9 Sins That Destroy
Successful Teams
human resources
&
organization
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“ Coming together is a beginning.
Keeping together is progress.
Working together is success. ”
Henry Ford
The 3 necessary steps to create a INMAN’ culture of teamwork and collaboration.
1. Coming Together: Identify our real needs, structure our teams and
their goals; most important, fill it with the right people.
2. Keeping Together: The work doesn’t stop once the team is formally
appointed. We have to learn how to continually evaluate our team’s unique
personality and fullest leverage it within our companies. ( Tutorship )
3. Working Together: Collaborating effectively, through the positive and
the negative, will truly bring the target of our teams to life.

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In 2012 we have set some teams to get alive the “ INMAN ”
project, but, still now, something just doesn’t click.
The appointed group of people, who are extraordinarily
competent and diligent, can’t seem to get anything done
and projects sink toward failure.
• Why is that ?
• Which are the factors that turns teams into
dysfunctional groups of people ?
Up to now we can identify nine key factors that turn an
otherwise competent team into a sinking mess

Preliminary
First we have to get very clear role
& duties of the top figures that
lead and manage those teams.
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1. EGO
When someone’s ego is more
important than the team, the
project or the goal, things break
down quickly. This happen when
one person is more interested in
“looking a leader” than getting
the work done, when someone is
always placing blame, or when
someone feels and acts like signed
by god instead of doing the
“agreed” necessary work.
( The IKE syndrome )
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2. Negative competition
Lighthearted competition can be a
good thing; individuals can be
motivated by gamifying their work
within a leaderboard but when
competition goes too far, it can
destroy a sense of team-work and
create a “ you versus me ”
atmosphere that isn’t good for
anyone.
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3. Poor communication
When the left hand doesn’t know
what the right hand is doing, it
causes all sorts of problems:
duplicate work, forgotten work,
missed deadlines, etc.
Communication supported by
Real, Reliable and Complete data
is absolutely key to a team that
works.
( inference scale effect )
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4. Micromanagement
When employees have to get
approval or sign-off on every single
thing they do, it slows down the
workflow considerably.
Effective Leaders need to be able
to Trust Managers to make the
right choices, and managers need
to feel comfortable asking for help
when they need it.
The right balance is the key.
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5. Criticism without praise
We have known people in whose
entire management philosophy
was to criticize everything and
rarely, dole out praise.
It is easy to imagine how well it
can go over with their submissive
team.
“Constructive” criticism is vital to
help employees’ growth, but
generous trust and well timed
praise is also important for
maintaining a genuine enthusiasm
and morale.
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6. Unreasonable expectations
As a member of a team, nothing
feels worse than the sinking
feeling of knowing that you will
never reach your targets, no
matter how hard you work.
Challenging goals that may stress
a lot the team are good, but
goals that are too away of reach
are depressing.
It won’t make employees work
harder; it will make them want to
give up.
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7. Half-hearted work
Having one or more member of
the team who only puts in half an
effort - estranging, leaving early,
checking email all day, etc. - has a
decidedly negative impact on the
whole team.
It’s important that everyone is
putting in a full, equal effort.
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8. Stubbornness
When a dogmatic leader adopt a
“ my way or the highway ”
approach, no one benefits.
When working in a team, everyone
needs to be open to new ideas,
new approaches and
experimentation; even, and
perhaps especially, the Leaders.
“ Just because you’ve always done it that way doesn’t
mean that’s the best way to do it in a changing
environment “
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9. Leading with emotions
Instinct, emotions, and gut feelings
all have their place.
Bringing emotions too much into
the team can have a deleterious
effect.
A team member who always feels
spurned when his idea isn’t
chosen, who sees slights, real or
imagined, in every interaction, or
who takes stress and anxiety about
a project is bringing too many
negative emotions into the
workplace.
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Emotional abuse kills confidence,
creativity and individuality

Your contibution
Of course, these are not the only
culprits, but some of the most
pervasive that I could see in the
INMAN experience.
What problems do teams
experienced that would make
sense to be added to the list ?
We’ll appreciate your
contributions.
TKS
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