How to Fix a Broken Team Without Losing Your Mind
The Situation
You’ve inherited a new team—and it’s a mess. Everybody works differently. Internal stakeholders are frustrated. Foundational systems? Missing. You’re overwhelmed because the basics that should be in place…aren’t. Your boss knows what you’re up against, but this is going to be much harder than you thought.
Sound familiar? If so, take a deep breath with me. And then take three more.
I’m not going to sugarcoat it: you’re in for a long, bumpy ride. But here’s the good news—you’ve already identified the problems:
- Unhappy stakeholders
- Inconsistent processes
- Missing foundational systems
Plus, your boss has your back. That’s huge.
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Step 1: Make the Problems Visible
Your job now is to make those problems visible to your team—and engage them in solving them, one step at a time.
But wait, that’s not the whole story. You also need to show compassion. Most people don’t want to do a bad job. Clearly, their previous leader didn’t set them up for success. So, let them air their frustrations. Ask what they want to fix. Merge their list with yours—and then get moving.
Step 2: Triage Before You Fix
Don’t try to fix everything at once. This problem didn’t happen overnight, and it’s going to take time to repair. For urgent issues, you may need to step in and put something in place yourself. Temporary help—like a contractor—can make a big difference while you stabilize things.
Ideally, you’ll tackle the work based on people’s roles and responsibilities. Start managing against agreed-upon performance standards. That’s how you create clarity and accountability.
Step 3: Build Trust and Momentum
One more thing: building trust with your team is critical. They need some wins to build confidence and maintain momentum. My favorite tool for this? 5:1 Feedback—a simple, powerful way to reinforce positive behaviors while addressing challenges.
Your Turn
So, try these steps—and let me know how it goes. What’s your take? Drop your advice in the comments and let’s learn together. Got a sticky workplace situation causing you grief? Send it my way and we’ll tackle it in a future post.
Thanks for reading—and as always, happy improving!