Encouraging Teamwork

Posted by
Joni Rose
Feb 14, 2007

It is not uncommon for there to be a loner in the department. The only problem is that they may not be contributing an equal share to the workload let alone offering their good ideas and input into discussions if they stay off on the fringe.

To encourage them to contribute to the team efforts, try one or all of the following tips:

clearly state your expectations around team contribution to the loner and all staff
schedule a coaching session with the loner to determine why they are choosing to work alone (Personality clash? Fear? Lack of skill?)
put a disincentive in place that discourages working on projects alone
reward team efforts with group incentives such as a new coffee maker or another reward that the group would appreciate
offer team building training to the loner and/or to the group as a whole
assign the loner a leadership role on the next project and ask the loner to report back on the teams progress

Once you have tried these tips, see if the team moral improves. If it doesn’t improve, you may need to look at transferring or terminating the employee. Once one person goes off and works alone on projects, it can lead to a disintegration of the team. For this reason, it is important to watch for signs of staff becoming loners and try to get to the root of the problem quickly.

If you have comments or suggestions on this blog entry, please start a discussion

If you liked this blog entry, try:

When to Fire an Employee

Building Cooperative Teams