Episode 30 - Mike McDermott: Team Dynamics and Dysfunctionality Ease

In this episode, we have invited Mike McDermott, a skilled Chair and Non-Executive Director who is currently on the Board of a housing association. He also serves as a trustee of a pension scheme and as a governor of a secondary school. He previously served as the Chair of a pension scheme, as well as a Non-Executive Director and Chair of a building society.

Mike also works with boards and senior management teams, primarily in the financial services and charitable sectors, to provide governance, risk, and compliance guidance and support. His work, however, is applicable to most industries.

About Mike

[0:57]

Mike is a non-executive director and board advisor, primarily in the financial services industry, where he consults with boards.

Team Functionalities

[2:18]

Mike believes that a dysfunctional team can be highly detrimental to the business. Identifying and correcting these dysfunctions is critical for long-term business success. These five dysfunctions are the Absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and attention to results. It is not necessary to have all five in order to have a dysfunctional team and problems within the organization. It could be any of these, and the more of them you have, the more they compound and can lead to another.

Implementation Essentials

[8:58]

To address the issue of a dysfunctional team, get dominant individuals on the wall, spend half an hour having a very brief informal chat, and get to know those people. You must be cautious with your buddy's 360-degree feedback and have the confidence to criticize and accept criticism from each other. An open culture and transparency among teammates and understanding your role and responsibility are also required.

Toxic Culture

[13:44]

Making a mistake is one of the most challenging situations to deal with. Because if you make a mistake, you don't want to admit it until the errors have time to accumulate. Then you've got a significant issue to deal with. So bringing it up right away is the way to go. It solves the problem much faster. Dealing with people taking over meetings and conversations required leadership to ensure that everyone understood their roles and responsibilities and that everyone had an opportunity to speak up.

Resources Mentioned:

Free LinkedIn Mini Course Training: https://www.ImpactForLeads.com

Find out more:

Jason’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonaosborn/

Mike’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcdermott01

Mike’s Website: https://www.mcdermott-solutions.co.uk

Mike’s Email: [email protected]

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Thank you so much and until next time

Cheers,

Jason