Dealing with ‘weak links’ in a team

By Lewis OPUNI FRIMPONG

In the corporate arena, organizing a team towards projects, sales objectives and targets has never been an easy task.

This is undoubtedly so because getting tasks, projects and jobs executed requires team member efforts that are not only synchronized in commitment but also in competence.

While it may be ideal and highly desirable to every manager or team leader   to have a team full of talented members with ‘x-factor’ traits, the dynamism, diversity, and composition of teams do not always turn out to support this wish. Team characteristics, efforts and contributions of individual members always vary.

The ‘weakest link theory’ postulates that every system, no matter how well it performs, has at least one constraint that limits its performance. It therefore stands to reason that no matter how effective and efficient a team may be, there is/are always one or two members who through their actions and attitude, may unintentionally sabotage the team’s efforts in meeting deadlines and achieving results.

Those guys are what we can safely call the ‘weak links.’ Guided by this, every team leader must be more accommodating and must adopt strategies to deal with the weak links in the team. Ineluctably, every team leader worth his or her salt, is therefore enjoined to deal with weak team members and their characteristic limitations, with a view to managing their contribution and impact, avoiding contagion effect of their negative energy, and bringing out the best in them. This is the surest way to achieve the purpose, vision, and goals of the team.

Just like in the game of football where individual brilliance of the players in a team may avail much but with a porous goal post, defeat would be inevitable, it is evidently certain that a single weakness of a team member can ruin the success of a team. The saying that “a chain is as strong as its weakest link” is perhaps the most ideal axiom in this case. One bad unwholesome nut can affect the sweetness of the munch.

How then do you engage weak team members to bring out the best in them? How do you prevent their negative energy from affecting the good team members? How do you nurture the weak team member(s) to function effectively? How do you harness the innate potential of the ‘weak link’ for the ultimate? How do you get the ‘weak link’ primed for success? How do you position the weak member at a vantage position for positive contribution? This piece seeks to explore and suggest ways of answering the above questions. It seeks to provide a bead on ways to identify, engage and re-orient the ‘weak link’ to obtain desired performance.

Identifying a weak link.

As a manager or team leader, have you ever encountered a team member who is least dependable? The other who is the least contributor and the guy who is always quite late on schedules.? I bet you may be dealing with weak links. Have you encountered attitudes from team members that almost jinxed a very good project? Attitudes such as persistent failure to meet deadlines, fumbling on projects, sluggish participation in tasks and a general lagging in wavelength of a team member, are the unique identifiers of weak links in the team.

These characteristics have unintended tendencies of sabotaging the overall team efforts. When such observations are made, it is important, as a team leader to begin to fish out the those proving to be the undesired weak links. It must be noted that, weak links are not only people bereft of competence but also people who may be competent but not committed in attitude and deed.

Those that intentionally weasel out important assignments and are not prepared to go the extra mile on projects, are all under reference.

Further, in some instances, people with low self-esteem and confidence, may also prove to be weak links even though they may be competent for a role or task. The lack of belief in oneself may, at times, prevent such team members from broaching new ideas and putting in suggestions that would have otherwise been the ignition key to the project engine.

There are other members in teams too who are also   quick to commence and run with the marching orders but do not deliver results. They are false positives who are adept at talking but are practical loafers. All such characters are the subject of this piece. It is instructive to broaden the spectrum to be able to identify and deal with all such characters because, in my view, they all trapped behind the ‘weak link wall’ and urgently need rescuing.

Avoiding contagion effect

While working on identified weak members, it is important to lead the rest of the team and keep them focused.  Observing if any of their negative attitude has been passed on to other team members is critical.

This negative energy could be passed either directly or indirectly, consciously, or unconsciously. The watercooler conversations between ‘weak links’ and other spotless team members could spring forth team-derailing commentary. Team leaders should therefore bear in mind that keeping vigil with the individually assigned responsibilities and close marking all members, albeit covertly, is key in keeping other team members focused on the task.

Team leaders must also recognize that there are other team members who are hyper-competitive and may seek to undermine the efforts of others in order to appear as ‘stars’. As Brigid Kemmerer puts it; “people love finding the weak link that makes them superior.” The effect of people punching below their weight just because others are weak links are real and it is important that team leaders are on the lookout for such eventuality. The contagion can breed sandbaggers in the team, and this may derail the team or lead it to a ruinous path.

