Your Team is Fine… or So You Think…

I Hear It All The Time.

I’m having a conversation about teamwork with a CEO, a COO, or a CHRO, and I ask about their teams. Almost every time, I get a response along the lines of: “We have a really great team. People work hard here. We have no need for teamwork training.

In their mind, this is 100% true because they are telling me exactly what they see from where they sit.

But the problem is where they sit.

Then I talk to people on those teams. You know these people. They are the ones doing the actual work, the ones navigating assorted personalities, the ones trying to collaborate with other people and other teams to get real work done. When I talk to those people, I often get a very different story. It isn’t a dramatic blowup, but a quieter, more honest account of what life inside the organization actually looks like. And it almost never matches what the leader just told me.

Silos Abound

One of the most common things I hear from team members is: "We have great people here, we have great teams here, and my department is solid. But the departments do not really work well together.”

Consider that for a second.

Each department functions like a tight, capable unit. But ask those same people what it is like to work across departments, and the tone shifts. Suddenly, they are discussing unnecessary delays, misunderstandings, finger-pointing, and a general sense that the left hand does not always know what the right hand is doing. (Who has never lived that?)

So, here is my message for leaders: your organization is a team, too. The largest one. And it does not get a pass just because the smaller units within it are functioning.

Strong departmental teams with weak cross-departmental collaboration are often hard to recognize as a problem.  People become loyal to their department first and the organization second, but nobody wants to say that out loud, because it feels disloyal.

But the customer on the other end of that broken handoff does not care which team dropped the ball. They just know someone did.

This is a culture problem, and it starts at the top. If department leaders do not model and manage cross-departmental collaboration, silos will grow.

The fix requires intentional effort in shared training, cross-departmental conversations outside crisis moments, and leaders who reinforce the idea that a win for another department is a win for the whole organization. Leaders must stand at the crossroads where interdepartmental work gets done to know how their teams are performing. They can’t just stand at the destination and see what arrives.

And There is Always that One…

The second thing I hear, almost as often, is this: “We have a really great team. But there is that one person who just is not a team player.”

And there is always that one person. (See the“One Bad Apple”blog post for more.)

Sometimes it is subtle. They never quite pull in the same direction; they undercut decisions in the hallway after the meeting ends; or the energy shifts when they walk in the room. Other times it is not subtle at all. Everyone knows who it is. The leader usually knows, too, and the team watches to see what happens.

If this is not addressed, it spreads. Good employees question whether or not their efforts really matter. Relationships start to break down. Management’s leadership is called into question in this and all other matters.

The one who isn't a team player doesn’t always know they aren't. In my experience, the behavior often has roots in something else: an unresolved conflict, a sense of being passed over, or a communication style that reads as combative when that is not the intent. That does not excuse the behavior, but it does suggest the answer is not always to wait for a personnel decision. Sometimes the answer is personnel development.

Minding the Gap

The reason leaders say everything is fine when the team says it is not is usually this: the team has adapted to the conditions, and the output is mitigated before reaching the top. Nothing is on fire, so nothing rises to crisis, so, at the executive level, everything must be fine.

But great organizations do not wait for crisis. They stay close enough to the truth to catch these things before they calcify.

That starts with leaders willing to ask the real questions. Not “Is the team performing?” but “How is the team actually doing?” Not “Do we have teamwork problems?” But “What would I hear if I asked the people closest to the work?”

Teamwork does not take care of itself. It requires attention, investment, and the occasional hard conversation. The good news is that those are all things leaders can choose to address, either internally or through external training solutions.

If you would like to explore what great teamwork from the top to the bottom looks like for your organization, I would welcome the conversation.

Enhance your team’s skills with soft-skills training. Whether you need leadership, communication, teamwork, or management training, RWSmith ETC has you covered. Contact us today and elevate your team’s potential.