The business world has been touting teamwork for decades, and yet managing and leading groups hasn't gotten any easier.  In fact, the higher you go in organizations, the tougher it gets. Here's a case in point I think you might "enjoy."

Picture this -- you've been working with a team of superstars for months, but you're just not getting the results you need. Everyone is starting to feel the heat. Your team leader, Lenny, just quit (or was fired) or something, apparently because he took it upon himself to talk to some bigwig outside the group about a big deal he was working on. Then whoever shot off his mouth and naturally word got back to the powers that be.

Team meetings haven't been all that great either. Starting last spring, people seemed to trickle in and leave whenever they felt like it. Sometimes they missed the important stuff; maybe their minds were elsewhere. Lenny said that he tried to tell them what was going on back then, but somehow he didn't make his point very well or waited until too late in the meeting. Whatever the reason, it turns out to have been the beginning of the end.    

Then, of course, there were the hard feelings already brewing between Lenny and Robert, who sure made a mountain out of this mole hill, making it look like Lenny was a lone wolf and some kind of liar. In any case, Robert pulled the trigger in a hurry, probably getting even for all those times Lenny had made him look bad in public. So Robert brought in yet another consultant, Reese this time, to advise him "on a variety of matters" -- whatever that means.

Not only did Lenny's outside deal fall through, but now he's been replaced by David, and even that got screwed up. As icing on the cake, they fired six guys off the team and two more quit the same day, leaving just a few of the original crew wondering "who's on first" and when the next shoe would drop. 

If this sounds vaguely familiar, it's because these kinds of things happen every day in work teams from top to bottom.  Change the names and "issues," and it could be your group. 

As you might have suspected, this is no hypothetical situation. In fact, it is right out of the Wall Street Journal and it involves the top leadership team of one of the most venerable organizations in America, The Hershey Company.  

To begin with, Richard Lenny is the former chief executive at Hershey. His "big deal" involved a potential megamerger with Cadbury, just what the company needed to shore up its domestic losses in market share and become a stronger worldwide presence. The other "bigwig" is the CEO at Cadbury, who unwittingly (but prematurely) told analysts in London of the pending merger, but this was before the Hershey Board was made fully aware of the deal's progress. Robert Vowler is the (now retired) CEO of the Hershey Trust, the largest shareholder of the corporation. The consultant, H. B. Reese, is a former company attorney whose grandfather invented the ever-popular peanut butter cup. He was brought in to independently evaluate the Cadbury deal before they pulled out of it themselves. David refers to David West, Hershey's former operations officer, now CEO replacing his former boss Lenny. The "screw up" surrounding his appointment was another miscue in communications between the Hershey Board and the Hershey Trust.  Now nobody appears to trust anybody, the potentially lucrative deal is shot, and a disjointed team has to start from scratch.

And you thought your team was dysfunctional!

Then again, even a Rolls-Royce needs a tune up every so often.

Of course, it wasn't bad luck at all but a domino-like series of escalating missteps, miscommunications and missed opportunities. While you might not be on a team of this magnitude, you are very likely to have experienced your own version of team dysfunctions. They are as certain to erupt as the sun will rise, even on the best of teams.

Like the finest automobiles, teams at every level need regular maintenance to perform efficiently over a long period of time. Too much emphasis on the task (running the engine) without attending to the team's processes will lead to surprising and unnecessary problems. The team tune ups I am suggesting can involve relatively small interventions, such as: clearing the air, revisiting the mission or goals, realigning roles and responsibilities, revisiting ground rules or a host of other well-designed activities.

If you are a leader working on a team, then you have a responsibility to step forward in a productive way. The question is will you, and if you do, will you know what to do?

Surely these fine people at The Hershey Company and their partners had the organization's best interest at heart, but just as certainly they could have worked out their differences sooner. It takes more than great job titles and good intentions to stop a train like this from jumping the tracks. The next time this happens to you or your team, you should be better armed and more willing to step forward with the right kind of action. You might start with my Timeless Tips for Teams. Your team and your shareholders deserve better, and it's your job. 

Copyright 2008. Davidson Leadership. All rights reserved.