Clients always call me when they reach the “Event Horizon” of a situation at work with an urgent plea to help them extricate themselves from it, sometimes even wanting to do it gracefully. Those in the know of the astronomy of black holes have learned that an event horizon is a zone of doom in space-time near a black hole that does not allow you to extricate yourself from the object’s enormous and inescapable gravitational pull, no matter what you do. The only doomful outcome of entering an event horizon is that you become part of that black hole and lose yourself, self-destructing!

Time and again, what I found in each episode of this avoidable outcome is that the client had enough—even ample—early warning signs of trouble by the miscreant that something could have been done early in the process to prevent the episode’s doomful culmination. In most cases I uncover that my client has let this matter fester and even exacerbate through the following “process:”

1. Denial,
2. Self-delusion (I think he is having a bad day today!; I can check this if I chose to.),
3. Lack of self-confidence (I am imagining this),
4. Transfer of responsibility (I think someone in the team will straighten him out),
5. The problem will correct itself by its own burden,
6. Misplaced sense of loyalty: Since I recommended this hire, I don’t want to look bad
7. The miscreant will see their errant ways soon enough, or
8. Not wanting to look arbitrary and to stay in good graces with others.

There may even by other reasons I/O psychologists know of which I am not aware that, too, can culminate similarly. Regardless, what ends up happening in most cases is that the bad behavior escalates, the project milestones become more critical, and most people in the team become increasingly reluctant to make a change with the looming deliverable deadline. The boss, too, is afraid to make a change because of the risk of a potentially missed milestone. Ultimately, my client ends up taking the wrath from all factions, and, often, crossing the Event Horizon!

So, what is the best course of action when such situations arise at work? Here is my recommendation:
1. Stop the Infection: Regardless of how the miscreant entered the team’s bloodstream, you, as a leader—and as a phagocyte, to keep this metaphor going—must take the responsibility for keeping the team performing. This means that any errant team behavior must be identified, dealt with, and stamped out sooner than later. A toxic team member can quickly infect a team, and, especially in its early Forming stages (together with Storming, Norming, and Performing are the four stages of team formation), can vitiate your efforts to have a high-performing team ready to prosecute the mission!
2. Early Actions: A typical pattern of misbehavior starts with small acts of rebellion by the miscreant early in the process. Generally, in a meeting or during a conference call they start their rebellion with small public disagreements with your demands on the team. “So, let us shoot for completing this milestone on November 1. Are we all on-board with this milestone and date?” you ask. After that rhetorical question you expect the team members to jump in with a positive response, but the miscreant will object to such demand by putting forth some specious argument or by caviling about some extraneous influence that can remotely get in the way of success: “Don’t you remember, the HQ team is visiting us that day, so everyone would be distracted. Let us postpone that milestone to the following week.” If you acquiesce and say, Yep, Joe is right, let us move that by one week, you have lost that battle and all the ensuing ones to ultimately lose the war.

The right response from you MUST be two-fold: Tell the team right then and there, “I don’t care what Joe is saying, I, as your leader, am asking your commitment to complete this milestone on November 1. Is everyone on board now?” The second part of the response must be to take Joe to your office, close the door, and have a clear conversation with Joe about his misstep and that you will not tolerate his undermining your leadership in forums involving teams. You must emphasize to him that if he has any constructive ideas that countermand your needs, he must first discuss them with you privately and get your concurrence. After that only you would communicate to the team what the required outcomes are and that you expect everyone—including Joe—to comply with that demand.
3. Three is a pattern: Generally, when “team” members such as Joe come on board and join the team, they on-board with an agenda and a tack that has multiple facets. One of them can be directly and actively undermining the leader (you) in a team setting. Another could be passive-aggressive behavior. Such behavior can include finding excuses for not meeting agreed-to deadlines after they pass. In that same spirit they will encourage other team members to delay their commitments through covertly persuading them and giving them specious reasoning how this can be acceptable (“I just delayed mine and he did not say anything”). They may even reach out to the customer, telling falsehoods about the project and “inadvertently” sending ccs of confusing emails to higher ups, among others.

So, regardless of the flavor of their tack, when you see the first instance of undermining your leadership you must take note. When the second one happens (from among the partial list above) you must talk to the person and bring it to their attention that the behavior (now twice) did not escape you. Don’t let them fool you by challenging your observation that the two instances were completely unrelated! When you notice the third episode you must see this as a deliberate pattern to sabotage your leadership and escalate the matter after giving the person a verbal warning (it’s OK to be somewhat paranoid in such matters! Remember, you’re the boss.). In this process of escalation you must alert your boss, and anyone else who can support you when you decide to remove this person from your team at the advent of the next episode of “sabotage.” Working with an HR representative to give a written warning can often help your cause when you decide to terminate the person.

I often find that when I ask my clients to walk me through the history of their encounters with the miscreant’s rebellious behavior, they often palliate—even excuse—their impact on them and on the team with strange set of reasons: I brought him in, so I did not want to look bad to my higher ups by making a big deal of this early on; I thought that the family illness was causing him to misbehave and I did not want to make it worse for him, etc. The problem with this overt palliation is that once you learn to inure such behavior and the team sees you as tolerating it, the whole team shifts its attitude around such behavior, which can seriously undermine your leadership, your project, and the team’s welfare. The next thing that happens is that the whole team “downshifts” its performance and adopts the path of least resistance. Others with such latent tendencies can start manifesting similar behaviors in their own ways. Now you have started to fester a whole colony of such miscreants by your own act of omission! You have also increasingly lost control over the team, undermining your leadership!
4. Vigilance: In rare cases the guilty team member gets the message and starts “straightening out.” Particularly after the written warning the miscreant may acquiesce and pretend to line up with the agenda. This is where you must be extra cautious and forehanded in how you manage their subsequent behavior and how you continue your grip on the team’s leadership. It is not uncommon for those hell-bent on undermining your leadership to shift gears and start their rebellion in entirely different direction after getting exposed: Miscommunicate key information, covertly sabotage project milestones, infect marginalized team members, among others. So, if you chose to give them another chance because of deadline pressures, overly considerate boss, or HR objections to terminate, do NOT let your guard down. In some cases you may be better off sidelining such members and “benching” them until the project is done for the welfare of the team, project, and your sanity!
5. Staying on Top: On projects—especially major ones involving large, geo-dispersed teams—it is critical to keep your ears to the ground. One way to do that is to have trusted team members who can give you honest “status reports” of the ground reality. These inputs are not just about the project status, but more about the undercurrents that are driving team members’ thinking and actions. Get inputs from multiple sources throughout the course of your project and learn how to detect early signs of team trouble. Learn how to ask insightful questions and develop your own “calibration curves” on those who provide you such inputs. Having different sources on a large project can help you “normalize” such curves and act preemptively before things start getting out of control, pushing you closer to the Event Horizon!

Team leadership is a responsible role where you are in control of not just the project deliverables, but also the team’s welfare, and you own career. So, take this role seriously, be forehanded—even preemptive—and deal with those who deliberately interfere to sabotage it in accordance with some of the suggestions provided here and others that suit you.

Good luck!

Photo: Courtesy Shutterstock