Team Working

Do you really value outspoken high performers who point out problems and strive to deliver the best they can? Or are you unintentionally breaking their spirit and encouraging a culture that rewards mediocrity?

Louisa's teams spend too much time backstabbing and finding reasons to complain. All her attempts to get their behaviour back on track fail. "I could really use some help," she says.

Virtual teams are much more prone to relationship breakdowns that can quickly send their performance plummeting unless they are carefully managed.

Do you have toxic co-workers in the office? I'm not talking about the types who need to wear more deodorant during the summer months, but the type of guy whose departures is considered like a holiday by everybody else in the company.

One of the secrets to creating passionate, engaged employees and to motivate teams to top performance is actually very simple. Engage people's desire to contribute by showing them how their work is part of the bigger picture.

Harry has landed his dream job. But his task of implementing change is being undermined by an aggressive, back-stabbing colleague who seems determined to resist all of Harry's initiatives and who even their mutual boss is unable to control. What can he do?

Anne is a newly-appointed department manager at a community college. With a demoralised skeleton staff and severe budget issues, she is already disheartened. Charles Helliwell has some advice to help her build morale and start to manage effectively.

Relationships with a new boss do not start with a blank slate. They are very much influenced by the quality of the relationship with the previous boss and employee expectations of the relationship they are likely to have with the new incumbent.

One of David's employees generates around 30% of his company's sales. But she is a nightmare to work with, alienating colleagues and poisoning the atmosphere. Dan Bobinski suggests how to deal with the situation.

A bit like inserting grit into an oyster to create a pearl, parachuting an outsider into a team can lead to better decisions and improved team-working.

Whether the recession ends this year or next, managers are going to have to get used to the reality of being in charge of ever more culturally diverse and geographically remote teams.

The mere mention of the term "office politics" instantly makes many people angry. But there's another way of looking at it. Don't think "politicking". Instead, think of the process of building relationships and influencing people as "lobbying".

It's good to communicate - but if you want to get the most from your team, you need to stop having dreary meetings about things everyone already knows.

While Remote Teams might be virtual, and Virtual Teams are almost always remote, there is an important distinction between them. A smart manager needs to know this, because the roots of success or failure lie in this distinction.

Agile project management is fast becoming the next big thing. The more I learn about it, the more I'm convinced that while there are extremely valuable lessons to be learned, there are also some warnings to be heeded as well.

Your boss isn't the only thing that can make work a living hell. In a modern office, the cubicle situation generally means you practically sit on top of each other. This can be a bad situation if you really hate the people who work around you.

It's all very well saying that people skills are the most important thing a manager can possess, but surely technical, nuts-and-bolts knowledge is important, too.

Kate works as an assistant to eight people. All are demanding, but one crosses the line between the professional and personal and acts like a jerk when she asks him not to. Charles Helliwell has some advice on dealing with him.

If you and your boss just are not getting along, it may be that you two are just not compatible. In fact the same sort of terms we often use in connection with dating can also apply to the manager/employee relationship.

There is a very fine line to walk at work these days. You want to stand out from the crowd and make sure that your managers know how valuable you are. At the same time, no one likes someone who is a "brown-noser."

Sometimes it seems like working with the people you spend eight hours every day with is killing you. Maybe your boss is making you angry or a co-worker is annoying you to the point of violence. In which case, you need some help.

Promoted into a new role, Mary has come up against a subordinate who wants to make her look as bad as possible. The trouble is, she is also a favourite of Mary's boss. What can she do? Charles Helliwell has some suggestions.

Carla has just started a senior government job to find herself with a deputy who was passed over for the same job. He is hurt, angry and causing trouble. Is there anything she can do salvage the situation? Max McKeown thinks there is.

When I ask teams what they would like from their supervisors, the same simple things keep coming up. You might think they're obvious - but if they are, teams wouldn't continually be mentioning them!

Do you manage a team or a group? The distinction is an important one, because there's no point in trying to develop a team ethos amongst a group of people who do no real need to work cooperatively together.

Would it surprise you that a dead-end job with no benefits is still an ideal environment for workplace backstabbing? You don't say!

Mary has recently moved into a management position where she is plagued by a colleague who bad-mouthed the previous person in her position and now she is saying the same things about her. Charles Helliwell has some advice.

Shayla is a young manager with a big problem. Key members of her team have turned against her and her authority – and effectiveness – is rapidly being undermined. Charles Helliwell has some ideas to get things back on track.

There are some employees out there who are downright geniuses in a strange kind of way – and whose extraordinary abilities are mirrored only by complete inability to work and play with others. Here's a quick field study of four of these types.

Jane's working life is plagued by a poisonous co-worker who has made her life a misery. But rather than let it beat her, Charles Helliwell has a plan to help Jane immunize herself against this pest and get rid of her.

Egotism can lead to selfishness. What's more, altruism and generosity - and striking a balance between feeling good and telling everyone how good you are - will often get you much further.

What's your story? Study just about any inspiring leader and you will find someone who can tell a story that drives home a point – all the way down to a person's core.

Ella has worked hard to advance her career. But with maternity leave looming, she is worried that her office rival is keen to expand his empire to include both her job and her team.

One unfortunate side effect of our busy working lives that it is easy to lose sight of workplace relationships. As a result, we forget that our personal and professional success depends as much on the quality of these relationships as it does on how effectively we perform our tasks.

Sally has been promoted and now finds herself having problems managing someone who was a friend long before the promotion. Charles Helliwell has some advice to help her through this tricky dilemma.

Teams perform better when they are all thinking the same thing, new research has suggested, even if it is only to be in complete agreement that you are a dreadful manager.

No workplace is perfect. And while we can usually perform well around people who have a wide range of idiosyncrasies, some behaviors just get under our skin.

I'd like to be the first to cordially invite you all to sod off, with my most sincere wishes! No, I didn't mean to be rude; you'll have to excuse me, I was simply taking the advice of researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in England.

The days of the mad scramble down to the pub after finishing work on a Friday may be all but over, as three-quarters of Britons say they rarely socialise with their colleagues.

It's easy to forget that our relationship with our boss is mutually dependent – and that it requires careful management. That means you need to building a cooperative working relationship and understand your boss's needs and working style if you're going to make it work.

Adam is supposed be an intermediary between people his office and product specialists located globally. Yet his colleagues - and even his boss – are increasingly bypassing him. Rob Yeung has some advice.

The way your organization handles conflict can either be an experience of aliveness, vitality and camaraderie, or one of toxicity, resentment and disrespect. But if we really want to reduce conflict, we need to encourage employees to be more self-aware.

No one expects their workplace to be smiles and harmony all the time, but with just half of British firms training managers in how to handle conflict, it's little wonder that disputes cost the UK economy £33 billion a year.

A recent study suggests that the world-renowned British stiff upper lip extends into the workplace, with nearly six out of 10 UK workers saying they would not approach HR to discuss their co-workers more annoying habits.

You might think that standards of manners and behaviour at work are on the decline, but according to a new survey, good manners are critical if you want to move up the career ladder.

On this week's Working Week podcast, Wayne is joined by writer and management journalist, Phil Whiteley, co-author of a new book, How to Manage in a Flat World. They discuss how managers can communicate and motivate in today's flattened companies and how this might develop in the future.

On this week's Working Week podcast, Wayne is joined by writer and management journalist, Phil Whiteley, co-author of a new book, How to Manage in a Flat World. They discuss how managers can communicate and motivate in today's flattened companies and how this might develop in the future.

A recent poll revealing that a sense of humor in the workplace is an absolute must was spot-on. But not only do employees need a good sense of humor, but it's also important that managers or supervisors have one, too.

In Adam's new company, social networking is almost as important as the job itself. But he hates golf and would rather head home after work than go out with colleagues. So can he ever be seen as a team player?

Managers should stop kidding themselves that their pearls of wisdom that make a difference. Because most of us rely on one another, not the boss, to solve problems in the workplace.

An anonymous poster on Jobswill.com has a few tips for you if you happen to think that person sitting just outside your office, might be the co-worker from Hell.

If you haven't received it yourself yet, don't be surprised if an email lands in your inbox purporting to warn you that working with idiots can cause fatal stress-related problems.

A study from New Zealand has found that working with your mates at the office or even making mates at the office is a less than stellar idea.

If you need a reminder of just how much damage a single bad manger can do this post over on Fthisjob.com provides some pretty powerful evidence.

Yahoo's Hot Jobs web site frequently has career advice, not just for finding a new job, but, cheekily enough, for putting up with the one you have. Generally speaking, the advice therein is spot on, but I just couldn't abide by some of what was written in this gem.

Office politics once meant turf wars, back-stabbing and pursuing personal advantage. But now the majority of managers see it as being about building alliances and consensus.

Trust is not easy to develop in the best of circumstances. When working with teams whose members may never have met each other, these problems only increase. So how can we build trust in such an environment?

Look around any organisation and chances are you'll find at least one person whose negative behaviour affects the rest of the group. Now new research has found that it only takes one toxic individual to upset the whole apple cart.

If you found a rose or mysterious scented letter on your desk this morning, you are not alone – a tenth of workers say they have their eye on someone at work.

We'd all prefer to be liked, but managers who spend too much time trying to be popular and friendly with members of their teams can be a recipe for disaster, new research has warned.