Do you have an employee that continually works alone and doesn’t contribute to the team effort? Read on for tips to encourage team play.
It is not uncommon for there to be a loner in the department. The only problem is that they may not be contributing an equal share to the workload let alone offering their good ideas and input into discussions if they stay off on the fringe.
To encourage them to contribute to the team efforts, try one or all of the following tips:
- clearly state your expectations around team contribution to the loner and all staff
- schedule a coaching session with the loner to determine why they are choosing to work alone (Personality clash? Fear? Lack of skill?)
- put a disincentive in place that discourages working on projects alone
- reward team efforts with group incentives such as a new coffee maker or another reward that the group would appreciate
- offer team building training to the loner and/or to the group as a whole
- assign the loner a leadership role on the next project and ask the loner to report back on the teams progress
Once you have tried these tips, see if the team moral improves. If it doesn’t improve, you may need to look at transferring or terminating the employee. Once one person goes off and works alone on projects, it can lead to a disintegration of the team. For this reason, it is important to watch for signs of staff becoming loners and try to get to the root of the problem quickly.
If you have comments or suggestions on this blog entry, please start a discussion
If you liked this blog entry, try:
Copyright © 2007 Joni Rose and Suite 101. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized use will constitute an infringement of copyright.
