Christian Business Concepts
Christian Business Concepts
Transforming Dysfunctional Teams with Biblical Leadership Strategies
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Team dysfunction can significantly hinder business performance, leading to poor morale, communication breakdowns, and conflicts that disrupt collaboration. By identifying the signs of dysfunction and applying biblical strategies, leaders can transform their teams into high-performing units rooted in faith.
• Recognizing signs of dysfunction like poor communication and low morale
• Addressing root causes such as leadership issues and cultural misalignment
• Implementing biblical solutions for team transformation
• Fostering trust, collaboration, and effective communication
• Clarifying roles and responsibilities within the team
• Resolving conflicts proactively to maintain harmony
• Promoting adaptability and innovation through a supportive culture
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Welcome to the Christian Business Concepts with your host, harold Milby. Christian Business Concepts is dedicated to guiding companies and business owners in becoming effective, efficient and successful through God's Word and godly principles. Now, here's your host, harold Milby.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, kelly, and welcome everyone to this week's Christian Business Concepts podcast. Much, kelly, and welcome everyone to this week's Christian Business Concepts Podcast. I'm your host, harold Milby, and each week I try to share biblical principles that can be applied in your personal life and in your professional life that will help you find true godly success. Not success the way the world defines it, but success in the way God defines it. You know the Bible is full of scriptures and principles that apply to business, to business leaders, department managers, heads of organizations and even mothers. I mean, you know there's so much in God's Word and, as I share with you each week, my goal is to encourage you, to enlighten you and empower you to be the best Christian business leader, the best organizational leader, the best department leader that you can be. You know CBC is trying to reach over a million leaders around the world and I'm asking that you help me do that by sharing this podcast with four to five other people that you may feel like would benefit from this podcast and putting our link on your Facebook or on your LinkedIn page each week to kind of help us get the word out. Now, before we get started today, let me give a big shout out to the great country of Japan for having so many downloads the past few weeks. You know we really appreciate you guys and we're so thankful for you, as we are really all of you not just Japan, but all of you all over the world that have become a part of the Christian business concepts. So, anyway, I just wanted to share that with you today and so glad and so humbled that you have decided to you about how to see the signs of a dysfunctional team and then how to overcome the negative effects that it can cause. If you really want to look at some examples of dysfunctional teams, we're around that time of the Super Bowl and everything, so we'll just use some football examples Football as being the NFL, not soccer.
Speaker 2:For those of you that are listening outside the United States, the first one would be the Denver Broncos. The Broncos made a blockbuster trade for Russell Wilson in 2022. But that move kind of turned into a disaster. First there were some coaching issues the first-year head coach, nathaniel Hackett. He struggled with play calling, game management and it led to his firing before the season ever ended. There was a lot of locker room tensions. Before the season ever ended, there was a lot of locker room tensions. You know Wilson reportedly had his own office and personal staff which alienated him from his teammates. And then there were on-field struggles too. The offense ranked really near the bottom of the league despite all the high expectations. So there's an example of a dysfunctional team there. Another is the Arizona Cardinals, also in 1922, the team dealt with a lot of internal dysfunction between the quarterback, which was Kyle Murray at the time, and the head coach, which was Cliff Kingsbury. And Murray was called out even by his teammates and the media for a lack of leadership and really was given an unusual contract clause requiring him to study film for at least four hours a week, and so they added that into his contract and that kind of helped a little bit. But Kingsbury lost the locker room and after a 4-13 season that year, both him and the GM were fired.
Speaker 2:Another example of a dysfunctional team was Las Vegas Raiders in 21 and 22. The Raiders were plagued by scandals, by really poor coaching decisions and some player mismanagement. John Gruden you know he leaked offensive emails which led to his resignation, and then Henry Ruggs' arrest in 2021. Ruggs he was a first-round pick and he was involved in a fatal DUI crash leading to his release. And then there was Derek Carr who was benched. He was a longtime quarterback and he was benched and later released, but again it just kind of signaled more instability. But again it just kind of signaled more instability.
Speaker 2:So it can be harder to recognize a dysfunctional team in a business or an organization than a sports team. But if you know what to look for, I think it's easy to see. A dysfunctional team really can significantly hinder the business performance, the employee morale and even the success of the business. And as Christian business leaders, it's really crucial for us to be able to identify the root causes of dysfunction and then implement some biblical strategies and principles to help us transform that team in really what we want, which is a very high-performing team, high-performing unit. Patrick Lencioni said that if you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry in any market against any competition at any time, and I think there's a lot of truth to what he's saying.
