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Team management

 
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What do you do as Project Manager if one of the members in your developer teams has problems with his team members?

What if:
- he can't stand his team members
- he has fights with them all the time
- he is looked down upon by his team members
- he is being talked bad about by his team members
- his team members ignore everything he says or considers adding and/or discussing for the project/subtask
- asking his team members for help on a particular issue he is stuck with gets fully ignored and he gets called a retard
- his team members are highly arrogant, self-righteous blockheads who suffer from ADD and Asperger's Syndrome 100%?
- he is ten years older than any of his team members and on top of that from a different culture
- a private talk between the project manager and him and between the project manager and each individual team member does not help the situation
- switching to another team didn't help and had the same results
- he hates every youngster
- youngsters nowadays can't work at all with older people due to culture clash
- his team members have absolutely no respect for anyone

I would change teams once again if that were the case. If you can't get a team to work motivated let alone work together then it's doomed to fail.

What would you do?
 
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It seems likely the problem is "him." If this happened on two different teams. It also seems like there is some reporting bias here. It is unlikely everyone on both teams was a blockhead, used foul language and talks badly of him. It is also unlikely that he hates everyone 10 years younger than him and vice versa. Maybe he is in the wrong profession?

One idea is to have lunch with the "youngsters." This helps feel like a team and helps bond. It also helps get rid of some of this cultural/age divide which seems to be a problem here.

youngsters nowadays can't work at all with older people due to culture clash


This is insulting to "youngsters." And it isn't true. If that's what you've encountered, you've been unlucky in your sampling.
 
Ryan McClain
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I talked to him about it and it was actually the teams who were blockheads. The IT business is full of blockheads.
You think he is the only one complaining about it? No, there are several people complaining about this.
Just because something is unlikely doesn't mean it isn't true.

The person had lunch with them. I was there during that lunch. After 40 seconds everyone took off and they didn't say a word to him nor look at him.
In my managerial opinion I think they should go to their parents and ask them what an education and respect is, because they don't have it.
I admire this person for being so congruent with himself and mature. It is though a sad fact that young people these days just have no respect for others.
Society and parenting is to blame. Trying to bond with a 21 year old is like trying to let a gazelle make friends with a jaguar. It just doesn't work.
If you don't believe me, I suggest you do research on this. The entire world complains about how disrespectful today's youth is.

Bright minds like him aren't supposed to be working with dull, maleducated fools. He will be one of the pioneers of this century.
I fully support him in this. Bring back the old times. Bring back respect, hard work and brilliance because in the current social climate this doesn't exist at all.
 
Jeanne Boyarsky
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Ryan McClain wrote:You think he is the only one complaining about it? No, there are several people complaining about this. Just because something is unlikely doesn't mean it isn't true.


Well maybe you should put these people on a team together where they don't have to work effectively with others. And no, that isn't a serious suggestion.

Ryan McClain wrote:The person had lunch with them. I was there during that lunch. After 40 seconds everyone took off and they didn't say a word to him nor look at him.


Really? 40 seconds? In other words, he sat down and everyone got him without saying a single word? That's not having lunch. That's shunning. I suspect exaggeration here. Which doesn't help you or your friend gather information or advice. It also casts everything else in the thread into doubt. We are engineers. Precision is important. (In the rare event, everyone did get up in literally under a minute without a word such as "excuse me" or "bye" or "gotta go", he should talk to his manager about this specific incident. That he tried to bond and X happened.)

Ryan McClain wrote:It is though a sad fact that young people these days just have no respect for others. ... If you don't believe me, I suggest you do research on this. The entire world complains about how disrespectful today's youth is.


People in every generation complains about the next generation. And it's a fact that SOME young people have no respect. Not all young people. It's possible all the people on that team have no respect. But not across the board. And again, exaggerating doesn't help your cause. And I don't believe you. I mentor a high school robotics team. These kids are 13-18 years old. Some have respect. Some don't. Some are learning.

Ryan McClain wrote:Bright minds like him aren't supposed to be working with dull, maleducated fools. He will be one of the pioneers of this century.


Not if he doesn't learn to deal with others. You can't control other people. You can change how you and your friend interact with others. Looking down on them isn't going to build rapport.

If your friend lets this sentiment out at work, he has to do some serious damage control. Because his younger teammates have no reason to respect him. Respect is earned through actions, not just age.
 
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I think we all see such team members at some point of time. It is required that that the ice must be broken by some team building activities at the same time Project Manager needs to talk to people separately and ask the group to be kind to other person. One way of doing is to ask team members how they would work to resolve this issue.

Long back I read an excellent blog on team work, though I don't recollect the entire content but the article was on similar content. The project manager took entire team to a meeting room, explained them the situation and asked them to come with a solution that was agreeable to all. And if, they are unable to come to a common understanding then he'll take a his own decision. At the end the team comes up with a solution that was acceptable to all.

When we work in team it is important that we put ourselves in others shoes and be considerate and accommodating. In case nothing works then its best that the team be reorganized.
 
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Hi,

Generally speaking a team goes thru the classical four stages of team development - Form, Storm, Norm, Perform. If the team has been together for a longer time period i.e over a few months (lets say 8 -10) and you are still facing the same problems with the particular team member, the only logical action steps i see are firstly trying to understand the root of the problem and addressing the same, and if that doesnt work ejecting the member.
 
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