Turning Around a Team in Trouble

When you take over a team, it is likely to be one of the following situations:

• Start-up: You are building a new team, possibly from scratch.
• Turnaround: This team is in serious trouble.
• Realignment: The team has been successful in the past, but needs to change to sync up with the overall organization's direction.
• Sustaining success: The team is already successful and aligned with the overall direction.

Each of these scenarios has particular challenges and needs a somewhat different mindset.

In some ways, a turnaround is both the biggest challenge as well as the biggest opportunity. The challenges are apparent, but everyone recognizes that things are going to have to change.

Part of turning things around is to find early wins. What shape these take will depend on the exact situation, but the team needs to become accustomed to setting goals and accomplishing them. As the team succeeds and is recognized for success, a culture of accomplishment will start to replace the culture of failure.

Examine the causes for the teams failures. Be honest, but try to address the causes for failure in as non-judgmental a way as possible. A culture of failure is often associated with a culture of blame. Move away from the blame game and towards an honest evaluation of what events occurred when, and what the underlying causes were. Focus on the "what" and the "why" rather than the "who."

Create a culture of honesty, openness and respect. People want to be part of successful teams. Work with your team to define what success looks like, and how to get there. Spend time with your team members to find out what is getting in their way, and help them find ways to overcome it.

At the same time, seek to create a culture of accountability. Once someone accepts a task, he or she owns it. That means that person gets credit for the success, and the responsibility to make it succeed. Turnaround teams are too used to failing. Help the team member find a way to succeed. That doesn't mean that you take over the task; that means that you mentor the team member to identify ways to move forward and succeed.

Model the values you think your team should embody. Things like honesty, openness, continuous improvement, and respect should be evident in how you do your job. If you model good behavior, team members will gravitate towards the values you need the team to embody.