Introductions

These leadership lessons were gleaned from the 1986 movie Heartbreak Ridge with Clint Eastwood portraying a Marine Gunnery Sergeant (GySgt) named Thomas Highway.

Inheriting a troubled team

Sometimes during organizational changes, an employee without staff suddenly becomes a manager, or an existing manager grows their department. During these changes, the 'new' team may have some issues that are deep-seated problems. The team might have been ignored by their previous manager, or created a feeling of morose throughout. The question is "Really? Another reorg and another manager? That makes what, three managers this year?!"

There's a scene where GySgt Highway learns he has been assigned a shit-show of a team called the Recon (Reconnaissance) Platoon. The previous platoon sergeant let a lot slide, so the platoon is out of shape, unfocused, and have a group-wide bad attitude. Sergeant Highway walks into the barracks, turns off the blaring radio, and starts to say something. One could imagine what he was GOING to say: Such things as "I'm G.S. Thomas Highway, your new platoon sergeant" and "Tomorrow at 0500 we are going for a 20 mile full-pack march" are easy to believe as possible utterances. However, before he could say one word another one of the platoon members walks in behinds GySgt and turns the radio back on.

Highway, being more than slightly irritated by that, recognizes immediately the shape his platoon his in. He grabs the radio, slings it across the room where it dies a quick death and the music stops. He proceeds to growl at the platoon about how shitty they are, kicks over a pyramid of empty been cans, and grabs a corporal by the ear lobe, only to rip out the non-standard earring in the corporal's ear a few minutes later.

Obviously, saying some of the shit GySgt said to his team would definitely NOT apply to your team, but the point I'm trying to make here is that he had a quick choice: The slow intro with a paced takeover, or a one-time showdown to let the team know things have to change. GySgt Highway was going for the paced takeover, but realized right away he had some ass-kicking to do to make things right.

Real World Suggestions

Well, it's highly unlikely you're going to be able to take GySgt Highway's approach at your office. More often than not, a slow approach will work fine. Give your team 'global' goals to work with, and provide individual goals to get your team there. Identify intransigent members quickly carrots first, then a stick quickly behind them: