Sometimes when there is a trouble maker on the team, we still keep them around for reasons such as: 1. they may be a technical expert and we can't do without them. 2. they have influence or connected to someone with influence. 3. we are coaching them and hope they will change over time etc.
Have you kept such a team member on board despite the issues? Saving Changes...
I suffered before from troublemaker in my projects and they usually like to grow fast and get more power, that when they got power they start to destroy everything with their overconfidence, I promise my self after a while that those kinds of people must be evaluated from the beginning and replace it because their technical experience will not really help o finish the project on time, I really don't have time to solve the problem between him and other team members every single day it will consume you
I had a member who was always involved in conflict and confrontational with her team members. Although she did not get along well with others, she was extremely hardworking and passionate about achieving perfection. I notice often, that passion - an admirable quality, creates tunnel vision and people sometimes are unable to see beyond their role, their job and issues that they face, they become self-centred in their quest to do a good job. I created a leadership / Subject Matter Expert role for her and had her mentor newer members of the team and the transformation was miraculous, she became excellent at her job and solving conflict (this took a few months and some people-handling experience) and the number of conflicts reduced significantly and she became a valuable member in my team. On the other hand, I have fired a few staff members where the key reason for disruption and conflict was un-manageable 'Attitude'.
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1 reply by Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD
Apr 05, 2018 2:55 AM
Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD
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Sounds like you discovered some key motivators for her.
The issue was the conflict the difficult resource saw with me; and that this conflict was leading to delays right through the design phase for the area overseen by this resource.
As the resource had a guardian angel in the internal project sponsor, s/he was untouchable. Even explicit requests to this sponsor for intervention (with specific examples of delay attributable to this resource) did not yield any results.
So I recorded my presence as the risk internally and let the sponsor know. And I held on for another month making sure that the project was properly handed over to the incoming PM.
I had a member who was always involved in conflict and confrontational with her team members. Although she did not get along well with others, she was extremely hardworking and passionate about achieving perfection. I notice often, that passion - an admirable quality, creates tunnel vision and people sometimes are unable to see beyond their role, their job and issues that they face, they become self-centred in their quest to do a good job. I created a leadership / Subject Matter Expert role for her and had her mentor newer members of the team and the transformation was miraculous, she became excellent at her job and solving conflict (this took a few months and some people-handling experience) and the number of conflicts reduced significantly and she became a valuable member in my team. On the other hand, I have fired a few staff members where the key reason for disruption and conflict was un-manageable 'Attitude'.
Sounds like you discovered some key motivators for her. Saving Changes...
Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
Yes, both disruptive team members were left to destroy the team b/c it was deemed less of a risk than replacement. Saving Changes...
Deciding what to do in such unfortunately common cases is driven by the context including how long the team will need to tolerate the behavior, what is your best alternative, and so on.
As others have said, this is a negative risk which likely you'd keep in your Little Black Book, Sante, and the response to it might involve compartmentalizing the individual as much as possible to shield the rest of the team from their toxicity and trying to build up bench strength so that if not now, then not too long down the road you can replace them.
It almost happened in every project I worked in. There should be always someone who is the devils advocate but despite being disruptive, this same person is usually either very smart or technically very sound so I always try to start with training but if worse comes to worse and his attitude is going to affect the team then no one is sacred.
Works] is 50% Skills & 50% Ethics so if you lack one of those, you won’t survive.
I hear you about the devils advocate. Saving Changes...
The issue was the conflict the difficult resource saw with me; and that this conflict was leading to delays right through the design phase for the area overseen by this resource.
As the resource had a guardian angel in the internal project sponsor, s/he was untouchable. Even explicit requests to this sponsor for intervention (with specific examples of delay attributable to this resource) did not yield any results.
So I recorded my presence as the risk internally and let the sponsor know. And I held on for another month making sure that the project was properly handed over to the incoming PM.
