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O P I N I O N
Team reset
Now is a good time to make good on your 2018 work resolution to improve your team by turning the saboteurs into loyalists.
T he new year brings with it the opportunity for change, growth, and renewal. We commit to accomplishing new goals or resolve to finally complete old ambitions. Most of us feel more optimistic at the beginning of the year. New Year’s resolutions are expected. Gym memberships go through the roof in January. The “fresh start” feel of each new year is infectious.
Audrey Epstein GUEST SPEAKER
What if we could start over with our teams as well? What if we could take the old patterns of dysfunction, of gossip and infighting, or cliques and politics of 2017, and turn them into high- performing team behaviors in 2018? Toxic teams destroy employee morale and engagement, stifle creativity, and put personal agendas above team or company goals. So, how do you reset with your team? Follow these four steps: 1)Diagnose the current state of your team. You need to know what’s working and what’s not on your team before you do a full reset. Start your diagnosis by identifying the type of team you currently have. From our research, we know all teams can be catego- rized into one of the following four team types:
❚ ❚ Saboteur Teams: The worst of the worst – team hell. Distrust, politics, infighting, and gossip are hallmarks of Saboteur Teams. Win-lose thinking and survival tactics take precedence over shared goals. ❚ ❚ Benign Saboteur Teams: What team? These risk- averse groups are characterized by lack of interac- tion, support, and alignment. Typical character- istics include a “you stay in your lane while I stay in mine” mentality. While team members don’t actively hurt one another, they don’t do much to help, either. ❚ ❚ Situational Loyalist Teams: Good, but not great teams. Pockets of trust, collaboration, and sup- port exist, but not with all team members. There
See AUDREY EPSTEIN, page 4
THE ZWEIG LETTER February 19, 2018, ISSUE 1236
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