Article Content

Overview

Let us begin by looking at some statistics.

According to Forbes, 70% of employers are changing the workplace environment to encourage healthy behaviors. 61% of employees are burned out on a job, and 96% of employees believe that empathy is an integral part of increasing employee retention.

In this globalized world, building an effective team in a workplace takes a lot of creativity and exploration of different programs. It is no longer straightforward; team development requires understanding the behaviors and expectations of individual members to provide programs that suit their needs. An effective team values the importance of “teamness,” which translates into togetherness that creates positive ripples throughout the organization. This fact increases productivity and job satisfaction by lowering attrition rates.

Bad Behaviors of a Team

The 5 Behaviors of a team state that there should be trust, engagement, commitment, accountability, and a focus on collective results. However, because of the highly stressed environments, teams behave erratically, and most show passive-aggressive and abusive behavior towards colleagues to gain a competitive advantage. Passive aggressiveness is when a colleague indirectly uses aggression and anger. A recent survey shows this is one of the top 10 career-limiting behaviors. Of course, nobody likes direct aggression, and we also agree that it is not easy to understand people while it is also not easy to control our temper all the time. It is part of an abusive team culture, which reduces productivity and a sense of well-being.

In 2015, the Harvard Business School conducted a survey where they found that half of the employees who experienced this kind of behavior concerning incivility in the workplace chose to spend less time at work.

Hence, it is vital to understand how to deal with such behaviors in our culture and promote psychological safety to improve team performance.

Team Development to Reduce Unhealthy Behaviors

Fostering the five behaviors of a team is about avoiding destructive conflicts in a team and achieving collective results through effective team development initiatives. Here are some tips by which you can deal with aggressive behavior in the team:

1. Training Games – Develop your team’s togetherness by getting them together in training programs. Utilize different games that are fun and exciting to increase collaboration and communication between your team members. It will not only unify them but will also help them exchange experiences on a non-professional platform.

2. Behavioral Development – As a leader, you need to be able to detect aggressive behavior from your team members. Differentiate between team members’ behaviors to provide training programs. Use a personality test that will help you develop cohesive team behavior. Only bring together people you think may be compatible by skills, experiences, and behavior.

3. Reprimand – Punishment is always essential when necessary. If you find a team member bringing down the culture and positivity of the work, warn them. Get them help, talk to them, and understand their experiences. If you have done everything and this does not work, then take more drastic steps.

4. Feedback – Team development is about providing effective feedback. Learn how to provide feedback that is constructive and will encourage the colleague to work hard and improve their behavior for the better. If somebody has gone wrong, do not get angry but calmly deal with the situation directly and make the other person understand the faults in their actions.

5. Stay Positive – We know this can be very difficult when there is high stress and an increasing workload, but remind yourself that staying positive is the only way to deal with change. Remain calm and make decisions by taking every aspect into view and building a cohesive team culture.

Conclusion

Effective global teams who work together and produce positive results have support and trust between them. Inculcating these feelings can be difficult for a diverse team with different experiences. Therefore, take note of individual expectations and provide programs that will help each one to increase their engagement.