Limited Team Player

Objective: Effectively manage a team member to significantly shift her behavior to become much greater in her team effectiveness – to effectively collaborate with her five fellow team members and achieve team performance objectives.

Situation: You have a team of five reporting to you. You manage major projects for the business. Teamwork and collaboration among your team members is critical to success. Your team members all are very collaborative and work very well together, except for one team member who joined the team about 6 months ago. She is very capable and is a strong individual contributor, but has failed to work well with the team. Upon joining the team about six months ago you have continued to work with her to help her become a stronger team player and work in a partnering and collaborative manner with her fellow team members. She has stated that she wants to be more collaborative, but continues to work in an isolated and non-collaborative way with the team. You have provided guidance and coaching to her over recent weeks and she has made very limited progress. In order for your team to meet performance expectations she must greatly increase her teamwork and effectiveness. You have had serious conversations with her over the past 6 months, but now you are at a point where you must take stronger action to shift her behavior.

Note: This individual was referred to you by the Senior VP for Operations and you know he has a strong interest in her success.

Assignment: Consider this situation. Develop and present the specific steps you will take to help her improve her team effectiveness. Prepare your paper outlining and explaining your approach. What measures will you use to determine a change in her approach? Prepare as if you were going to provide your approach to your boss.