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Are You Playing to Win?
Or Playing Not to Lose?

Dealing with Personalities in Team Development
FORMING-STORMING-NORMING -PERFORMING & TRANSFORMING!
Sometimes during team development on a Playing To Win Team, there is a participant who doesn’t want to be there. You know the type - the person who thinks “I don’t like this new direction; I know better, and I want to do it my way.” They become disruptive and resistant, interrupting the group with their opinions and rants.


So, how can we deal with this person?

Do you let them act up, hijack the meetings, and throw a hissy fit in the hopes they will be released from the team (which they didn’t want to be on in the first place), or allow them to do it “their way”?  How does their behavior impact the others on the team?  Will they want to kick them to the curb, or side with the rabble-rouser? Could this lead to a coup? Do you need to nip this in the bud???? 

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Welcome to Stage 2 of team development, the STORMING phase!

The reason most teams fail to become high performing is that we aren’t prepared for and can’t cope with this STORMING phase. 


As I reflected on this, I wondered….


  • - Should we take this person aside, allow them to vent so they feel seen, heard, and valued, and see if they will have an epiphany and come around?
  • - Should we give them a choice and say; “I understand how you feel and, this is the direction the team is going in so, so how do you want to proceed?”
  • - Do we, as leaders, squelch the resistance by using Command and Control tactics and insist that they work together?
  • - Do we allow everyone to break apart, work independently, and hope it nets the results we are looking for?
Better yet, what if the team gets involved to help and support this person to come around??? 


Blair Singer, one of my teachers and mentors, says, “All great teams become great by taking on challenge, adversity, and pressure and seeing themselves through it together.” [taken from the book; Team Code of Honor, The Secrets of Champions in Business and in Life]


What do you think?