Reference

Working with difficult people, says the author, requires compassion and understanding. Citing seven difficult  personality types, she suggests ways in which confrontations can be converted to win­win situations.  Get with the program  Ideally, your company should put in teams only those employees who are receptive to the idea, management  experts say. But if your bosses have gone ga­ga for teams and you're cool to the concept, make the best of it for  the sake of your career or find a company with a workplace hierarchy that suits you better.  Sharon Morris, a management consultant in Fremont, tells of an employee at one high­tech company who  strongly opposed being part of a team. He didn't want his colleagues to take credit for his individual efforts. His  reluctance to work in the team environment ultimately led to his termination.  Communicate effectively  You must voice your opinions if you disagree with the team's decisions. Team members who fail to speak up are  essentially sanctioning the practice through silence, said Marilyn Manning, a management consultant in  Mountain View. Furthermore, morale will be jeopardized if team members feel compromised to think they are  being forced into carrying out tasks they disagree with, she said.  Communicating and its corollary­listening ­take practice. Greg Huszczo, author of Tools for Team Excellence  suggests a drill where each team member takes five minutes.  Egotists, like attackers, also charge. However, unlike attackers, egotists think they know it all. They may, indeed,  be experts on a given subject.  Show honest respect for the egotist's knowledge, but don't become intimidated by it. Egotists love to talk about  what they know, and if they are approached from that perspective, their frequently abusive attitudes and behavior  can be tempered.  Less aggressive personalities  Not all difficult people are as overt as the attacker or egotist. The sneak, for instance, shoots from behind cover,  taking "pot shots" and often using sarcasm as a weapon. The best way to deal with a sneak is to expose him or  her.  Be direct: "Mary, do you have different opinion or solution?" Bring sneaks out into the open to weaken their  ability to cause problems.  The victim, like the sneak, sees everything negatively. They whine and moan, and seem to be powerless, defeated  from the beginning.  To neutralize the victim's negative stance, ask for suggestions to improve the situation. Take control by stating the  negatives, then dismissing each logically.  Negators are victims magnified. They are usually suspicious of those in power and believe that their way is the  only right way. But even granting them their "right" way, negators expect plans to fail.  The strategies for handing negators are similar to the strategies for victims, with one exception: Delay discussing  real solutions with negators, because they will be ready to dismiss all solutions as soon as they hear them. Let  negators exhaust all their negative "ammunition" before focusing on real solutions.  The most difficult personalities 

Super­agreeable and unresponsive people are the most difficult personalities to deal with because they don't  reveal their true selves or motives. For instance, super­agreeable people are usually out­ going and friendly. Not  bad traits. Except, super­agreeables have such a strong need to be liked that they will become whatever others  need them to be at the expense of their own needs and wants.  Because super­agreeable people need to be liked, they will over commit themselves and their staffs. They can't  say "No." So despite their need for approval, super­agreeable people will more likely disappoint and frustrate  their managers, staff, and co­workers because they over commit. It is important to make sure super­agreeable  staffers aren't overworked.  Super­agreeable people need to know that others are genuinely interested in them, and even in their families and  personal lives. Asking questions and carefully listening to responses­ being especially appreciative of their  humor­will reveal nuggets of information about what is truly important to them.  Unresponsive people may be the most difficult people to deal with, because they are hard to understand and are  seemingly impossible to draw out. And that's what must be done: Draw them out.  Always use open­ended questions that require them to volunteer more than a "Yes" or "No" answer. Then, wait  for a response. Even if the silence grows chasm­like, let them to respond first. Resist the urge to jump in a finish  sentences for unresponsive people. They will only withdraw even more.  Asking unresponsive people to think about solutions, and to present them at a scheduled subsequent meeting are  more strategies for drawing them out.  Win­win solutions  Write the strategies for each personality on 3x5 index cards. Review the appropriate strategy before meeting with  a difficult person. Visualizing stressful situations with the person before actually meeting with him or her will  help develop expertise in using the strategies.  Becoming adept at handling difficult people will make it easier to control situations involving them, and will  reduce the natural tendency to respond with anger and frustration. These new skills can help you defuse tense  situations, alter the undesirable behavior of difficult persons, and create win­win situations for everyone  involved. 

