I have been thinking a lot about teams lately, which led my thoughts to some of the negative parts of team leadership. I will share some of those thoughts here this week.  My goal as a leader of a team is to make sure we avoid many of the traps teams experience without good leadership.

One term that popped in my head that I will play off of is the term “team idleness”.  I am using that term to represent when a team is failing to move forward towards meeting its desired goals and objectives. Team idleness does not necessarily mean the wrong people are on the team or that it has the wrong goals and objectives or that the goals and objectives are unrealistic.  Every team, regardless of their health, can go through times of team idleness.  The term simply means that at any given time there is no forward progress for the team.  Thankfully my team is not currently experiencing this, at least as a whole, so it is a good time for me to think through this issue.  I have witnessed this many times in organizations with which I have been associated and I  can assure you that most teams will deal with team idleness at various times through the life of the team.

Think with me this week about team functions.  Are you part of a team?  Are you currently facing team idleness?  Do you know what caused you to stagnate?  Do you have a solution to get your team started again? Have you been through team idleness before and have some answers for the rest of us?

Related posts:

1. What Causes Team Idleness?
2. Elements of a Healthy Team
3. Elements To Help Build a Healthy Team Spirit
4. 7 Times it is Important to MicroManage
5. Fostering an Attitude of Team Spirit (Whatever it Takes)