Four Questions to Ask Yourself When You Notice Problems on Your Team

Every manager faces it--those times when your team is not behaving like a well-oiled machine and you finally have to step in to do something about it--or him, or her, or the situation. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

Is this a short term problem? In some cases, an individual may start behaving in a less than effective way, but only for a short time. This can be due to personal issues of all kinds, or a short term health issue, etc. If the person is usually cooperative, and you know of extenuating circumstances, you might try to be extra gracious during that window of time when their normal patience and kindness is not as evident (i.e. while their husband/son is deployed, while they get elderly parents into assisted living, while their child is ill, etc.)

Do you need to involve others? A manager needs to be observant and a good listener, so he/she can consider whether a problem is happening with more than one member of the team. For example, if you start having several people coming to you individually about the same individual, you may need to ask each person the same set of questions, write down notes, and see if there are any consistencies with the complaints. In other cases, you may not need to involve anyone else, but instead prepare to meet with the person based on your own observation.

Is it time to step in? Although sometimes you can wait (see first point), often it is better to deal with problems in their early stages. Approach the offending team member with questions, privately. Draw them out to find out what may be motivating their recent behavior. This is easier if you've already established regular meeting times with this individual so an issue can be addressed as part of the normal course of reviewing their work, for example. Keeping "short accounts" can protect situations from becoming very harsh and more difficult to work around.

Am I the problem? Do some self-examination to assess if you are going through a difficult time and taking it out on your team. Get the help you need for everyone's sake.

Ask yourself these questions when facing a team problem so you can take the appropriate steps to mitigate it quickly.

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Make Their Job a Little Easier

A simple tip today...pick one or two employees on your team and ask them this simple question: "What would make your job easier today?" Then, as quickly as possible, try to act on that suggestion if it can be reasonably applied. If not, suggest an alternative that will help improve that employee's day.

For example, let's say one of your support staff has to drop off the outgoing mail at the post office each day after she leaves work. Is it possible to hire a courier, or erect a secure mailbox at which she can put the outgoing mail instead?

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In Esther 8, some excitement occurs in the story of Esther. It is at this point that the king makes a decision to "approve" Esther's request that her people, the Jews, be saved from destruction. Isn't that great?

Yes, but...

What if the king's scribes didn't respond quickly to write the edict? (v. 9)

What if people didn't know all the individual languages, to be able to write in that language, for all the various provinces? (v. 9)

What if the "sealing" of the edict hadn't happened properly, to affirm the authority of the command? (v. 10)

What if the person who "wrote in the name of the king" didn't accurately portray what the king wanted? (v. 10)

What if the mounted couriers didn't speed to deliver the news? (They didn't have email or Facebook back then.) (vv. 10, 14)

For that matter, what if those who took care of the horses did a sloppy job, resulting in sluggish, overweight horses that couldn't gallop? (It is noted that these horses were of prime pedigree.) (v. 10)

What if a specific date (the thirteenth day of the twelfth month) hadn't been specifically chosen? (v. 12)

What if copies weren't quickly made (they didn't have copiers) so all provinces could get the same message? (v. 13)

The Jews would have died.

Do you see how important good administration, training, and teamwork is?

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