Many leadership teams focus on strategy, marketing and their finances but it’s their lack of teamwork that let’s them down. The reason that teamwork is often overlooked or neglected is that it’s hard to measure and hard to achieve.

Patrick Lencioni has written a book called The Five Dysfunctions of a Team which has inspired me to share my experiences on this topic.

Is your team dysfunctional?

We have probably all experienced being in a dysfunctional team at least once in our lives but it is useful to remind ourselves what they look like. Run down this list and ask yourself honestly if you’ve seen this in your team:-

• A lack of trust and willingness to show any vulnerability
• A fear of conflict with people holding back and guarding their comments for fear of offending
• A lack of buy-in and commitment to decisions because thoughts and feelings have not been sufficiently aired
• Where colleagues are afraid to challenge and hold each other accountable leading to deadlines being missed
• Where individuals put their own needs and agenda before the collective team goals and allow their egos to get the better of them

How can you avoid dysfunctional teams?

Whatever stage of development your team are in its is worth taking some time out to work with your team on assessing where they think they are by using these questions:-

1. How much trust exists between your team members and how do you know this?
2. How much conflict occurs within the team and how do you handle it?
3. How easy is it to get people to really buy-in and commit to decisions?
4. How good are you at holding your peers accountable for their behavior and actions?
5. Are your team more focused on their individual goals or the teams goals?

Once you become aware that your team is dysfunctional the best thing you can do is to acknowledge it and discuss it as a team, otherwise it will fester and become worse.