Sarah was frustrated. She had noticed that her team members often seemed dismissive about the importance of her work. Why are they not interested in my work? Does what I do not matter?
Sarah felt angry, defensive and helpless, which made things even worse. Subsequently, she didn’t want to work with them and started to avoid them, further negatively impacting communication and team spirit. The disconnect between her and most of her colleagues grew.
In reality, the perceived disinterest stemmed from team members not knowing each other well, which hindered their connection and interest. It wasn’t that they were being intentionally dismissive. People were just busy doing their own thing rather than ignoring her.
But Sarah didn’t see that connection. She had her own perception of what was going on.
Ultimately, the whole situation affected one of their clients, who didn’t get a promised report on time, as communication had broken down between colleagues and deadlines were missed.
The client complained about the breach of contract this entailed, and a penalty clause kicked in, which meant the client didn’t have to pay. This didn’t improve the team spirit, but instead triggered an unproductive, finger-pointing blame game where no one wanted to take responsibility for what had happened or the consequences that resulted.
There was a clear impact on the bottom line from the lack of trust that had been created through the team disconnect.
This story is a rewritten excerpt from "Leading Teams 10 Challenge 10 Solutions", FT Publishing 2015
This short story highlights that team spirit and trust are often eroded or never created in the first place unless team members know each other, connect and value each other, and can clearly see that they have a shared purpose to fulfil.
And in this case, there’s also a link between the lack of trust and the bottom line (the penalty clause). And the lack of cooperation means it takes longer to get the work done, which affects productivity which in turn affects costs too.
AND let’s not forget that when trust is low, loyalty is low too, leading to higher employee turnover, which leads to more costs.
The link between lack of trust and the bottom is sometimes overlooked by leaders.
Building a great team starts by spending time together, investing the time it takes to get to know and trust each other, and then exploring how to achieve the shared purpose – together.
Connected teamwork is a good investment.
“Remember, teamwork begins by building trust.
Patrick Lencioni
And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.”
