I had and have my share of difficult team members. Whoever says they never had to deal with difficult people have either been extremely lucky or are lying.
When we have various projects, with various people from different cultural backgrounds, it is unavoidable to encounter difficulties in communication and approaches.
We can find ourselves in one of the following situations:
1. We are the new team members
2. There is another team member that is new
3. The team combination is new
We are the new team members
In the first situation, where we are the new team members, most of the times we have to prove ourselves. Most of the times, people do not give us their trust, we have to earn it, and for that we have to work smart.
We have to keep an open communication, and understand what the needs of the team is. Also, it would be helpful to find out what their previous experiences with someone on our position has been – having a positive or negative experience will influence a lot of the current interactions we have with them and the amount of effort we will have to invest.
We should allow the team members to tell us what their expectations are, how you can help them, what they would want or need for the future. And we should listen actively, see how we can help them achieve some of their plans or needs.
And at the same time we can mention some of our intentions, see how they react to it, gather some feedback.
In addition to having an open communication, we have to be consistent in how we behave, what we do, what our approaches are, how we communicate.
Consistency is key to gaining the team’s trust.
A positive outlook and approach to things will also create an easier atmosphere. We should avoid taking it to the extreme, but being more optimistic can help take away a bit of the stress the team can encounter.
There is another team member that is new
If we have some difficult situation with a new team member in the team, we should try to understand him and what his reasons are, where he is coming from. Is this due to the stress of readjustment, or maybe it is a misunderstanding of what is needed from him/her? Is it lack of knowledge, something that can be fixed with a training or a more detailed ramp-up, or is it different expectations?
Same as in the previous situation, open communication is best. We should see what that person has to say, and take it up from there. If they do not understand something about their situation, position or what is needed from them, we should make sure we clarify it.
In case he/she needs support, we should find someone, if not us, to give it to them, or find a training that can help them out.
We should build a plan together for development, make sure they feel they belong to the team and are included by the other team members.
The team combination is new
An interesting combination is when we form a team of people that were already working in the same company, but in different teams. All of a sudden, regardless how well they got along, we can see situations in which egos, mentalities, experiences collide in unexpected ways.
I am probably repeating myself, but since apparently almost 90% of our job is time spent on communication, yes, communication is essential here as well. The colliding mentalities should be kept from creating clusters inside the team and work in opposition to the others. At team level, we need unity and a common goal and understanding of what needs to be done to reach it.
We can begin with taking the parties aside and discuss their issues, try to see their points but most important, they should see each other’s points.
We should make it clear how important they all are for the common goal, and what that common understanding stands for.
Most of you might question why I did not touch upon what happens if the issues continue, regardless of the effort we or the other team members are putting up.
It happens that sometimes the context is simply not right. Or we will need to reconfigure the teams we have in a more suitable way.
We need to be adaptable enough to switch between contexts and understand how far we can push things: ourselves, others, the context.
The positive outlook on things I mentioned earlier is also of great help: for us, as well as for the teams, clients, etc. – people need to have someone that can also point out the good parts when they are having doubts.
You might be curious to see how to work within teams located in multiple locations. I touched upon this subject in this post
If you, the reader, have other suggestions or opinions, please feel free to write a few lines at say-hello@projectmanagementlifopedia.com
silvana comanici-stoianov 