Engaging and reorienting the weak link

In Annie Robinson’s Weakest Link Game Show, the weakest link is always voted out. A good team leader should resolve to reform and keep the weak link and not vote them out. We have conventionally been advised to use the 3Ts approach in handling problematic team members i.e., train, transfer or terminate.

To train is to engage and to seek to better the weak link while the other two, in my view, may have to be options of the last resort for a team builder. Team managers must be prepared to take the plunge. Keeping the ‘weak link’ therefore means that the team leader is intentional and deliberate about the ‘curative’ process and must also be committed to it without fail.

Communication and mentoring are among the tools suited to deal with the ‘weak link’. Weak team members must always be engaged through communication to correct their ills. This communication could be verbal or written. I prescribe and prefer verbal conversations to the written, to avoid over-formalizing the remediative process.

It is always good to begin conversations with the ‘weak link’ with empathy, recognizing that some may have genuine intentions and may only require soft coaching. For the others filled with pride, a great deal of patience and restraint is required to get the desired results. It pays to acknowledge areas that the weak team member has performed creditably, and that strength should be pushed onto the front burner to engender a sense of inclusiveness.

Projecting their area of strength in the conversation gives them a sense of belonging and puts them in a position to receive feedback, whether positive or negative. The posturing, timing and the environment for the conversations are all key to the success of the engagement. For example, raw feedback in front of other team members, feedback given in anger and frustration etc. do not tend to do the magic.

In some cases, it is advised the engagement is done “off turf” thus outside the office, at a lunch or on the stray field to drive away uneasiness and thereby create a mental preparedness for the message to be delivered. It may also not be good for it to be done on packed working days such as Mondays where all colleagues come to the office with a fully loaded inbox.

I recommend the following as workable but non-exhaustive approaches to dealing with the ‘weak link’ in the communication and mentoring process. Lovers of mnemonics may simply refer to it as the ‘RAAABEAR’ approach.

1. Routinise one-on-one engagement meetings. You may have to set up meetings on regular periodic basis solely for the purpose. At these meetings, the team leader must foster a growth mind set where the weak team member can embrace challenges and explore opportunities. These meetings must be friendly yet engaging and meaningful. They must be contempt-free with no duke outs.
2. Accept people’s weakness as natural and seek to help. Differences in abilities should not be lost on Team Leaders and they must not expect perfection from mortals.
3. Assist set priorities for the ‘weak link’. In communicative ways, endeavor to highlight priorities on projects to him/her ahead of time. That way, the person is pre-informed of areas where attention should be put. Deadlines which cannot be missed must be stressed.
4. Acknowledge their contributions always at meetings and celebrate small wins. This cannot be overemphasized. The Team Leader or Manager must be the first to praise the team member not only on outstanding performances but also on incremental progress made on the re-orientation journey.
5. Build their confidence through delegation. This may sound counterintuitive, but the idea is to hand over responsibilities and monitor progress. This could start with asking them to do other things outside their scope to stretch their initiative and capacity. I concede this may be a gamble but a keen interest in the success of the task after the delegation should arouse his/her wit.
6. Encourage their initiatives, do not stifle them. Leaders may have to assist refine those initiatives. As a Team Leader, you should not be too quick to dismiss out of hand, suggestions, criticisms, and initiatives from weak team members. We must recognize that even the dumbest of people could bring something meaningful on the table.

7. Always monitor progress and accordingly adjust the approach to the mentoring. This exercise should be relentlessly done until results are achieved. The intentionality of the reformative process should run with patience. The need to always monitor is to ensure that if one strategy fails, another is deployed.
8. Reassign duties and always remember to give ‘weak links’ a chance to excel at something they are good at.

The ‘weak link’ is indeed the strongest not just by quote, but practically so when supported and nurtured. As humans, we must understand that every person has his strength and weakness.

It is up to the Team Leader to identify the strength of each member and consciously devote time to work on weaknesses just so that even the weakest team member can be a valuable contributor to the team’s efforts. Team Leaders may have to always try a different tack in handling them. Giving up on a ‘weak link’, as a leader, is professionally sacrilegious!

The writer is the Branch manager for Societe Generale Ghana, Sunyani Branch. He is an Associate Member of The Chartered Institute of Bankers, Ghana. He has experience in leadership, team management, business development and Branch management. He can be reached on [email protected]

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