Leading an Employee Who Isn’t a Team Player

You’re committed to building a work environment of collaboration and teamwork — a work environment in which all your employees work together to reach common goals. The problem is, you have one employee who simply doesn’t share your team mindset.

That’s where it may fall to you to step up and show some leadership — proactively working to bring that employee into the fold and instill in him or her the central fact that, in your business, teamwork is non-negotiable.

But how do you manage these lone wolf employees? How do you show leadership in the face of an absolute defiance of teamwork initiatives?

Working with Lone Wolf Employees

A few basic steps:

1. Make it clear what your corporate values are, and what your values are as a leader. Offer public praise and affirmation to employees who do exemplify the team approach you’re looking for. And for employees who don’t like to work with the team, offer some private corrective counseling. Simply make it clear to them that — again — teamwork is a non-negotiable.
2. Take a firm stand. This doesn’t mean you have to be needlessly aggressive. What it means is that you shouldn’t sit around and hope that the employee will have a change of heart. You’re going to need to address the issue…