Treat Your Team Like Your Lover

Relationship gurus, the ones that respond to Dear.... letters in the newspaper and the ones that write books on the topic say, "don't go to bed angry." The idea being don't go to bed without resolving the issue.

The same advice should be applied to teams. Though they aren't typically made of physical relationships, they are still relationships, of sorts nonetheless. The idea is don't leave the meeting, don't move to the next topic without engaging in enough conflict to get an issue resolved. Patrick Lencioni, author of 5 Dysfunctions of a Team says teams that don't have positive conflict:

• Have boring meetings

• Create environments where back-channel politics and personal attacks thrive

• Ignore controversial topics that are critical to team success

• Fail to tap into all the opinions and perspectives of team members

• Waste time and energy with posturing and interpersonal risk management

Be willing to be courageous at work. Be the one person in the room willing to disagree, willing to challenge an idea even if it's the boss'. It's the only way to a great culture.

><(("> Jeffy

Jeff Brainard is a ><((“> Team Member at Catch Your Limit Consulting, a management and marketing firm with offices in Tallahassee, Florida and Richmond, Virginia. He is a keynote speaker, facilitator, blogger and contributing author for international, national and regional publications. To learn more, visit http://www.catchyourlimit.com