Speaker 2:So what you want to do is, first, you want to look at some signs to help you identify if you're working with a dysfunctional team, at some signs to help you identify if you're working with a dysfunctional team, whether it be the overall upper management of a company or maybe just some of the people in your own department. Some of these things will help you to determine and help you find telltale signs, if you will, of a dysfunctional team. So first and foremost is poor communication dysfunctional team. So first and foremost is poor communication. There may be a lot of misunderstandings, a lack of transparency or a reluctance to share information. That's one sign. Another sign would be low morale. I mean, if your team has low morale, it's one of the things you want to start looking at.
Speaker 2:If your employees are not engaged or you have a lot of absenteeism or you just plain have a lack of enthusiasm, a lot of times that can be a sign of having a dysfunctional team. And then lack of trust, that's another. You know team members they're unwilling to rely on each other. Team members they're unwilling to rely on each other or they're micromanaging behaviors. But a lack of trust is a big issue and it also is a sign of having a dysfunctional team. Then you've got conflicts and power struggles. You know there's frequent disagreements. Maybe there's cliques or a resistance to collaborate with others. So look for those conflicts and power struggles. Sometimes they're under the surface, they don't stand right out, but you'll see from the frequent disagreements and the cliques and things like that that you do have it. So it's something that you have to kind of be looking for, you know.
Speaker 2:Next is poor accountability. So when you have poor accountability, what happens is you have what's called the blame game. So people just start blaming people or they blame situations. You know they start missing deadlines, right? Because? Why? Because there's no accountability. Uh, there's really a lack of ownership. Um, you know. So there's just no accountability. You know, stephen Covey uh said once. He said that accountability breeds responsibility. So if you see people that are not taking ownership, they're not taking responsibility, chances are there's no accountability. So that's a sign that you could have a dysfunctional team.
Speaker 2:Another is resistance to change. That's just purely an unwillingness to adapt, you know, to new strategies or new processes. You know, some people are just resistant to change. I've seen that over the years. I worked for a company and we were bought out by another company and I saw a lot of people that were just resistant to change that came from the new company. It hurt the business overall because of that.
Speaker 2:So resistance to change could be a reason that you have a dysfunctional team, or at least it gives you an idea that that's a sign. Then underperformance there's a failure there. They're not meeting their goals. There's really inefficient workflows or making the same mistakes over and over and over and over again. It's just underperformance. Another one is just it's jealousy. It's just pure jealousy. And when you look at the Word of God, especially when you look at the team that Jesus had put together, his 12 disciples, there was jealousy among those people. Some of those passages we'll share today.
Speaker 2:But there definitely was issues that they had to deal with, that Jesus had to deal with with his team and in some cases he had to get pretty direct with them. He had to get pretty serious with them. So what are some of the root causes? Pretty serious with them. So what are some of the root causes? If you're going to implement corrective actions, you really need to understand the causes. So we already know we just went through some of the signs of a dysfunctional team.
Speaker 2:Now we want to talk about some of those causes. One is leadership issues. So there's inconsistent management, there's a lack of vision or failure to address conflicts. Now these are on you If you're the business leader. If you're the leader in your organization or your department, you got to look to yourself. First. You're supposed to be the leader, and so a lot of times this dysfunction comes because there's poor leadership, or maybe people are become lazy, they're just not doing what they need to do. But that can be a root cause. Another is there's no clear responsibilities, there's no clear roles that are established, so employees are very uncertain about what their duties are and how they can contribute. So you really need that. It's important that you have written job descriptions. You know what job descriptions do. It lets the employee know if they're doing a good job or not. Because that's what you want. You want the employees to take ownership of their actions, ownership of how well they're doing. So you give them a job description and it kind of lets them know, by looking at that job description, if they're doing a good job or not. So you know unclear roles and responsibilities.
Speaker 2:Next, cultural misalignment. Now, what am I talking about? Well, there's a misalignment of team values or maybe organizational goals, so they don't line up, you know, with your goals, or maybe another department's goals. So they don't line up, you know, with your goals, or maybe another department's goals, and so there's this clash that begins to take place. Another reason for dysfunction can be a lack of resources. Maybe you just don't have enough training, you don't have the right tools, you don't have the personnel, you're not investing in personnel, or at least you're not investing in the right people, and then personality clashes.
