What to do if a team member is undermining the team leader's role?

Question

I don't know exactly how to express this problem because it may seem childish but this team member is a very difficult person.

For example when he's being given a task that is either important or difficult, he always asks the other members of the other teams about how to handle it. He doesn't come to ask the team leader or discuss about it with the team leader first.

So by doing this, the team member disturbs the activity of the other teams as well. Currently, he asked about 3 persons(and rising) to come to his computer and help him with the task he's having. And when they find an answer, he just stays feeling good that he's got the solution in less time than he had by researching himself.

This team member is also very proud and even if he doesn't have much programming knowledge, he thinks of himself that he's better than the other members and even better than the team leader.

Also, he really has an offensive and bad attitude against the team leader which is a woman and he never comes to talk with her about the given task.

Even if the others may provide a solution, talking and discussing about the task with your own team could improve the knowledge about that task inside your own team that knows the actual context of the issue and a lot more details than the others from the other teams could know. But still, he goes and asks the others, explains the whole context to them, etc. - he looses a lot of time.

How do you think the team leader should manage this difficult team member?

Answer 1

First, there is nothing wrong in asking colleagues instead of wasting your own time in reinventing the wheel. However, this does not mean others should solve his problems - they could provide hints or guidelines.

As for his attitude - you certainly won't change it by giving him link to this question or by giving him an "educational" talk.

Rather go and talk with him that management has made a note to you that he disturbs other teams, and you have to bring this down to him. Act like a friend that is telling something out of your control (as I suppose the case will become eventually).

Not my business actually, but if this behaviour continues even after having talked with him "as a friend", then he just doesn't fit this team and should go away.

Answer 2

What do the other team members think about that?
It's a team issue. Talk to the other guys, informally, what they think about his skills and behavior. Do they complain about the interruptions?

They are participating in a crude proto-stage of pair programming - he might still be learning, and the others might be happy sharing.

Maybe they are happy to help him because they expect him to screw up otherwise, and have to fix it themselves.

Maybe he is a she, and they are just guys.

Maybe they enjoy the little change from their daily dreaded routine.

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Regarding your role: Your primary job is to remove obstacles. That means first clearly identify if he is an actual obstacle.

Answer 3

Don't give him important or difficult tasks. Start out slowly, baby steps. If he cannot perform even the easiest tasks then tell him straight out that he has to improve or pick another profession.

Answer 4

of course it's not wrong asking your co-team members about everything as long as you are not disturbing them or their productivity.

if there is a guideline set by the management regarding your team structures and so on, i.e. Members of a team should only asked directly to the team leader..., then laid it down to him. if there is none, then suggest to the management about creating one. This is clearly a management issue. So you should bring this up to the management. It's their call...

disturbing other team members about a problem, even if your only soliciting for suggestion i think is really bad. especially if all members of the team are in "coding mode". Just try to imagine yourself in a situation like this.

You are coding/debugging a part of a module, a very critical module, one in which after hours of thinking and thinking, you are able to get a hint at last of what really is happening (take not that you did this all by yourself), then the moment you want to implement it, someone tap you from the back asking suggestion about this and that. How would you feel about that?

In theory and in practice, in our field, lesser number of communication links among members of a team, and in between teams is the desired setup. a large number of communication links among members of a team degrades the team productivity.

just a thought!

Answer 5

Maybe the management should have taken this persons performance into consideration when doing the planning of the project? Managers have a tendency to see developers as pure resources that punches nuts and bolts at an assembly line. Any single developer performs different. As long as management don´t see developers as human beings they should expect standing in the cold.

To flip the coin: Maybe this manager is a clueless case that really should go back serving fries and this problem person is the only one that has the balls to hint about it. Pure statistics should have shown that the ratio of clueless PMs is bigger the ratio of incompetent developers.

But of course, if the person is plain rude you have to bring it to upper management attention

Answer 6

The only person who can properly address this is the team lead. As a woman who has been a team lead, I've been in this position. You have to treat team members fairly but firmly. Do not let them take advantage of you. This person is taking advatage because he feels the lead won't call him to account for his bad behavior. He is behaving like a two-year-old in the "no" phase of devlopment. The team lead needs to treat him the same way a parent would. Be firm, be consistent, and never let an instance of bad behavior slide with no response.

