Smoothing Out Team Turbulence
Others, LeadershipContributed by: Kentro Christian Network
In my role developing leaders and ministries across North America and internationally, I fly a lot.
Invariably, during a flight we’ll hit a pocket of unstable air, causing turbulence. It’s quite normal, but it’s still unexpected and can trigger the “jitters” along with a quick, strong grip of the armrest, depending on how extreme the turbulence is.
Teams are similar. We can be “flying” along engaged in our collective work, when suddenly things get bumpy. A team member gets upset about how he was ignored during a meeting. Conflict between two people on the team causes the whole team to feel tense and awkward. A team member begins to disengage because she never gets any feedback or encouragement.
That’s team turbulence. Teams are made up of people and so it’s quite normal to experience pockets of “unstable air” on the team—times when there’s conflict, tension, disengagement. It’s bound to happen. The problem is we don’t expect it and are often unprepared.
Most team development focuses on team performance, but it’s the relational aspect of teams that most strongly determines if a team works well together and makes an impact or not. In particular, developing trust, improving communication, working through disagreements and conflict, and genuinely caring for one another are key to smoothing out team turbulence. When team members feel cared for, can trust one another, communicate openly, and proactively engage in resolving problems on the team, it smooths things out and enables the team to genuinely become a high-performance team.
Dr. Rick Franklin, vice president, Arrow Leadership Ministries. Dr. Franklin will provide a day-long workshop on team development for CCRDA members in early October.