Bad Apples (jerk, slacker and pessimist)
February 18th, 2009 by cbaxter.I had a class tonight (Managerial Leadership) that was taught by a guest speaker, Tim Sullivan from Madison Dearborn. It was a great lecture overall and picked up on transitional leadership elements between the military and private sector, among others.
One point that stuck out was regarding team dynamics. The research he brought up concluded that a team’s outcome is not necessarily dictated by the best performer, but more likely by the worst. This is sort of a weakest link analogy. Essentially, there were three team members you wanted to watch out for (or more importantly want to avoid being):
1) The Jerk – condescending, sarcastic, etc.
2) The Slacker – feet on the desk, late to meetings, etc.
3) The Pessimist – bad attitude, always negative, etc.
Basically, if one or more of these characters are adamant in a given team structure, then a negative performance is more than likely. This was tested by injecting an actor into groups who convincingly played these parts and then comparing outcomes.
This is interesting, since I often looked to the strongest member to gauge performance. More helpful is that I can recognize times when I have exhibited each of the characteristics and will now (hopefully) be more aware of it’s impact on the dynamics.
It’s worth mentioning that this was based on 45 minute student group performances and may not be representative of all teams / longer relationships, but I did find it interesting and will keep it in mind.
For more info, the research was done by Will Felps (Rotterdam School of Management) and the American Life story (source) is here.
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Tags: leadership, team structure
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I would just say one thing to you and that is, “FANTASTIC”!! Keep it up and wish to get more details from your blog.
regards
sears parts