First, she needs to stop assigning him the kind of tasks that are beyond his skill level. And tell him why the tasks are being reassigned.

Second, she needs to formally counsel him on his attitude toward her and document this session for HR. He needs to know that rudeness is unacceptable behavior that can get him fired and that when he has questions he must go to the team lead first. The team lead should also direct others not to answer his questions, but direct him to ask the team lead. The team lead should also make it her business to go talk to him about his tasks frequently and should be involved in code reviews with this person and ask very pointed questions about the solutions to make sure he has considered what she thinks needed to be considered. A team lead must set expectations and then follow through. If he is expected not to disturb others, then he needs to be told that.

Third, she needs to find things the person does right and publically praise those (doing the same for other team members, of course). This helps offset the impression that she is the one with the problem not the team member.

Fourth, she needs to have a private conversation with him as to why he doesn't respect her as the lead. And then she needs to seriously consider what he said (maybe even ask some other team members if they feel the same way.) This is hard to do and many managers don't have the courage to do so. But sometimes it is better to find out what the perceived problems are so that you can address them in your own performance. Sometimes the person needs to know that he will be listened to (why talk to someone who you feel will automatically dismiss all you say?). As team lead you don't need to like everyone who works for you, but you do need to treat them the same way. Perhaps this lead is making the problems worse by sending the message that she doesn't respect the team member.

The longer the team lead let's this go on, the less effective she will be leading the other members of the team. This person has both a performance and attitude problem and it is the team lead's job to fix that or get rid of the person. If she doesn't the rest of the team will lose respect for her and start to also have attitude problems. I've never seen a male team lead let someone get away with being rude or ignoring them. I have seen females do so because they want to avoid conflict (and to be honest I did it too in my younger years). But you have less conflict if you don't let bad behavior get past stage 1.

Answer 7

Either the team member is malicious/unethical (but most people aren't), or he's simply not feeling connected to the team and thus does not care.

It's also possible that the team member believes it's a sign of weakness to ask for advice from his team lead (e.g. cultural/environmental issue. I know bosses who think this way too).

Bottom line: the team lead needs to focus on finding ways to promote team cohesiveness. This means leading the team towards working together, through the way tasks are divided and through setting members' personal expectations of each other.

Short term, as a corrective measure, I would have a conversation with the team member, but I advise strongly against personal arguments of any kind. The basis of the conversation should always be professional, always on point and never, ever use platitudes:

"I notice you're eager to connect with people outside our team, which is good -- they can be a good resource for a fresh perspective.

I'll try to get you opportunities to work collaboratively with other teams more often [but only say this if you mean it].

For projects that are specific to our team, I'd like us to work closer together so that we can keep the work internal and grow stronger as a team".

Leaders need to keep their promises, so I'd start working closer with the team member by giving him more attention on a day to day basis. I would make sure this is done openly and never behind closed doors (e.g. don't hide it), and never, ever in a condescending or even managerial manner -- think of it as a partnership. Team members need to feel like the lead's number one job is to support their work, not to pontificate from a throne.

Long term, positive reinforcement is key. I would ensure the team member does not receive praise for going against my expectations (remember, I set them clearly when I said "work together, keep the work internal"), and I would visibly praise members working closer together.

I advise strongly against using power of authority to curtail the member's actions in any way -- this means I would never call him into my office and tell him I disapprove of him reaching out to other teams, and I would not hand him simpler tasks as punishment (or as a way of getting him to stop going to other people for help -- that's the same thing as punishment in his eyes).

Managerial authority is a lethal weapon that you just shouldn't draw unless you're ready to kill.

After talking with the team member, working more closely with the team on a daily basis (and taking initiative to more often approach the team member in question if necessary), and stepping up the positive reinforcement, I would observe for a few weeks and see if things improve.

I would use the rest of the team's response as a comparison point to the team member in question, to calibrate my success. Because my actions are public, the entire team will respond through the way they act, how they sound when talking to me, when they don't think I'm listening, etc.

Hopefully this helps!