I was having a team member, who was technically strong, but when it came to gelling with the team members, he was having problems. His comments/feedback for the technical artefacts, or for ones understanding of a problem, was showing people in a bad light. Team members were apprehensive, working with him. People started to unplug themselves while that person was around. I could sense that, the team’s engagement had started to wane. If that had continued, we were at risk of losing that person from the team.
I initially un-plugged him from the team discussions and meetings and started to have a daily sync-ups with him. Sensitised him about working as a team and how successful teams thrive in the organisation. Made him enrol for some trainings like - Seven habits of highly effective people. Recommended that training mainly because of the focus it lays on - personal change, collaborations with the team etc.
Then he started to show empathy towards the team members, started to mingle with team, started to give constructive feedbacks for the technical contributions and started to show respect to the fellow team members. The bridge that was created, started to disappear. And we finally made him part of all the discussions and meetings and today, he is one of the go-to person in the team.
