy of your team and work life you may not easily spot some of the clues, so here are some tips on what to look out for.

Hopefully they will help you spot the ‘rot’ and take action before it’s too late.

Lack of Energy

You may notice a lack of enthusiasm or lethargy a in the team or in certain individuals; or hear phrases like:

• ‘There’s nothing anyone can do… ‘
• ‘What a waste of time…’
• ‘Is it really worth it’

Energy is contagious. If you allow this to continue it will very soon be the overriding energy and mood of the team and not the most productive energy to deliver results!!

Cynicism

Cynicism and mistrust may be harder to spot. It could be you that isn’t trusted and therefore not so visible.

Look at how team meetings are working. Is the agenda is more important than the outcome?  Is it all show and tell for the boss? Are there unconstructive and one-sided discussions without candour – nobody wants to talk about what is really going on?

Another tell tale sign could be an apathy in the way challenges or obstacles are viewed in that they are owned by one individual rather than a team approach:

‘I knew this teamwork stuff was a load of @*@*’

Blame

You can pick this up by the comments people make either in meetings or in corridor chats and can come across as a lack of personal responsibility… it’s always someone else’s fault or, down to someone else to take action. 

Phrases or behaviour you may hear or see are:

•  ‘We have no clue as to what this is about…’
• Meetings in which interpersonal attacks made behind peoples backs and to outsiders – ‘x has never pulled his own weight and never will’
• A sense of helplessness and lots of finger pointing at top management and/or the rest of the organisation – ‘if this effort is so important why don’t they give us more resources.’
• ‘We can’t make this happen on our own and no-one else is interested’ 

Possible solutions to becoming unstuck

It’s never too late to do something about a ‘stuck team’, although the longer you leave it the more challenging it may be to reverse the trend.

Here are some things you can do:

1. Revisit the basics. Is each team member clear about the purpose, vision, goals and ground rules for the team?
2. If there is a lot to be achieved over a long time frame go for small wins – one step at a time. Help everyone recognise how far they have come rather than how much is left to do!
3. Inject new information relevant to the work they are doing e.g. feedback from other teams on the work they are doing, benchmarks to show how much progress has been made or, to inspire a new level of thinking and action case studies and best practices.
4. Change the leadership or team membership. Sometimes you have to change the people in the team to create the energy you need to move forward.
5. Invest time and energy yourself and hire a facilitator/coach who can help with different approaches. This way you can be part of the team and solution. It can be hard as a leader to try and facilitate the team and be part of it.

What ideas do you have?

Have you ever been in a stuck/underperforming team?

What worked for you?

I’d love to hear about your ideas and experiences, simply leave a message below.

“Teams do not go physically flat, they go mentally stale.”

Vincent Lombardi