Analyzing Leadership Issues and Team Performance at Fire Art

This case study analyzes the poor performance of the Fire Art team, attributing it to significant leadership failures and dysfunctional team dynamics. The team, formed to strategize the company's alignment, suffered from a lack of trust and commitment among members, exacerbated by the disrup...Read More

Running head: THE TEAM THAT WASN’ 1
The Team That Wasn’t
(Author’s name)
(Institutional Affiliation)

THE TEAM THAT WASN’T 2
The Team That Wasn’t
Question 1
There are several issues that led to the poor performance of Fire Art team. This team was
not effective enough since it produced poor results that no one expected. This was due to lack of
commitment and trust among the team members. The members generally did not interact
effectively with each other. Additionally, the team did not have any new efficient skills that
could be used to improve the performance of the organization as well as meet the internal and
external needs of the stakeholders (Smithey, 2017). I have the belief that this team did not
perform well since its development and formation had issues that led to the overall inefficiency.
During the initial formation of the team, Eric was appointed by the Chief Executive
Officer to be the director of the team that was going to strategies the company’s alignment. He
was granted freedom to choose people from every department of the company and form a team
consisting of the most senior managers of each department (Wetlaufer, 1994). Eric was also
asked to include Randy in his team. Randy was to be the director of the sales and marketing in
that particular team. Randy was close to the CEO and due to binding political reasons, the CEO
was quite fond of him. Apart from that, Randy was an intelligent, energetic and humorous man
proving success (Moore, 2017). The close relationship between him and the Executive Officer
granted him the position and made the CEO have the notion that the team was already a success
since Randy was among the top members. This was in turn a great failure to the entire team,
since Randy’s behavior turned out to be negative, mocking and disturbing to the entire team.
Randy had a negative attitude towards team work and always created crisis which made the
entire team angry even Eric. When confronted by others to explain his behaviors, he always

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replied that he never liked working in groups and thought groups were ineffective and useless.
During the team’s formation, no common understanding of the agenda or even the purpose of the
team had been formulated. The team members could not cope up with the negative behaviors and
the confrontations that were always brought up by Randy. Eric had already failed the entire team
by allowing the CEO to choose some members who caused deviations in the agendas created and
also made working towards certain goals of the team quite difficult.
Though the team size was just fine and the members had efficient skills that could
improve the team’s performance, some of the members could not cope up with the team
environment (Gwynne Almeida, 2011). Despite the fact that Eric knew that the entire team
management was not accustomed to the process in team working, he did not even try to coach
the managers so as to develop their interpersonal skills. This was quite a big mistake he made
which led to an underperforming and dysfunctional team.
Eric had prepared well -structured guidelines and a good agenda that was to be discussed
at the initial meeting, but he was not able to communicate effectively and even efficiently lay out
his vision, goals and objectives for the team since Randy was interrupting occasionally by
making comments and remarks unnecessarily. The team did not reach a final agreement on what
was to be done. Eric’s vision was not well discussed or even enhanced since no rules had been
set and were to be abide by, and no punishment was to be subjected to Randy due to his negative
behavior during the meeting (Wetlaufer, et al., The Team That Wasn't, 2011). Randy had showed
so much disrespect to the team members especially the silent Eric and this made the entire team
feel insecure, intimidated and even uncomfortable. This was such a big factor that led to conflicts
among the team members.

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The atmosphere created by Randy in the team was inappropriate and negative. Randy
always criticized and judged the ideas presented by his team mates as a way of developing
competition and enhance development but this was negative to the Fire Art members who felt
nervous and even afraid to express their ideas and thoughts. This led to ineffectiveness in the
internal process of the team (Wetlaufer, The Team That Wasn't, 1994). Additionally, Randy was
not the sharing type of guy. He was never ready to share out his ideas and knowledge to the team
hence not necessitating any improvement in the team. He always withheld any important
information and also did not even peruse any hidden agendas. This showed lack of commitment
in the group and also made the other members perform poorly.
To break it down, Eric the director of the team, depended entirely on the decisions of his
team mates in order to form the team, showing inefficiency. There were also conflicts among the
members including Eric towards Randy whose behaviors were disturbing and mocking. This
showed that the power gap between Eric and Randy was small due to the authorities’ decisions
especially the CEO. It almost seemed that Eric was not even in control of the meetings since
Randy always took most of the attention (Smithey, 2017). Though Eric had been given power as
the director of the team, Randy with his resilience and being energetic was able to win over most
of the discussions since he was able to tolerate and was confident enough to face any coming
conflicts posed by the team members.

