Question

Respond as appropriate. Each response must be a least 100 words in length. You have been appointed as the team leader of a new project in your company. After a few weeks in the position, you start to notice there are distinct positive and negative members on your team. A few of your team members have been listed below along with a description of their group behavior. Identify which positive or negative member role they are displaying and explain how you would deal with each member to either encourage or diminish their behavior.

3.  Beth is not fond of the task that the team has been asked to complete. She thinks that the group meetings are a waste of her talents and spends most of the meetings discussing her daughter’s soccer games or how her husband never helps out around the house. When she is not talking, she is busy balancing her checkbook or working on her novel instead of taking notes.

4. Charlie cannot stand to be wrong and is very expressive when he is frustrated with the group. Last week he presented the group with some financial statistics that were incorrect, but instead of claiming his mistakes, he blamed Beth for distracting him while he was calculating the numbers and then claimed that John must have accidentally changed some of the figures when he was printing copies from the electronic spreadsheet.

5.  Sally is a member you can really depend on. When you cannot make it to a meeting, you can rely on her to act as team leader. She is very organized and effective at distributing work amongst the group. She knows what needs to be done and can set deadlines for all of the tasks. She encourages new ideas from the team and motivates them to follow through with those ideas.

Answer 1

1. Beth's member role can be described as withdrawing. She is not interested in any business related to the company and is busy with her personal issues. She does not like her work and does not see it as worthwhile. This person needs a thorough one to one discussion to find out the reason for her behaviour.Maybe the role is not in line with her ambitions and capabilities. She should be helped with change of job in the domain of her choice if she likes. She should also be told of the losses and sufferings of the team and the company due to her behaviour, preferably in quantified terms so that she can understand the gravity of situation.

2. The role of this member is controlling. She wants to dominate the entire team and believes that whatever she says and does is the right, irrespective of the others' opinion. She is not ready to accept her mistakes and therefore is not pleased with the ones who point them out. The best remedy to control this person is to speak to her and tell her where her analysis was wrong. There should be all facts, calculations and figures available while speaking to her to prove that her point was not appropriate. She should be advised to work on her stress management and develop more acceptability in her behaviour, for which she should be assisted with inhouse resources. Outside help can also be sought if needed.

3. Sally is in inspirational role where she not only does her own responsibilities with diligence, but also inspires others to do same. She should be encouraged through rewards, recognitions and providing her greater responsibilities of leading and managing the teams,