Feature

Dealing with toxic team environment

Renuka Vembu on how to recognize, analyze and deal with discontentment and disgruntlement in a team

It is said that often problems which are perceived to be difficult have simple solutions. Everyday tussle between the boss and employees, difference of opinions between colleagues, dissatisfaction with the work environment, disputes between teams, clash of hierarchies, discontentment with the work and career progression, etc., to some extent are inevitable. A little disgruntlement and a tinge of grudge are just okay because everyone cannot be pleased at all times. But the problem arises when it boils into something massive, which starts showing a negative impact.

The venom enters

Small things end up making a huge difference if not handled with precision. Simple everyday affairs can take a bitter turn when they get out of hand, escalate and spread bad blood in the team, turning a healthy ambience into a toxic team environment. The reasons may vary, the environment may change, people may differ, but the outcome should not project negative results. Tripping along the path but not getting distracted from the goal, working out a consensus amicably amidst varied opinions without resorting to a deadlock, sorting out issues without prolonging or compromising on the results, are the virtues that will enable smooth functioning of an individual in a team within an organization. The race to the finish will entail all these hindrances, but working to the best of one’s ability to fulfill the organizational commitment and business needs are mandatory requisites.

The contentious issues

The factors for dissatisfaction and disputes may be personal as well as professional. It may be with a particular person—an employee or even the boss, or a set of people. Any of these will lead to a glaring impact on work and productivity as a team involves people of different levels, and it is a joint effort—a collaboration from all ends. Disputes arise due to differences in attitude and mindsets, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, personality traits, emotional insecurities, maturity and understanding levels, etc.

An individual problem area can be dearth in skills, inexperience, lack of recognition, no channel to share opinions, no mechanism to voice out grievances, lack of cordial relations with team members, work overload, no growth avenues, etc., which can be listed as the probable causes for a team member to spread the virus. These concerns, if persistent for a long period of time and not constructively addressed, may end up maligning the entire team. What needs to be borne in mind is determining if the problem is with how people in the team perceive it, or if there is a real issue lurking in the background.

Chetan L S, Vice-president, People Department, Aditi Technologies, said, “The adage goes that ‘familiarity breeds contempt’. That is not only between people, but it can also be in regard to one’s career. Once an individual becomes tired or negative about his inter-personal relations or his career profile, it leads to discontent and bad blood. Instead of focusing on what the reasons are, we should be looking at why there are reasons. Go to the root of the problem and nip it in the bud.”

But the glitch does not lie with the members alone. While bosses need to shoulder more responsibility and the onus lies on them to undertake action measures and get issues mended, what gets sidelined in this process is that they themselves can be caught on the wrong foot.

Listed below are the reasons where the boss needs to keep a check:

• Siding and being partial with certain people in the team
• Shooting down an idea well before it is heard
• Not being a team player or leading the path
• Ill-treatment of team members or being too insensitive
• Being too demanding without showing the way
• Lack of recognition or performance appreciation
• A closed-door policy
• An authoritarian rule
• Being inconsiderate or unaccomodative

Aadith D Vikram, MD, WhereIsMyBoss.com, said, “There is no standard solution; the only way to solve the problem is by counseling and handling the situation with kid gloves. If things do not pan out the last resort would be to separate the sparing parties. A toxic team is like a house built with straw even a slight breeze will cause it to fall. It will cause the entire team to disintegrate and the result could have a ripple effect on the other teams as well. This eventually will have a demoralizing effect on the other teams and their productivity will suffer.”

Dealing with negativity

Dissatisfied team members means dissatisfied customers which translate into bad business. Any negative force works its way into the mind of an individual. Through this, it seeps into the morale of the entire workforce, reflecting on poor productivity and business results. When the signals are quite clear, taking guard of the situation without procrastination will help weed out the problem in the initial stages, causing minimal damage. The action plan will change according to the demands of the situation, nature of the problem and the people involved in it.

Rajiv Aurora, COO, GurukulOnline Learning Solutions, explained, “Team members will react to a negative member in one of the three ways—motivational intervention, rejection or defensiveness. In the first scenario, members will express their concerns and ask the individual to change his/her behavior and, if unsuccessful, the negative member can be removed or rejected.”

On a more basic note, following are the traits that will help mould a good team:

• Being a team player
• Having common review sessions
• Recognition for excellence
• Awarding initiatives
• Showing tolerance and giving time and space for imperfection through training
• Defined career development
• Flexibility in approach
• Inviting suggestions and improvement areas and incorporating them

Employee engagement

Ulhas Aher, HR Head, Datacraft India, explained, “We deny recruitment to even good candidates just to ensure that we maintain internal parity. This is what is called nipping the problem at the bud. It’s like management of grievances. The moment the HR department/team leader senses a problem with the employee who is the cause for the toxic environment; they can have a one-on-one session with the employees and get both the sides of the story to avoid biased views. Listening is very important since half of the problems are solved by paying attention to the employee.”

Detecting the problem

Dampening team spirit, dripping performance, dropping quality levels, absenteeism, etc., can be the symptoms which need to be addressed. Understanding and being accommodative of the working patterns of people, taking feedbacks and considering them for better functioning, a personal bonding with an emotional connect with individuals, can help managers take heed of the situation. These aid in identifying and amending a toxic team environment.

There may well be many times no need for a strategy, because simple problems have simple solutions. One just needs to have an eye to look at them and a will to solve them. Whatever be the case, communication holds the key. Direct, face-to-face interactions can help tackle minor day-to-day issues before they spin into acrimonious arguments and uncomfortable situations.

Aurora stated, “A toxic team exhibits frustration and aggression. Managed in the wrong way, the situation can quickly spiral out of control, resulting in situations where co-operation breaks down and the team’s mission is threatened. This is particularly the case where the wrong approaches to conflict resolution are used. Productivity and morale, both are severely impacted.”

Best strategies

Aher asserted, “The best strategy to deal with such problems is to involve the team in an exercise in removing the toxic wastes amongst the team members. In this initiative, the team can be split into leaders and workers and specific principles and objective assigned to every team member in order to remove the toxic wastes. This exercise can make the team members realize the importance of communication, leadership and solutions. Positive and negative reinforcements need to alter depending on the employee’s capabilities and performances.”

Vikram said that it is very important that the manager should be accessible at all times and completely tuned in to the personalities of his team members, to understand their psyche.

• To create a positive work environment by giving the right support, required recognition, expected respect, honest feedback on an individual, a culture of speaking decently and respectfully always.
• HR transformation—Better assessment of adopting the right transformation strategy, greater focus on aligning the individual’s and business needs, establishment of metrics to continuously measure and improve.
• Clear understanding of generations and their needs.

Individuals come together to form a team, and teams tie-up with one another to give shape to an organization. Individual problems or internal tussles must not scale up to become organizational intervention.

As they say, the problems must remain within the four walls of a house. No outsider, here, viz. customers, stakeholders, etc., must even have a whiff about what is going on inside. Productivity, output, quality, returns, business interests, customer delight, must all remain intact or soar.

Individuals and organizations are interdependent, the welfare and well-being of one will reflect on the other. After all, it’s ‘we’ and not ‘I’.

renuka.vembu@expressindia.com