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Question 2
1) Problem
Leadership control posed by Eric over Randy- Randy a mere director of the sales
takes over the leadership as an informal leader due to the poor leadership skills of Eric. By his
disruptive actions and behaviors, he inserts himself as a leader in the team (Wetlaufer, et al., The
Team that Wasn't Commentary for HBR Case Study, 2013). Eric is not such an efficient leader
since he has not adequately established his objectives or norms or even made any firm decisions
in the team. Additionally, he is not even able to help solve conflicts well enough and lets them
grow in the team. Eric, though the formal leader as appointed is not efficient enough in the
leadership process.
Solution
Eric needs to stand firm and become a leader- he will need to appropriately look at the
dynamics of the group and also the team performance. He will need to identify the necessary
measures needed to help steer his group back on track. He will need to particularly face Randy
even organize a special meeting with him so that he can help establish the team’s performance
effectively (Wetlaufer, et al., The Team that Wasn't Commentary for HBR Case Study, 2013).
He should encourage Randy to help the group by sharing out his brilliant skills and ideas. He
should also ask Randy on how he can help meet the desired goals that will lead to the company’s
success. By comprehending the desires and motivations of Randy then he will be able to create a
remedy to the problems.
2)Problem

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No group norms among the team members –lack of group rules and norms among
members has led to unnecessary disruptions in the group which has in turn led to inefficient
performance. Since there are no rules among the members this has in turn led to troubles to most
of the members. Randy with his disruptive behaviors that cannot be tolerated would find trouble
when these
norms are enforced.
Solution
Eric as the group leader should discuss with each member well and come up with the set
of norms to govern their process. He should discuss with the members the different problems and
behaviors and how they perceive these problems and how they plan to improve the company’s
performance (Moore, 2017). He should also get agreements from the group on how they will
discuss on how to improve the performance of the group, agree they will establish the group
rules and norms and on their proceedings. Then, as a leader he will lead the team in the
establishment of the group rules and norms and also ensure periodic reviewing of the norms is
done ensuring they are adhered to.
3)Problem
Status of some of the group members- Randy has earned status in that team because of his
position and recent successes. The president of Fire Art Mr. Jack highly regards him. With that
in his mind, Randy lowly regards the other members. He disregards the opinions, emotions and
ideas of the other team members. Even Eric the team leader is afraid of Randy because of his
high status.

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Solution
Eric should take several actions to ensure this problem is solved- he can invite Jack to
one of the meetings so that he can also make observations on the behaviors of Randy and try to
reinforce the status of Eric. Eric should talk to Jack and make Jack mention Eric’s past
experiences in management earning him status and also make Eric an important leader in the
improvement of the company. Jack should also mention his faith in Eric as leader committed to
work with other members in ensuring the success of the company. Eric on the other hand could
also establish the equality of all the members in the team and that every member has a chance of
participating and sharing out their ideas.
Question 3
The initial problems we were able to identify in the group were that there was no clarity
in the identity, accountability and the entire definition of the group. A team that does work with
no sense of accountability among the members in problem solving, is just a group of people but
not a team (Wetlaufer, et al., The Team that Wasn't Commentary for HBR Case Study, 2013).
This can be well explained by looking at football team or an ox-drawn plough to define the
features of a good team. A team is compared to the football players playing football or the ox
when plowing the soil. These two key examples, have one goal and hence must perform
effectively to enhance progress in their work.
Another problem was that Eric did not set clear expectations and consequences early
enough on the members. This had led to less commitment of the members, inefficiency from
Randy and also difficulty in delegating of duties (Other Papers, 2011). Just as Winona Finch and
Peter Isenberg had done earlier before, Eric could have established himself as a credible leader

