How do you deal with team members who disrupt the team dynamic? - SmartBrief

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How do you deal with team members who disrupt the team dynamic?

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By Mike Figliuolo 05/26/16

Leadership

SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 160,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each Tuesday in our e-newsletter.

Last week, we asked: How do you deal with team members who disrupt the team dynamic?

  • Coach them and better integrate them into the team: 65%
  • Remove them from the team for the greater good: 18%
  • Accept it and work around them: 17%

Disruptive team members can be more destructive than your competitors. Simply accepting the negative impact they cause isn’t acceptable as a leader. Those of you making the hard choice to coach and integrate those folks into the team should be applauded. And for those of you taking the most difficult step of removing a problem team member once coaching stops working are performing admirable work. It’s unfair to let others suffer because of a disruptive team member who doesn’t respond to coaching.

Mike Figliuolo is managing director of ThoughtLeaders and author of “One Piece of Paper.”