6 Behaviours that are Killing your Team quicker than Cyanide!

Any successful team requires strong leadership, with someone at the helm who is unafraid to call out misbehaviour, malpractices, or wrongful code of conduct, irrespective of the repercussions. Real leaders are not afraid to be disliked as instead of focusing on specific people, they prefer to focus on the bigger goal, the entire team’s well-being, and ultimately their core leadership values. “Courage is the most important virtue” said Maya Angelou, as it helps sustain all other qualities intrinsic to good leadership. However, life would be too straightforward if everything were to run smooth just with sound leadership on board. A team also requires solid competent members with traits that will enable it to succeed, bond, and grow. Qualities like transparency, communication, vision, team-spirit, dependability, and trust are necessary to sustain a team and for it to thrive.

Unfortunately, we often see teams crumble. Reasons could be many, ranging from poor leadership to overall bad business strategies. However, some among them could be purely intrinsic to the team itself. Here I mention six personality traits, which when part of teams start a rapid internal decay. These toxic behaviors if not checked by team leaders eventually lead to the team’s downfall.

1. Attention Seekers: They will always have enough praises about their own accomplishments but you will hardly hear them say a positive word or two about someone else in the team, esp. behind the teams’ back. Constantly beating their own drum, poking their noses where they do not belong, trying to one-up and outshine others. In the process, they alienate themselves from the team, play the boss’s favorite, thereby creating a lot of disharmony and discontent within the team. It takes a strong leader to curb these behaviors in attention seekers and to establish that they are "a part" of the team, and not the team per se.
2. Bullies: You will find them everywhere. They will be in your kindergarten, in schools, in the University and unfortunately are also found in offices. If team-members keep doing what pleases them, these colleagues will be elated. However, the moment a team member points out the error in their ways or threatens their confidence, they will start back-biting, gossiping and bad-mouthing. No one is spared from the attacks of a bully. It could be an innocent team member who only meant to be helpful or even their superiors. Bullies need a firm hand, and if leaders do not check bullying immediately, it comes back to bite them. Trust me on that.
3. Stubborn Hard Heads: Career, just like life, is all about growth and development. It is about taking chances and risks for the sake of self-improvement and self-discovery. About trying out new things even if we fail, because trust me, nothing teaches us how to be successful like failure does. Unfortunately, team members that are too rigid to try out new ideas and strategies pull the team back. Of course, there are those who try out new strategies quicker than others, and those who need more time, support, and attention. This is perfectly human and normal. We all are wired differently, and we must respect that. However, if you have a team-mate who is totally unwilling to budge and is stubborn as hell, good luck trying to sustain him/her in this fast paced “Learn-Unlearn-Relearn” environment. As a wise colleague once remarked “Flexibility is the key to growth”.
4. Self-Important: “Oh! I am too busy. I just do not have the time”. This is a breed that is always busy. I mean ALWAYS! They will never have the time to respond to calls or write back E-mails. They will keep cancelling or postponing meetings and never reach out. Interestingly, when it comes to delivering results, this species is amusingly slow and often not the most transparent on plans and progress. The “I, Me, Myself” breed. They will sit on the job and will need absurd doses of “feeling self-important” from time to time. Hire them and then please remember to throw your project timelines out of the window ?? LOL!
5. Tactless Tattlers: There are people-pleasers on one end and then there are “tactless-tattlers” on the other. These are individuals who lack both tact and respect in communicating and solving arguments gracefully. How do you locate one? Easy! They will be losing their lid during team meetings and start shouting or using inappropriate language towards others. If a leader does not curb this behavior immediately, it is bound to repeat and will foster ill-will within the team. And here I mean, both for the leader and the tactless team-member.
6. Constant Complainers: It is all but human to feel positive and negative emotions. All humans vent with those they trust, to relieve stress, build feelings of trust, and in the process calm their nerves. Constructive venting is when you voice your concerns and then find out a solution to help yourself and the team. However, there are some who always complain with not a single solution to offer. Positivity in the team is strangled due to repetitive negative comments, complaints, and nit-picking. The aim should be to steer the conversation towards a positive concrete solution with these members or else you lose risking all positivity within your team.

As team members, it is paramount that we watch our actions and behaviors lest we fall prey to these negative patterns, especially during challenging times. Since it is often certain insecurities or fear that lead people to display these toxic behaviors, clear communication is crucial to set high standards and key expectations. It is equally vital that leaders invest time and efforts in identifying these behaviors and rectify them by tackling them swiftly.

Anything that hampers a team's cohesion and vision should be dealt with immediate effect, a sound strategy and a strong hand.