Speaker 2:You know, there's all kinds of different work styles, there's different values, there's all kinds of personal conflicts that can happen within an organization. It happens in families, so you know it's going to happen in an organization. It happens in families, so you know it's going to happen in an organization. You know the enemy does not want you to have a family and anything that resembles a family. He wants to tear it apart, and that includes business. So he doesn't want that. He wants to cause as many conflicts as he can.
Speaker 2:And lastly, another thing that can cause dysfunction is work overload. If you just have really unrealistic expectations, a lot of times that'll lead to burnout, it'll lead to frustration, and so that's the things that you have to be aware of as well. So what can we do? What can we do? Well, you know we've got to address a team dysfunction through some strategies, and I want to talk about some things that I find in the Word of God that should be able to help us right.
Speaker 2:So the first principle is you need to establish a clear leadership and a clear vision. That's important because what you're doing is you're defining. You are defining the team's mission, you're defining their goals, you're defining the expectations, and they should be in alignment with Christian values. They shouldn't conflict, but they should align with Christian values and you need to ensure that alignment with your objectives. And at the same time that you're doing that, you've got to embody servant leadership, which we've talked about before on this podcast. But you know, proverbs 29 and 18 says when there is no vision, the people perish, they will die on the vine and then it will infect other people within the organization and before you know it, you've got a dysfunctional team on your hands. So you know how do you kind of overcome that? You kind of you got to lead by example. You know you've got to demonstrate accountability and integrity and humility. You've got to demonstrate accountability and integrity and humility. And then you've got to define. You've got to define that vision that includes your goals and your expectations and what your mission is.
Speaker 2:The next thing that you should do is improve communication. So you need to have regular team meetings to discuss the progress and the concerns that people may have. You need to encourage I don't mean just talk about it, but you really have to encourage having open dialogue. You know, ephesians 4.29 says let no corrupt talk come out of your mouths, but only such as good. Now watch this for building up as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear.
Speaker 2:So you're trying your best, when you communicate, to fulfill the Scripture. You're trying to share things that will only build somebody up, even if you have to fulfill the scripture. You're trying to share things that will only build somebody up Even if you have to correct somebody, even if somebody does something egregious. I think you have to take your time in the way you handle these things, because I still think you can communicate things properly. So you know, when we're talking about good in communication, you've got to have good outlets for communication. And how you're doing it? Uh, you've got to encourage open and honest feedback. Uh, but do it in a respectful. You know when they do that, tell them, expect them to, to, to be respectful and to be in a loving manner. Uh, you're not there to tear people down. You're there to build them up in a loving manner. You're not there to tear people down. You're there to build them up. And so you need to implement some good communication channels and maybe that may be project management tools or internal messaging platforms that are out there, but do what you can to improve communication.
Speaker 2:The next is to build trust and collaboration. Again, you hear me quote Stephen Covey a lot, but I have a great respect for him. But you know he said once trust is the glue of life. It is the most essential ingredient in effective communication, it's the foundational principle that holds all relationships together. So, building trust and building collaboration. So to do that, you just need to foster a culture of respect, foster a culture of safety where employees feel valued, right? You know Colossians 3 and 12 through 14, it says put on, then, as good God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so that you also must forgive, and above all these things put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Let me just go on a little bit.
Speaker 2:You need to organize some team building activities to help strengthen relationships and build trust. You need to recognize and appreciate individual people and team people as they contribute, and you need to do that with gratitude. You know the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5 and 11, therefore, encourage one another, build one another up, just as you're doing, and you may say, yeah, you know, harold, that's all great when you're in church and you do that, but you know this is a business. I got to be tough on people. This is a business. I can't bring Christianity into my business. Let me tell you something you can't afford not to bring Christianity into your business and you know, if you want to find things that are hard to do, god's Word is full of principles that are easier said than done, but, as a believer, it's what we need to strive for. So you need to build trust and collaboration.
