Working with the Non-Team Member

Occasionally, clients struggle with one or more members of their team who simply will not cooperate and, while not expressing it verbally, in their actions you can read the “I-just-want-my-pay-check” attitude.

While it may appear to the naked eye that the fault lies in this person’s attitude, a responsible owner or executive would first assess their own responsibility on the matter by really establishing; does this person know company basics such as the purpose of the company, exactly what product or service we sell and deliver, what are some of the short-term and long-term goals of the company, how the company tracks performance, etc.?

The next thing I would find out is the person was trained for the position they are doing specifically and do they know what product or service they are supposed to produce? Has someone spent some time ensuring the person started to do the actions in the training successfully and was there someone nearby to answer the questions they may have had once put onto the activities of the position? Much too often, because we were lucky enough in the past to hire a very resourceful person that needed no supervision, we thought everyone was going to be like that.

One very important point beyond that would be to find out if they have a way to measure their own performance on the position, such as one or more statistics that really measure the quantity of the product or service they are to perform.

Only if you have checked the above beyond any reasonable doubt would I now turn the focus on the person’s ability or inability to do the position. Because it is only the knowledge of the role one has in a group that can create alignment in the actions performed. What is the non-team member other than someone who is not aligned with what the group is trying to accomplish?

I hope the above helps to do some soul searching of your own job as an owner or executive.