I am back in California this week spending time with the Interop gang getting the network up and running. It’s always stimulating to connect with this team, learn what they’re doing, and get re-ignited in a number of areas.
Today, however, we talked about whiners…
It’s amazing that so many people seem to delight in complaining. Finding something wrong and then picking at it, often working hard to get others to go along with their observations. The core of complaining is the same as the source for conceit: a need to fit in. Also known as insecurity.
It is especially painful when the whiners are skilled team members. Furthermore, complaining is contagious, and can infect whole teams of people and even become a team culture. It can seem like it isolates the team against the outside, but sooner or later it becomes a defense that must be breached to get stuff done.
Watch out for whining. Check it in yourself and lead away from it on your team. In general, you can’t legislate it out of existence, but it can become clear that it’s not “ok”. Keeping in mind the need to be accepted that drives it, you can probably eradicate it. If you can’t, it’s probably time to take action and clean up the team. No one likes to do that, but these days even more than ever before, you need to keep the team positive and moving forward.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Do you think there’s a connection between the whining and motivation? We know that motivation and performance are not the same thing, so what do you attribute the whining to: poor performance, poor motivation, or something else?
I don’t see a connection between whining and motivation. Rather, I see an unwillingness to determine a solution. In other words, whining is a complaint without a suggested resolution. It’s complaining for the sake of complaining. And I think it mostly comes from a fear of retribution from those around.
Perhaps this makes it more difficult in high-performing groups that are not accepting of the pure brainstorming approaches. Freedom to fail and freedom to have wild ideas is vital for real success. Don’t you think?
Absolutely agree with that. Many teams consist of more similar personalities and skill sets than different which can actually stifle creativity. Conflict is actually a real positive power if the team’s leader knows how to manage it. Whiners may be squeaky wheels, eternal pessimists, or, as you suggest, people who won’t take responsibility or the accountability for stepping up to plate and owning the problem and its solution. What I find intriguing is that if a team is truly high-performing, peer pressure often squashes the whiners. Have you observed this?
I have observed this, NancyLP, and the more high performing, the more true that is. It is as though the progress of a high performing team leaves no opportunity for complaining, since such counter-productive activities are obvious to the entire team: why waste time on them when we can be moving forward?