Speaker 2:The next thing is you need to clarify people's responsibilities. You need to clarify what is their role so that they know what their role is. You know, one of the things that happens in a dysfunctional team is somebody that doesn't understand what their role is, but goes around talking to people about what they think their role is, and it causes all kinds of animosity. It causes a lot of resentment and a lot of conflict within a company. You know, theodore Roosevelt said one time the best execution is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it. And I think that's at the heart of building trust. It, and I think that's at the heart of building trust. And so I think that you know most people, you know they don't realize that Judas was Jesus's treasurer.
Speaker 2:According to John 12 and 6, you know it's definitely him. The Bible says that he was the one that held on to the money bag. That was his responsibility, that was what his role was and a lot of people don't know that. So you've got to establish, when you do that, you have to establish responsibility and accountability and you've got to have some kind of structure to track people's performances. You know the Bible talks about in Acts 6 and 3, it talks about picking out seven men, full of the Holy Ghost, to take care of widows and wait on tables. Now that's how important the Holy Spirit is that they wanted men who were going to wait on tables and to take care of widows to be full of the Holy Ghost. The Bible says in Acts 6 and 3. So it's important to have accountability and to have structure. So you need to use your job descriptions and use KPIs key performance indicators. What are these things that you should be looking for every day, every week, every month, and that'll help you guide your team's functions and what they're supposed to do?
Speaker 2:The next thing, the next principle, is you've got to address and resolve conflicts effectively and quickly. Don't let them fester. So you've got to implement some conflict, what I would call conflict resolutions, and you can do that through a lot of times, through meditating upon God's word about having coaching sessions, or maybe you know, make sure your business is really, really, really grounded on biblical principles. You know, matthew 18, 15 through 17 says if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you've gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two other people along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Those are pretty strong words, pretty strong, very, very strong words, and you know that Jesus said this, you know. So I think, as we look at these things and as we discuss them, especially when we're talking about establishing accountability, it's important for us to understand that we also encourage some constructive feedback too, and we should be actively listening. Jesus sent his disciples out two by two at one point. Then they came back and then he debriefed them upon their return. He debriefed them, he got all the information from them and some of them had a hard time, some of them not as bad, but that's something that Jesus did. He was very constructive in his feedback and he was a very good and active listener.
Speaker 2:The next thing that you need to do is you need to take prompt actions when you resolve disputes and you try to nip them in the bud before they escalate and get a lot worse. You know Luke 22 and verses 24 through 26,. It says a dispute also rose among them as to which of them was going to be regarded as the greatest, and he said to them the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them and those in authority over them that are called benefactors, but not so among you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest and the leader, as one who serves. Now this passage really is partly due because of jealousy. They're jealous of that other person, maybe their role, maybe their perks that they get, I don't know. But they're jealous of that other person, maybe their role, maybe their perks that they get, I don't know, but they're jealous, and so you need to be very careful with that.
Speaker 2:The next thing, you need to provide some training, have some kind of training program. Listen, you don't have to spend thousands of dollars or even hundreds of dollars. You can develop. If you're a leader, you can develop training and development. You know, 2 Timothy 3, 16 through 17 says All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. So you know, as we look at this, we see this developmental angle. What does the Scripture do? What's good for teaching? It's good for reproof, it's good for correction. The Word of God is the best training manual that we could ever have. Uh, it offers, uh, all kinds of information to us that can help us in our struggles, uh, at work, uh, and in our companies. Um, another thing that you need to do is maybe offer some kind of training, some basic skills training, offer some professional development programs that has maybe a faith-based type of perspective. Another thing that you can do is conduct workshops on communication and teamwork and leadership that's inspired by biblical teachings. Another is to encourage mentorship and knowledge sharing. You want to make sure that that is part of your environment, that that's part of your company is, that you're sharing information with each other, and you know that will help you tremendously to basically eliminate to actually eliminate any kind of things like that that are going on. All right, the next thing that you can do is enhance performance management. So you've got to look at some ways, you've got to set some measurable performance goals and have a regular review process. That way you can provide some constructive feedback, but also you can recognize them for their achievements.
Speaker 2:You know Jesus again is an example of this His disciples at one point they couldn't cast the demons out of a child. And then he said why are you afraid? What are you afraid of? And he again holds them to a standard. He holds them to a standard and you know it's how you really increase your faith and more. You've got to have some way to see where are you at right, and that goes for your salvation too. Where are you at today with the salvation that God sent when he sent his son Jesus? You know what are you doing with it. Sent when he sent his son Jesus. You know what are you doing with it. So you need to enhance some kind of performance management where you can see if people are growing, if they're doing better Again. I think Jesus was a great example of that.
