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To help you identify potential bad team members, I have developed the list below. Most of these you should be able to identify during an interview or why reading their resume.

• Not able to handle conflict with other team members.
• Doesn’t like to share credit for team or buddy projects.
• Has a tendency to live a life of procrastination.
• Instead of taking responsibility for their mistake, they quickly place blame.
• Poor communication skills and doesn’t try to improve.
• Isn’t a good role model for new or current team members.

These are some of the things that should send up red flags when looking at potential team members or those who are currently on the team. If you find that someone on your team displays these characteristics, don’t fear because there are ways to deal with it.

What you can do is read books such as the “One Minute Manager” or “Strengths and Leadership” so that you can learn how to better manage someone who embodies these bad characteristics. It also helps if you have a one-on-one with them to determine if they are open to feedback and to changing their attitude. Hopefully they will be willing to change so that they can become a good team member.

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6 Characteristics Of A Bad Team Member

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Below are a few of the questions that you might want to ask about you and those who will be part of your support team:

• What are the strengths that each person bring to the team?
• What are the weaknesses that each person bring to the team?
• What type of teaming environment do you want to create?
• How will your team be structured in regard to hierarchy?
• Will you have a personal assistant as part of the team (or a virtual assistant)?

These are a few starter questions that you should be prepared to answer when it comes to developing your support team. Having a strong support team in place can help you be a great leader and have a successful team. In the video below, you will learn some good things that you need to keep in mind when developing your team.

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A Leader’s Support Team

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In order for business owners or team managers to be able to identify negative behavior, then they must be fully aware of their teaming environment. This doesn’t mean that they micro-manage their team members by lording over their ever move. What this does mean is that the business owner of team manager is in touch with their team members and understand that it is important to communicate with them on a regular basis.

Below are good suggestion of ways that a business owner or team manager can use to make team work, work:

• Keep open lines of communication in the teaming environment.
• Allow team members to have input or buy-in into the planning of team projects.
• Use communication tools such as project management software (Zoho, Basecamp, or Quickbase) to manage team projects and communication.
• Incorporate partnering between team members to encourage the sharing of ideas between members.
• Create a team recognition program so that you, the business owner or team manager, and the team member can recognize the special effort of team member.

Check out the video below that shares and humorous view about team work. It makes some really good point though.

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Making Team Work, Work

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Case in point, in an “ideal teaming environment”, team member are supportive of each other and each member carries their own weight. This means that the owner has taken on the responsibility to communicate their vision to the team and has made sure that each team member understands what tasks are their responsibility. The team members feel that they have an open environment where they can express their input along with giving and receiving support from their team members and team manager.

Now we all know that the “ideal teaming environment” doesn’t always happen and that’s where team building comes in. Team building allows a business owner or team manager to identify the areas that are negatively affecting their team and then to address those areas.

According to the article entitled, “Low-Cost Ways to Build Employee Commitment“, written for Inc.com by Bob Nelson, business owners do not have to spend a lot of money on team building plans to encourage employees to be committed to the business. The article states that…

Study after study has shown that praise and recognition tend to build employee loyalty. People want to feel that what they do makes a difference. Money alone does not do this; personal recognition does.

Employers often fail to realize that some of the most effective things they can do to develop and sustain motivated, committed employees cost very little or nothing at all.

So take the initiative and begin today to affectively build your team. You can start with a single project like creating a team recognition program that allows team members to recommend other team members for recognition for a job well done. Just be bold and go for it to launch your team building plans!

Make sure you read tomorrow’s article, “Making Team Work, Work”, that will share how team members’ efforts can help create the “ideal teaming environment”.

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Why is Team Building So Important