Greg James - What Needs to Be Change in Greg’s Team Going Forward?

One important thing that Greg James’s global team is missing and needs to focus on is ‘Communication’. No leader can single handedly boost performance of the team. Hence to prevent such mishaps from happening again and to get best out of the team, a things need to be fixed from both Greg’s end and in the team. Of course it is Greg’s responsibility to ensure that team carries out the necessary changes, but let’s look at them individually.

What needs to be change in Greg’s team going forward?

Greg’s team currently can be viewed as a bunch of sub teams complaining against each other mainly because they have failed to understand each other. They lack the two fundamental things of a team; ‘Trust’ and ‘Coordination’. In the words of Judith A. Ross in the article “Make Your Good Team Great”, “Team achieve superior levels of participation, cooperation, and collaboration because their members trust one another, share a strong sense of group identity, and have confidence in their effectiveness as a team”. The levels of emotional intelligence was critically low in Greg’s global team. While a certain level of familiarity occurs naturally when people work in the same location, it is difficult to build within global teams, notes Debra Nunes, vice president, executive leadership team practice for the Hay Group. Here, the leader plays a critical role.

We come to know that all of Greg’s weekly conference calls were an all-business type. He needs to allot some time during the calls for the team members to socialize and establish a common ground. In the article “Team Camaraderie : Can you have Too much?” by Judith A.Ross there is mention about a leader who managed to sew his far-flung team together by the allotting extra time during the calls just to socialize and talk informally. The same can be implement by Greg. Also the frequency of the calls can be increased instead of following the rigid ‘1’ call per week structure. This informal communication between Greg’s globally dispersed team members will enable them to understand each other and boost emotional intelligence. The problems related to French’s several vacations, US’s 30% pay would and UAE slow pace of work get sorted once they understand what it’s like on the other end. This will enable the team to set right expectations from each other.

Another aspect where Greg’s team needs improvement is managing emotional issues. For instance, Nick was once overheard that Indian team wasn’t competent which made Praveen not reach out to Nick directly even under cases of emergency. In the article “Make your good team great”, Judith A.Ross states “It’s important to establish comfortable, group-sanctioned ways to express the inevitable anger, tension, and frustration that arise in a team endeavor and to positively redirect that energy”. Greg should make sure that his team members had some constructive ways of expressing what bothers them. Humor and playfulness are helpful tools in defusing conflict and relieving tension. This would enable the team members to get the rough feelings off their chest and be more productive. Also when expressed through the right medium those with complaints deal with it fairly and positively. This will also enable the team members to hold one another accountable rather than pin pointing the next person.