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by asking questions to the members in the team especially the disturbing Randy. Isenberg says
that this makes the team members engaging enough and always contributing. Winona Finch’s
juniors were always committed towards the goal of the team since they were empowered and not
given orders (Mirecka, 2014). The process mentioned by the two leaders above could make
Randy become participative in the team rather than work alone. This will make cohesion and
also improve the performance in the company. This is to show that, as a manager shares his
powers then his/her influence in the team also increases.
Eric should understand that if he continues acting silent towards Randy then he may end
up losing everything. It will be good if he addresses the dissimilarity of the system that Randy
beliefs in and also address the mentality and team spirit that is needed to ensure effectiveness in
the Fire Art inc. operations. Just as in the John Delhome story, Eric will need to involve the
Chief Executive Officer in his work since the general operations of the company are his
responsibility (Veras, 2014). A good relationship with the superiors always assist a struggling
leader. Eric should discuss with Derry the ideas the team have already established and get his
remarks. There is a possibility that Derry could propose some other new ideas and even talk to
Randy.
Eric should also understand his role as a leader and resume his responsibilities. He will
need to develop and adequately understand his art and his capabilities and then also define and
improve the components that enhance the intelligence of a person (Mirecka, 2014). This will
include the skills of regulating himself to perform, empathy, motivation and also social skill as
well as self-awareness. All these will create a good understanding of himself, his responsibility
and what the team actually needs him to do.

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Furthermore, Eric will also need to develop various approaches on issues. Just as the
textbook Reframing organizations says, the impact of a leader in altering the moods, evoking of
expectations and images and also in establishing objectives of the business will help determine
the business’s direction (Other Papers, 2011). By using the Four-frame model, Eric will have to
use the best approaches such as the structural, political, symbolic or the human resource
responding to the circumstances of a situation.
Lastly, Eric will need to initiate his own style of leadership. This will need him to use
some skills like those of a warrior or a wizard to create positive attitudes, rally the members and
also encourage good conflicts among the team members. By doing all that, the team will have an
assured performance from a leader who is able to drive and inspire the group to accomplishment
of tasks.
Veras (2014), describes a group as members who only take responsibility for their own
results. He further explains that the attributes of a working team can only be described as the
values that encourage listening and then constructive responses are found from other people’s
views, and also achievements and responses of other people are found.
Eric and his team were really not good at working together. This group was clearly
lacking a strong efficient leader capable of giving motivation. They do not have that sense of
responsibility and do not encourage collective skills while solving problems. This creates a group
not a team.
In order to deal with this problems, we had to make several suggestions to Eric while
doing our analysis. To conclude, we suggested that Eric should have discussions with each
member of the group differently and then lastly meet with the entire group. Additionally, Eric

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has to do certain things to ensure his role as leader. He should create a new positive attitude to
the members, as well as use the recommendations we had suggested in our analysis. All this will
ensure the Fire Art inc team work effectively.

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References
Mirecka, A. (2014, 2 17). The Team that wasn't. Retrieved from prezi.com:
https://prezi.com/bismfpxavznf/the-team-that-wasnt/
Moore, D. D. (2017). The team that wasn't journal. The Journal Book 6, 6-19.
Other Papers. (2011, 12 13). Case Analysis of the Team That Wasn't. Retrieved from
www.otherpapers.com: https://www.otherpapers.com/Business/Case-Analysis-of-the-
Team-That-Wasn%27t/17294.html
Smithey, J. (2017, 9 6). Remembering 1992 and the Dream Team that wasn't. Retrieved from
www.knoxnews.com:
http://www.knoxnews.com/story/shopper-news/2017/09/06/remembering-1992-and-
dream-team-wasnt/617306001/
Veras, M. (2014, 6 6). The Team That Wasn't. Retrieved from prezi.com:
https://prezi.com/ipq7lnrcaxz1/the-team-that-wasnt/
Wetlaufer, S. (1994, 11). The Team That Wasn't. Retrieved from primarygoals.com:
https://primarygoals.com/Readings/CrossFunctionalWorkTeams/The%20Team%20That
%20Wasn%27t.pdf
Wetlaufer, S., Katzenbach, J. R., Hackman, J. R., Segol, G., Baard, P. P., Musselwhite, E., . . .
Garber, M. (2011, 10 4). The Team That Wasn't. Retrieved from seal-team-
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Wetlaufer, S., Katzenbach, J. R., Hackman, J. R., Segol, G., Baard, P. P., Musselwhite, E., . . .
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Retrieved from www.thecasecentre.org:
https://www.thecasecentre.org/educators/products/view&&id=67157