How to Breathe New Life into a Broken Team — The Center Consulting Group

How do you breathe life into a broken team? As leaders, this is an important question. A lot of people ask me, “How can I inspire my team and move them to do something great?”

Teams are inherently dysfunctional. In his book Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances, Richard Hackman asks this question: “When people work together to build a house, will the job probably (a) get done faster, (b) take longer to finish, or (c) not be completed at all?

Most of us would think, Oh, it’s a team. They’ve got resources. Obviously, they’re going to finish it quicker. But that is not what research tells us. That is not how teams function. Think back to middle or high school when we had to work on team projects with three or four classmates. Inevitably, many of us carried a majority of the load. Why? Because teams are not inherently set up for success.

Most teams underperform even with the resources that they have. And let me highlight the reasons for that.

A lack of clarity
Motivation
Competition
Human Dynamics

Each of these erodes the ability of a team to be successful. Now, three of them are the responsibility of the teammate. But if the first one is not done well, the other three do not matter. Lack of clarity is a leader’s responsibility. It’s me leading my team and being very clear about what I expect, the timeline that I expect, and the product that I’m asking people to deliver. Remember, team members will naturally think about the competition, motivation, and the unique human dynamics of simply working together.

In her book Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure, Maggie Jackson writes, “Strategic decisions are four times more likely to succeed if managers fully investigate the roots of a problem and multiple possible solutions, yet studies show that they seriously consider only one option 80% of the time.”

Here’s what this quote tells me. As leaders, it’s our responsibility to get to the root of the issue.

So, if you want to inspire your team to do something that most teams can’t do on their own, you need to get to the root of the issue and be clear about what you’re asking.

Breathing new life into a broken team starts with identifying the reasons for underperformance.

You may have a finance team, an outreach team, or a program team. Now as a leader, you need to find out why they are underperforming. I would suggest that your business or organization doesn’t just need a little shift in direction, but rather most teams need to experience rejuvenation.

The most vital and enduring form of new life is the existence of a goal. Ask these two questions:

What is the end goal?
What do you expect from this team?

These are the questions that we have to own as leaders so a team can function at its best. Remember what I said earlier, teams do not naturally step into a situation and just lead well. They don’t function well without clarity around what the end goal is, what the timeline is, and what you are asking them to accomplish. Workforces without goals are short-lived and much more likely to fail. So, why would you put your team in a situation where they don’t have clarity which increases their ability to fail instead of succeed?

So, in addition to bringing clarity to your teams, here are nine steps to bring new life to your teams.

1. Celebrate their work.

You have employees or volunteers – people who are invested in the work that they are doing. Celebrate their work, highlight it, and thank them. Take an opportunity to walk around and make sure they know that you, as the leader, are seeing what they are doing and that you appreciate their effort.

2. Eat together and play together.

This one is my favorite. Grab lunch together, bring lunch in, or do something fun. I remember being with a team that had struggled through a season. So, we brought a comedian in and had a dessert night! Everyone loved it because it was a break from the monotony of all the projects that we were trying to get done.

3. Be a resource to help them get better.

The leader needs to be a resource to help their reports improve their skills. They can offer suggestions, find a class for them to take, and pass along an article for them to read that will allow them to scale their career. One of the things that I tell emerging leaders to do during an interview process is to ask the organization how they are going to invest back into him/her. You can be a resource for helping people learn and get better in their craft.

4. Bring puppies into your office or place of employment. (Have fun!)

Okay, now this one is a little crazy, but I have actually been in situations where organizations have brought puppies in for two hours! There is not one person I have met who doesn’t like puppies! Well, maybe the cat lover, but you get the idea, right? Just have fun. Do something interesting. In some of the organizations that I have led, we do something each month. From as random as playing bingo together, to doing meals, to sharing opportunities, to just doing life together. These are meaningful for your employees, and they bring new life to them as well.

5. Cultivate open pathways to improved communication.

Communication is the lifeblood of your organization. It’s like the circulatory system – it impacts every aspect. And I promise you this, your team members are wondering what you think about their work. So be communicative, take advantage of those opportunities, and make those pathways improved.

6. Fight for rejuvenation.

As stated previously, your team will not be successful without clarity and a vision for what you want them to accomplish. But, as the leader, you also have to fight for the rejuvenation of your team. You have to believe that you can invest in your team and actually make their work better.

7. Make meetings shorter.

This one is simple. Make your meetings shorter. I know everybody is cheering for that. But we think that if our meetings don’t go long, then we are doing something wrong. I promise you, shorter meetings equal rejuvenation. Shorter meetings make your team work better together. Every once in a while, do a standing meeting. Don’t let people sit down because it nonverbally communicates to them, “What we are sharing is important. I need you to be involved, but we are not going to be here all day.”

8. Encourage open communication and collaboration.

Encourage open collaboration and communication within your team promoting a culture of trust and inclusivity. If you have an open-door policy regarding your team having an idea, suggestion, or way to do something different and your body language is please come and tell me because I want what is best for our team, you and your team will be much more successful. But if you have an open-door policy and nobody is coming through that door, you might have to ask yourself if your posture is open. If they want to give me an idea, will I actually listen to it and consider it?

9. Foster Innovation

This is another favorite, foster innovation. Stop doing your team meetings the same way. Stop introducing them the same way. Stop having the same agenda with the same quote at the bottom of your agenda. Do something different, be innovative. Think about how you could do something different with your team – stir their ideas and their emotions differently. Meet in a different part of the building, meet outside, have coffee, or bring puppies. Just do something innovative that changes how the team is working together.

Teams are incredibly important within businesses, churches, and nonprofits, but they are inherently dysfunctional. They start with a period of dysfunction. As a leader, if we are not offering clarity and clear goals for what we want them to accomplish, we are not putting them in the best position to succeed. These are some great ideas. I am sure you have more. We would love to hear some of the ways in which you lead your teams well.

Billy Dunn is a Senior Consultant at The Center Consulting Group and has over 20 years of church and nonprofit leadership experience. He serves as the Character Coach for the Lehigh University Men’s Basketball team and the Director of Ministry Leadership for Word FM. Billy has assisted with the launch of a number of nonprofit organizations and has worked with organizations and ministries across the world. Billy has an M.S. in Organizational Leadership and brings experience in the areas of leading change, leadership coaching, resource development, church growth planning, and strategic thinking and planning.