Understanding the Non-Participating Team Member

A team member who fails to participate, to attend team meetings, to make suggestions, to do their share of the work, to support and encourage the team effort, and/or to truly be an active member of the team certainly detracts from the team effort. And since most teams are small, that detraction can be significant indeed. Think about it this way: If you have a five person team and one person is withholding their contributions, you've lost 20% of your team's potential.

This is a very common situation experienced by manager's who must facilitate teams of all types, but it seems especially applicable to manager's who must facilitate cross-functional special project teams.

Before you can effectively deal with this problem, you must understand the problem. And the best way to do that is by getting the non-contributor's perspective. Find out what he thinks about the team and its mission. How does she see her role in the team? What does she like about the team? What does he dislike? What would he like to see changed? How would she like things to be? If given a choice, what role in the team would she like to have? What does the team need to do to increase his or her interest in the team?

If the answers to these and similar questions are getting you nowhere, and if the non-contributor's participation is voluntary (or at least not mandatory), you might them move on to discuss a different question: "Would the person like to be relieved as a team member?"

About Me: Dan Pelley teaches coaching and facilitation skills that support team member integration and positive team dynamics as part of his "Participative Management" (Building High Performance Teams) program. This program can be presented in-house at your company. Click here to visit our website to learn more about this and other programs offered.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
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