Coaching Rotten Apples?

As an Agile coach, it is too part of our exercises to identify the bad apples from the team.

If we have to establish a high-performance agile team, we require to work out this exercise. It is not only reporting manager jobs, you as a coach desire to support the manager to surmount this crisis.

How can we help the bad apples so that other apples also do get rotten!

Else all the coaching efforts will go in vain!

We have to rapidly stop bleeding to recover the team!

As the traditional maxim goes, one bad apple can spoil the whole barrel

It merely takes one “rotten apple” to influence employee engagement across your whole business. If you place one bad apple with other few good apples, it has been discovered over a period of a timeline all apples will be started becoming bad! It is an absolutely genuine fact.

First, identify those bad apples, there is a diverse school of opinion suggesting, there is no bad apple, it is the only circumstance which creates those bad apples, once you alter the condition they will spiral into a Good apple.

As a coach, we need to understand all the circumstances which induce those. It is part of the assessment and we are liable to turn a team into a high-performance team. Also a part of change management activities.

a) Find the individuals who spend most of the time complaining about the system. Whenever they comment, it commences with a complaint. Looks for the evidence if he/she has done anything to alter the situation. Or just grievance!

A recent study organized by the University of Washington Business School examines just how much damage one bad apple can inflict. The study, published in Research in Organizational Behavior, reveals that in the presence of bad apples individuals aren’t as willing to handle problems that arise, don’t communicate with one another, and generally stop functioning as a team—not a great recipe for high performance and productivity.

Let us find if such bad apples are not passing from one team to others

b) Need to coach those Bad apples. Emphasize and try to understand what kind of challenges those individuals are dealing with. Talk to the reporting manager about the strength and weaknesses of those individuals. Need to observe them thoughtfully and ask managers to talk periodically about those individuals. Provide feedback for the progress.

c) Most of the time those individuals are street smart individuals. They know extremely well how to play the game in the system. Dialogue and agreement with such individuals have to be recorded and set the expectation very precisely. Measure the outcome based on their contribution. Need to involve reporting managers in any such arrangement and improvement plan. The goal has to be SMART and evaluate with the right feedback for such individuals.

d) Those individuals have not polished themselves to stay relevant with the modern technology trend. To come out of the inability they will try to distract the attention or discussion in some other way. A coach needs to talk to those individuals structurally. Need to convey what they can contribute in 6 months and a 1-year timeline to upgrade their knowledge gaps. Coach them and update their reporting managers.

e) Those individuals(Bad Apples) due to some reason have forgotten the passion, aspiration to establish something significant. As a result, they are not capable to match the expectations organizations are demanding from them. Some way the innovation speed has diminished a contribution has come down. They have to rekindle the fire within themselves to create something worth it. Need to understand their world and point out the modern way of thinking so that they can become self-driven to rehabilitate their world.

f) Communicate to their Manager, sometimes, the ecosystem push to those team members to move to this Bad apple state. Understand what action Mangers are performing for those team members. Observe the manager’s management style and look for opportunities if we can help those managers to modify some of their styles which is not aligning with Mentoring, supporting, coaching style of leadership.

g) Coach other good apples to help the bad apples in all the desirable ways. There could be a timeline for those bad apples to turn into Good apple. Organizations can assure that there is enough support system in place, by using these approaches a Bad apple can turn into a good apple. All the other team members require to serve those bad apples by coaching, mentoring, and training based on their capacity. The coach and Reporting manager can discuss and measure improvement and progress.

h) Most of the time, bad apples will not walk the talk. These are truly typical symptoms. They will talk loud and tall. But their contribution is absolutely minimal. It takes courage and wisdom to catch hold of such individuals. As a coach, we do not stand for any such confusion. Looks for improvement, contribution, and the impact they are making month on month. Regularly update their reporting manager regarding the action you are taking for those bad apples. How those individuals are performing in their day to day progress.

i) Look for the cues from the team members, who are not taking many activities, watch for the individuals who are having maximum excuses most of the time, Looks for the individuals who are not able to accomplish their activities most of the time and what reason, look for the individuals in the meeting says many different ideas but not able to contributes as the expected level, talk to the team members. These are clues where we can make out who are the bad apples. They are great manipulators so search for those clues and reach the bad apples to diminish the damage rapidly.

I am sure you are also coming across such individuals, Let us all find those and help the organization to be a better place to work for. One day those apples will turn into a good one.