How Owners Can Deal with People Issues

In business coaching, many business owners turn to us because of “people issues.” When describing their people issues, business owners say they:

? Have people doing things they don’t want them to do.

? Have people NOT doing things they WANT them to do.

? Have difficulty getting people to see the business the way they as leaders see it.

? Feel like they’re the hardest working person in the business.

? Feel like they have to babysit employees.

? Have employees not stepping up to the plate, not taking accountability

Another thing we hear is, “my people just aren’t on the same page as me!” Why are people issues so darned hard to deal with? Owners…

? Simply don’t know how to.

? Don’t see the problem, focusing more on the technical side of the business, where their expertise is.

? Don’t put the significance or weight that people dynamics can have on a business.

People issues are uncomfortable to deal with and they’re so much easier to ignore in hopes they go away!

Viewing people issues under the heading of teambuilding provides a structured set of actions you can take to deal with them. Teambuilding actions solve people issues and better yet, keep most of them from happening in the first place. The best news about team building… it’s not difficult to do.

In our line of business, people issues are a great opportunity for us to add value. Pat Lencioni’s work, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, has been a mainstay for 20 years and it’s one of our favorites. Following the actions contained in the Five Dysfunctions provides a structured way to improve people issues.

Let’s take a look at the Five Dysfunctions:

1. Lack of trust

2. Fear of conflict

3. Lack of commitment

4. Avoiding accountability

5. Inattention to results

The dysfunctions describe the source of most people issues and are a list of what NOT to do. If you flip the phrasing into the positive, you get a list of what TO do, in other words, a clear picture of what a high-performing team looks like and does.

Here’s the phrasing, flipped to the positive, with Lencioni’s advice, along with ours. Use these actions and your people issues will turn into collaborative cohesion!

Members of a high-performing team—

? Trust one another. They ask each other for help instead of hiding weaknesses or mistakes. They give one another the benefit of the doubt instead of forming negative conclusions. They offer and accept apologies instead of holding grudges. They have one another’s back because there’s an underlying belief that everyone’s doing their best, and if they’re not, there’s a good, and resolvable, reason for it. And here’s a surprise—they look forward to meetings instead of dreading them!

To achieve trust, leaders need to provide opportunities for their people to get to know one another. You can do this by springing for pizza lunches, arranging a bowling tournament, and also by scheduling a personality debrief using an instrument like the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator or DISC. Get the trust dysfunction right and the other four dysfunctions become easy to instill.

? Engage in unfiltered conflict around ideas. Your team members truly listen to understand other’s views instead of trying to win the argument or manipulate to get what they want. They don’t hesitate to disagree and challenge one another instead of venting after the meeting.

Leaders should allow for debate and even “mine for conflict” to get issues surfaced so they can be resolved. It’s also important to recognize and stop unhealthy conflict, like mean-spirited attacks or artificial harmony.

? Commit to decisions and action plans. Great teams know how to commit to two concepts:

1) Clarity—stating specifics instead of assuming everyone’s on the same page and 2) Buy-in—asking for buy-in especially when team members disagree.

Leaders should end every meeting with the question, “What exactly have we decided on here?” Also, be very clear about goals, strategies, plans, and your vision. Put them in writing by creating your Single Sheet Business Plan and your Quarterly Action Plan and be heard talking about these things all the time!

? Hold one another accountable for delivering promised results. This means team members are willing to remind one another when they’re not living up to group standards. Surprisingly, this doesn’t need to fall on the leader to do; peers can give one another feedback too.

When a team member doesn’t deliver, leaders can say so in the meeting, respectfully, of course. Leaders should set the example by learning how to give feedback and doing it in meetings, then encouraging team members to give one another feedback. There’s a great exercise to instill this on the team—call or email one of the coaches and we can share it with you.

? Are focused on collective results. Everyone’s clear that we’re all working towards the same goal.

Leaders can post a scoreboard, easily visible to all, and review progress frequently.

One of our clients who owns a large landscaping company has seen his people issues turn into collaborative cohesion. Admittedly, though, he’ll tell you that this kind of team cohesion can be elusive, “We have it most times but not always. We’re all about the satisfaction of the client and willing to disagree for the sake of accomplishing that goal. It’s a blast; there’s nothing much better than being part of that kind of team. Sure, you’ll still have people issues but they’re more likely to resolve themselves and for those that don’t, you have a framework to fall back on when resolving them.”

What’s your biggest people issue right now? Choose one action from above that’s most likely to address it. After that, you can go back to the first dysfunction, lack of trust, and make a plan for a couple of activities that’ll help your employees get to know one another on a deeper level. Then you’re off to the strong start because once trust is in place, the others are easier to achieve.

With these teambuilding actions in place, most of your people issues will either solve themselves and are less likely to happen in the first place. Imagine having a cohesive team of people who collaborate and produce results!