One of your colleagues does not bring such results as he should and hampers the team's performance. So you take him aside and express your discontent in private. Do you think similarly in such situations? Then you act like the vast majority of managers. Criticizing employees separately can, however – despite the popular belief – ruin the work of the whole team. Psychologist Roger Schwarz pointed to this interesting fact on The Conference Board website.
A well-functioning team is the one whose members are not only interconnected and rely on each other, but also partially responsible for the joint work of the whole team. If you criticize one worker in private because you do not want to speak negatively in front of the rest of the team, you let him know he is not responsible to others but to you as well as the rest of the team is. The internal cohesion of the team falls apart and the team members will rely on you instead of on each other. You might think that responsibility lies only on your shoulders but is this definitely the right way?
Allow your team to solve the problem itself
If you disrupt this team mechanism in order to correct the problem, you can actually cause even a worse scenario. At the end, you will deal whose fault it really was if the responsibility is interconnected among members. Are you sure you want to handle it? If an action is needed, set measures related to the whole team and try not to change just one part. Encourage others in the team to express themselves to a workmate’s problem and not wait for you. Joint meetings are the right place for such discussion and you'll be only a guide.
To lead a great team the members of which address emerging problems effectively themselves, you need to set the necessary steps to deal with the responsibility to others. Let others know that the accountability does not lie on you and discuss how it is important to be able to rely on others and how it affects the team results and relations. Find out how it is with mutual responsibilities in your team now and what possibly needs to work better. Does it need more information about the company, learn to communicate better or more assurance from others? Excellent results can be achieved only with the team where members openly communicate and give feedback to each other. Do your people know it as well?
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