Speaker 2:Next is foster adaptability and innovation. You know, jesus's ministry was very innovative. Nobody at that time spoke like he did, nobody really did the things the way that he did and no one had a vision like he did. Jesus was so different, and I remember thinking when I was a young child, when I read this story about how Jesus spit in the mud or in the dirt and he made mud with it and put it on a blind man's eyes and told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam and he'd be healed. And that's exactly what happened. But see, that's innovative. That was so innovative. Nobody heard of doing anything like that back in the day. But Jesus was very innovative, which is why he had so many people that would follow him.
Speaker 2:A good example is in 1 Corinthians 9, verse 20 through 22. It says To the Jews I became as a Jew in order to win Jews To those under the law. I became as one under the law, though not being myself under the law, that I might win those who are under the law To those outside of the law. I became as one outside of the law, not being outside of the law of God, but under the law To those outside of the law. I became as one outside of the law, not being outside of the law of God, but under the law of Christ, that I might win those outside the law To the weak. I became weak that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people that by all means I might save some.
Speaker 2:So again, it's this adaptability. We have to be willing to be adaptable, to be adaptable and to do that you've got to encourage creativity, you've got to create an openness for new ideas. You need to adapt strategies to meet the changing business needs. That'll help you to be innovative, you know, and you stay aligned with your Christian ethics. And you got to then empower your teams, empower your team members to take initiative and to contribute and then celebrate that. Downplay the failures but celebrate the successes of the people when they do that. That will help you to create this culture within your organization for people to not be afraid to be innovative and do things differently than has ever been done before. So those are things that are really, really, really important. You know, when you maintain this positive team culture. I think it's kind of like Jesus. You know he maintained that In Mark.
Speaker 2:Chapter 12 is the story of the widow. She was very poor and she gave everything she had and Jesus publicly praised her and praised her act of generosity. He highlighted the value of giving from the heart and not just the amount. You know the parable of the Good Samaritan, where Jesus emphasizes the importance of helping those in need, even strangers. It demonstrated this positive action towards other people In that passage there in Matthew 25, it says His master said to him Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a little. I'll set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. So again, you've got to sustain improvement. You've got to recognize it too. So Jesus' approach to positive reinforcement let me give this to you quickly. First of all, he recognized people in public. Jesus often publicly acknowledged good deeds which encouraged others to do the same. He also focused on the heart. Jesus emphasized the importance of the motive behind the actions Not just the actions, but the motive behind it. So it wasn't just the outward appearance of good deeds, but it was the motive behind it. He focused on the heart. And the next thing he did he was a personal example. Jesus himself demonstrated positive behaviors through his own actions of compassion and forgiveness and services to others.
Speaker 2:So you need to recognize and regularly review and adapt to these things that we've talked about today to make sure you can keep at bay any kind of dysfunction within your organization. So addressing team dysfunction it requires a very proactive and a very strategic approach that's rooted in faith. And when you identify the issues and you implement effective leadership strategies, biblical strategies, and you foster this positive work environment, I believe that as a Christian business leader, you can transform a dysfunctional team into a cohesive, high-performing team, into a cohesive, high-performing team, and by regularly monitoring and being quick to adapt and ensure long-term success. I believe that your organization will grow, and especially as you maintain your biblical principles as the foundation of your leadership and those that are leaders under you. Lord, I thank you right now for those who have downloaded and listened to this podcast and to these principles. Lord, let them be change agents. Lord, let them recognize dysfunction quickly and then help them to apply these principles.
Speaker 2:Lord, if any of them are in the middle of a dysfunctional team, lord, I pray that you let them apply your word and minister to them as they deal directly with this dysfunction. Lord, lord, please bless them, lord, and help them to grow as a leader and find your defined success. Lord for their life and Lord, I ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Well, thank you again for listening. I'm so blessed and thankful. You're a part of the CBC family. Be sure to check out christianbusinessconceptsorg website for a lot of additional information and resources. Well, that's all the time we have for this week, so until next time. Remember Jesus is Lord and he wants you blessed.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning into this week's Christian Business Concepts podcast. Go to ChristianBusinessConceptscom for more information and resources. Be sure to check out other podcasts that will help you take your business and your personal life to a whole new level of success.