04.7 Tackle Team Roadblocks

Identify and Manage Obstacles for Your Team

“The secret is to gang up on the problem, rather than each other.”
Thomas Stallkamp

🧵 Team Fails Unravelled

The previous lesson focused on how to ensure team synergy. Unfortunately, despite the best intentions of companies to create team synergy, teams still fail. By identifying and analysing specific obstacles causing these failures, you can overcome them to ensure your team succeeds.

Here are the most common reasons for team failure:

• Unclear goals and a lack of common purpose
• Ineffective communication
• Lack of trust
• Interpersonal conflict
• Poor leadership
• Poor management
• Lack of role clarity
• Poor job fit
• Lack of resources
• Inadequate rewards and recognition strategies
• Lack of empowerment and authority to make decisions.

Interpersonal Conflict 🥊*

Interpersonal conflict is a leading cause of team failure and is frequently cited as the primary reason for employee turnover. While most workplace frustrations can be tolerated if relationships are strong and supportive, poor working relationships lead to high levels of stress, illness, and absenteeism—often as a result of conflict avoidance. A personality clash between just two employees can create a dysfunctional, toxic environment that affects the entire team, including those not directly involved.

Such conflict arises from the clash of different temperaments, backgrounds, and personal issues. Common causes include:

• Inflated Egos: Narcissistic behaviour where certain team members believe they are superior and their ideas are inherently better.

• Unhealthy Competition: A “you vs. me” mentality that undermines focus on collective team achievements.

• Minimal Contribution: Team members who do the bare minimum to avoid trouble, failing to contribute fully to the team’s success (e.g., chronic lateness, missed deadlines, withholding information).

• Emotional Reactions: Responding to challenges emotionally rather than objectively, which can manifest as outbursts, insecurity, sulking, or withdrawing from collaboration.

Managing this obstacle:

• Handle conflict, don’t avoid it. Facilitate a discussion where all parties can voice their concerns.

• Focus on behaviour and facts, not personalities.

• Actively listen to identify the core points of disagreement.

• Collaborate on solutions. Develop and implement a plan to address the root causes.

• Maintain open communication and follow up to ensure the conflict is resolved.

• Celebrate successes and share learnings from the experience.

• Apply team synergy methods discussed in previous lessons.

🃏 Poor Leadership*

Put simply, poor leadership results in team failure. At best, poor leaders fail to engage and motivate their teams. At their worst, they actively demotivate and disempower them, leading to a lack of progress, interpersonal conflict, and ultimate failure. Poor leadership is a major driver of staff turnover. As new members constantly join, teams struggle to move beyond the “norming” phase and often regress back into “storming.”

Poor leadership can manifest as a dictatorial approach, an inability to manage conflict, poor communication, a failure to articulate a clear vision, and a lack of role clarity. Such leaders are often afraid to relinquish power, refusing to share critical information or empower others to make decisions. This erodes the team’s internal capacity and stifles business growth.

Managing this obstacle:

• Ensure managers understand their success is dependent on their team’s success and hold them accountable for it.

• Embed principles of good leadership into your company values.

• Invest in interventions that develop and hone leadership skills at all levels.

• Adopt a philosophy of shared leadership, equipping every team member to lead in different situations.

• Once goals and roles are set, empower teams to take charge without constant approval, trusting them to make the right choices.

• Foster a “learning organisation” where asking for help is encouraged and mistakes are viewed as learning opportunities.

• Without the authority to make decisions, team members will become passive, looking out for themselves and waiting for instructions.

• Solicit and act on feedback regularly.

• Encourage creativity and new ideas.

• Learn and continuously develop effective communication skills.

• Acknowledge and harness the power of diversity, using the multiple skills and perspectives within your team.

• Exercise self-awareness and pursue personal mastery.

Poor Management and a Lack of Planning and Co-ordination 🎲*

Teams are often pushed to perform without the necessary forethought and planning from management. Employees may be thrown together and expected to deliver without appropriate coordination or role clarity, setting them up for failure.

Managing this obstacle:

• Analyse business needs and decide on an organisational structure that supports long-term objectives.

• Clearly outline roles, defining levels of authority, span of control, and communication lines to prevent overlap and duplication of effort.

• Select and allocate suitable human resources based on ability.

• Communicate roles and ensure they are clearly understood.

• Delegate work appropriate to each role.

• Ensure ongoing coordination through feedback loops, using KPIs and performance management to monitor quality and timeliness.

• Hold regular discussions to reinforce responsibilities and ensure alignment on team objectives.

♟️ Lack of Role Clarity*

Teams often fail because employees do not understand the importance or purpose of their specific roles.

Managing this obstacle:

• Teach and coach employees so they fully understand their job domain, roles, and targets.

• Delegate appropriately so each person understands their contribution to the team.

• Help employees see how their role is vital to the team’s overall success.

Poor Selection and Job Fit 🚷*

Managers often fail to adequately design roles or identify the specific knowledge, skills, and attributes required for success. Opting for a generic “one-size-fits-all” approach leads to poor person/job fit. This results in poor performance (through no fault of the employee), low productivity, low morale, and conflict as others are forced to compensate. Ultimately, it causes unhappiness and staff turnover.

Managing this obstacle:

People are more productive when their job aligns with their knowledge, skills, and personal attributes.

• Accurately define roles and identify the precise competencies required. This step is critical.

• Use multiple selection tools, including skills assessments, behavioural assessments, and competency-based interviews.

• Hire for person/job fit, not just for years of experience within the company.

🚫 Insufficient Resources and Employee Capabilities*

Teams struggle to achieve objectives without the necessary resources, leading to delays, substandard outputs, and low morale. Conflict can also arise when individuals must compete for limited resources.

Managing this obstacle:

• Provide the tools necessary for successful task execution.

• Invest in and regularly update technology.

• Set aside an adequate budget for team objectives, involving specialists in budget preparation to identify priorities.

• Treat information as a resource and grant your team access to it.

• Allocate a sufficient number of people with the required competencies.

• Consider the project management triangle (time, quality, cost). If resources are financially constrained, adjust timelines accordingly.

• Provide ongoing training to ensure skill levels remain relevant and capable.

Poor Rewards and Recognition Strategies 🏆*

Strategies that focus on individual over team achievement perpetuate a “you vs. me” mentality. This unhealthy competition destroys the collective effort and shared success that high-functioning teams are built upon.

Managing this obstacle:

• Align reward strategies with team goals.

• Reward the team for achieving collective goals, but tailor recognition to what motivates individuals.

• Reward often and in line with agreed-upon milestones.

🫵 Lack of Employee Empowerment and Decision Making*

Organisational agility and team productivity depend on efficient decision-making. When employees are not empowered to make decisions about their work, they cannot be fully accountable for their results.

Managing this obstacle:

• Articulate clearly which decisions employees can and cannot make.

• Coach managers on good decision-making. Accept that some decisions will be poor and use them as learning opportunities.

• Involve employees in decision-making processes and encourage them to share ideas for improving workflows.

• Allow independence while being available to guide and consult.

• Identify adept decision-makers on the team and build on their strengths.

• Include decision-making in development plans. As teams demonstrate sound judgement, delegate more complex decisions to them.

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One of the best ways to help your team overcome obstacles is with coaching conversations. Find out how it’s done in the 🎁 BONUS lesson: Coaching to Transform Teams and Triumph Over Obstacles

 

 

(*Without changing the principles, these sections were condensed from the original using AI.)

 

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