Building and Maintaining effective teams:  1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Create a team charter  Set goals and measure results  Develop operating guidelines  Define team member roles and responsibilities  Develop feedback skills  Learn to manage conflict  Develop good group decision­making processes  Integrate new team members effectively  Develop a team training discipline 

Knowledge-based organizations often rely on teams to serve customers, innovate, and improve productivity. But creating and maintaining effective teams with maximum potential for learning can be a challenge. While teams can provide dramatic improvements over traditional work structures, they often fall short. And given the complex, interdependent nature of today's work, a team that fails to learn from experience can put the whole organization at risk. How can leaders ensure healthy teams with high-leverage opportunities for creating and sharing knowledge? One way is to wait until teams are "sick" and then attempt to quickly diagnose and treat the problem. But a better approach is to focus on preventing breakdowns in the first place and building continuous learning practices into the team's structure. Nine prudent practices can help prevent many of the problems that are becoming endemic in team-based organizations. 1. Create a team charter. Getting off to a healthy start is one of the best preventative measures a team can take. The early establishment of a shared vision is integral to successful team functioning. Teams that struggle often attribute their ills to an unclear focus. The charter provides a sense of purpose, clarifies what the team is expected to do, focuses the energies and activities of team members, and provides a basis for setting goals, prioritizing work, and making decisions. Although a company manager may facilitate the process, team members themselves develop the charter. Most charters include a statement of purpose, description of key customers, and results to be attained. Other elements, such as key partnerships, important deliverables and deadlines, or critical technologies, can be added as deemed useful and relevant. 2. Set goals and measure results. A key to team wellness is having a clear way to measure performance. A clear set of well-defined metrics allows the team to manage its progress and fulfill the purpose outlined in its charter. Without a set of measurable goals, teams can easily get distracted by issues not critical to the success of the work, the team, or the team's customers. 3. Develop operating guidelines. If expectations about behavior and interactions between team members are not clearly articulated and understood, the team is headed for trouble. Operating guidelines are a set of shared agreements that define how team members will interact; for example, "We will be prepared for meetings" or "We will treat each other with dignity and respect." Such guidelines provide a conscious alternative to unspoken norms such as "We will defer to management to make all key decisions" or "We will complain about other team members behind their backs instead of talking with them directly." Used properly, operating guidelines can be a powerful vehicle for self-regulation and team well-being. 4. Define team member roles and responsibilities. Clearly defining roles and responsibilities up front is crucial. Begin by jointly articulating what should be expected of all team members. Once in agreement on areas of common responsibility, move on to determining individual roles. Review the specific skills and expertise needed on the team given your charter, key projects, major areas of responsibility, and individual skills and strengths. It is also useful to identify the degree to which team members need to learn one another's roles for backup or development. 5. Develop feedback skills. Each team member's performance affects the work of the whole team. Timely and thoughtful feedback can greatly enhance both individual and team learning. But giving and receiving feedback about needs for improvement requires special skills (see "Feedback for Team Learning"). 6. Learn to manage conflict. Teams create dynamics that present many opportunities for conflict. One human resources manager's observation applies to many organizations: "Ours is a very polite company, and it's considered impolite to raise uncomfortable issues. That has been one of our bigger struggles-learning to value differences. We need to emphasize the positive side of conflict." That struggle, if managed effectively, can be a source of strength and creativity, allowing team members to examine their own mental models, ideas, and solutions, while learning from the contributions of others. But left unmanaged or unresolved, conflict can become destructive, eroding the confidence and trust crucial to a team's ability to work together. Teams should learn how to deal with conflict before it disables them.

7. Develop good group decision-making processes. Teams need to understand their role in the decision-making processes of the larger organization, learn different methods of decision-making, and, perhaps most important, learn to reach consensus on key decisions. If members do not clearly understand and practice the steps to reaching consensus, decision-making can be a frustrating, if not futile, effort. 8. Integrate new team members effectively. Any time a new member is introduced into a team, the dynamics change. Many of the growing pains associated with team learning and development will repeat themselves as the chemistry and makeup of the team are altered. An effective orientation process sets the footing for long-term success. In spite of its significance, however, orientation is too often limited to getting a tour of the workplace and being introduced to colleagues. The arrival of a new member is a major event for teams and their leaders. But planning and preparation will minimize the disruptive impact of a personnel change. 9. Develop a team training discipline. In attempting to establish shared vision, provide effective feedback, and resolve conflict, the team structure already engenders numerous informal training opportunities. Nevertheless, this unofficial training must be supplemented with formal skill development. And training doesn't always have to cost a lot of money. For example, Kodak makes training a part of everyone's job. The company employs no professional trainers, but makes managers and staff responsible for teaching others. Your team training plan should include technical, business, and interpersonal skills, and should take advantage of a wide range of learning contexts, including mentoring, on-the-job training, special assignments, job rotation, and project debriefings, as well as classroom training. In today's business environment, every organization will experience occasional hiccups. But leaders cannot afford to wait for trouble to develop and then respond; problems spread too quickly and affect too many parts of the organization. Giving work teams the tools to manage their own future is the way to keep the whole enterprise thriving.