Is It Time To Weed Out Poor Leadership, Conflict, And Busyness From Your Team?

Spring has sprung in NC; warmer weather, sweet smells of blooming flowers and of course… WEEDS!

With the spring rains, weeds seem to sprout overnight and quickly spread everywhere: the garden, the lawn, in between rocks and so on. Some weeds shoot tiny seeds into the air, some have shallow, far-reaching roots, while others root deep and are almost impossible to pull out.

Much like in the garden, weeds can also sprout within an organization. Is your team trying their best to produce desirable results, but are struggling because "weeds" are draining their physical, mental, and emotional resources?

Three of the most common weeds I see for teams include: Poor Leadership, Conflict, and Busyness!

Poor Leadership

Leaders who spend the majority of their time "pulling weeds" rarely have time to think and act strategically.

• As a leader are you creating an environment that is rich with opportunities and experiences? Or are you content with the status quo, giving advice and telling people what to do?

• As a leader, are you setting boundaries for your team and yourself so that the best work can get done? In Dr. Henry Cloud’s book, Boundaries For Leaders, he talks about how as a leader, “…you’re constantly getting a combination of two things: what you create and what you allow.” There are 3 questions from his book you can use to help determine where you need to set boundaries for your team as well as yourself.

• As a leader, do you check for understanding instead of assuming your message was received with its original intent? It’s easy to want to spend most of your time in complex discussions, but are you speaking in a language that’s meaningful to those around you? To better understand your team and how to communicate with them, here are 7 Questions you can ask to help build and maintain a highly cohesive team.

Conflict

Conflict left unaddressed amongst co-workers, can spread and severely limit the team’s success. Some reasons for conflict may include: fear of a lack of adequate skills, feeling as if ideas are being dismissed or unheard, or simply a difference of opinions.

Disagreements can arise from people using different filters to evaluate an idea. It’s uncomfortable for many of us to have different opinions and try to work through those. Ironically though, it’s in those moments when divergent perspectives clash, that we often see the best solutions to a problem, a challenge or an opportunity.

Dr. Richard Swinson states that when dealing with people and conflict, “There’s absence of malice but presence of callous.”.

People are not maliciously seeking to disagree, but rather simply not asking for help in understanding. By asking: “Help me understand,” you can give that person the opportunity to clarify their reason, while you in turn, gain an opportunity to build a bridge between your idea and theirs.

Another root of conflict can stem from co-worker dysfunction. The mental and emotional stress of trying to deal with a difficult co-worker pours into our ability to get our work done. One approach you can try is the 4R’s:

Remove yourself from the situation.

Review the situation.

Reflect upon the situation.

Respond to the situation with intent instead of reacting with emotion.

Busyness

If team members are content to check off the 27 things on their list each day and not stop to ask if they are working on their most important priorities, how can real growth occur?

Busyness can root itself in many different forms:

• Conflict avoidance – Members of a team may choose to focus on being busy as a way to avoid tough conversations. Question #5 from the previously stated 7 Questions answers that “if everyone is clear about the ‘why’, working through disagreements becomes much easier.”

• Taming the “To-do” list – We get busy trying to knock out that pesky to-do list. Whether at work or at home, left unchecked, the to-do list can become a defeating “didn’t do” list. Kelly Nolan writes in her Fast Company article about how our brain gets worn out trying to decide how long a task will take and what resources are needed. Amongst many great tips she offers, one of them includes overestimating (by two) how long a task will take. And then most importantly, schedule that time into your calendar.

• Busy vs Rushed – While we say we are “busy”, do we actually mean we are “rushed”? While they may seem synonymous, the definitions create a definite difference. “Busy” is defined as full of activity or engaged in action. “Rushed” is defined as sudden or insistent demand, speed or urgency. So what’s making us feel so rushed? Is it lack of planning, unrealistic expectations we have for ourselves or others have about us?

• Distractions – How many distractions can you count in your day? Between cell phone notifications, constant interruptions, a cluttered desk, unfinished tasks and so on, distractions can fill up our calendar. While they keep us busy, they also keep us from being productive. Daniel Goleman, in Focus: The Hidden Power Of Excellence, talks about 2 different types of distractions: sensory and emotional. Regardless of which type (or combination) you are facing, the main principle is to either remove yourself from the distraction or remove the distraction from you.

Do you see any weeds ☘️ that are choking out your team’s productivity? Maybe it’s time to get your gloves 🧤 out and start pulling!