Episode #78: Building Bridges: How Emotional Account Deposits Overcome Team Dysfunctions

In today's episode, you will learn how the concept of the “Emotional Bank Account” can be applied to overcome team dysfunctions. 

Transcript

Welcome to "The Career Accelerator," the podcast where corporate managers will find tips and tools to deliver results through others.

Hello, I’m your host, Percy Cannon. Today, I will address how the concept of the “Emotional Bank Account” can be applied to overcome team dysfunctions.

In our last episode, I shared what needs to happen at five instances in your meetings to make them more effective and efficient:

1.   The first is to define what needs to happen before the meeting, where preparation is key.

2.   The second critical step is to decide what should happen at the beginning of the meeting, setting the tone for the entire session.

3.   The third step is what should happen during the meeting, crucial for maintaining engagement and productivity.

4.   The fourth step is to define how to close the meeting with a strong conclusion, solidifying agreements reached and generating commitment.

5.   The last crucial step is what should happen after the meeting, where following up on the agreements reached is as important as the meeting itself.

I suggest applying only those tips that make sense for your teams.

Switching to today’s topic, I will share how the concept of an “Emotional Bank Account,” from Stephen Covey’s bestselling book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, can help address teamwork dysfunctions.

Covey defines the Emotional Bank Account as “the amount of trust that’s been built in a relationship.”

Trust, a cornerstone of successful relationships, supports open communication, constructive conflict resolution, and respect among team members. Without trust, teams struggle to function cohesively and achieve their full potential.

In Patrick Lencioni's bestselling book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, he identifies five behaviors that hinder team effectiveness: absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to collective results. These five dysfunctions can impede teamwork and erode team morale if left unaddressed.

Let’s see how the concept of the Emotional Bank Account can be connected to each of these dysfunctions:

1.   Absence of Trust: Building trust through consistent emotional deposits is essential to overcoming this dysfunction. By demonstrating care, respect, and reliability, team members can strengthen the Emotional Bank Account and foster trust within the team.
In recent engagements with corporate teams, I have stressed how Emotional Bank Account deposits, such as apologizing, being unguarded, and admitting your weaknesses and mistakes, lead to generating what Lencioni labels “vulnerability-based trust.” 

2.   Fear of Conflict: Teams that are lacking on trust are unable to engage in unfiltered, passionate debate about key issues, leading to situations where team conflict can easily turn into covert discussions and back-channel comments.
Knowing that you have a positive balance in your Emotional Bank Account with the other person or persons you are debating with, will encourage you to enter into an open dialogue and address even the most difficult “elephants in the room” in a passionate way, without fear of hurting your relationship with them.
In fact, even if one of your colleagues felt an emotional “withdrawal” from you during the conflict, a strong Emotional Bank Account should nevertheless help the two of you overcome this setback.

3.   Lack of Commitment: When topics are debated in a professional way, and the Emotional Bank Accounts are in the black, team commitment will likely be achieved in a more effective and efficient way. The clarity of what team members are agreeing to, and their degree of buy-in, even if they initially disagree, should follow a much smoother path. 

4.   Avoidance of Accountability: Peer-to-peer accountability is usually the biggest challenge that teams with whom I have worked with encounter. Simply put, team members do not feel comfortable providing feedback to their colleagues.
The root cause of such discomfort is usually a low or even negative balance in the Emotional Bank Account with their peers. Simply put, they don’t want to risk negatively affecting their relationship with a piece of feedback that can be poorly delivered, badly received, or both.
One way to make deposits into their emotional accounts is via an exercise I usually ask team members to perform during my seminars. I divide the participants into pairs and ask them to discuss their similarities and differences when working with others. Within this safe environment, they can better understand their own tendencies and preferences and discuss how to manage different work situations the next time they encounter them.
Not only does this exercise make strong deposits into their Emotional Accounts, but it makes it a lot easier for them to warm up to giving and receiving feedback.

5.   Inattention to Collective Results: The ultimate goal of generating trust, practicing healthy conflict, committing to decisions, and holding one another accountable is achieving collective results. A strong Emotional Bank Account allows team members to be more prone to helping and supporting colleagues when they are falling behind in their respective goals. Such contributions can result in protecting the achievement of the overall collective goals.

Summarizing, just as financial investments grow over time, so do emotional investments. Regular deposits of appreciation and support are key to maintaining a healthy Emotional Bank Account with team members.

By applying the principles of the Emotional Bank Account to address the five dysfunctions of a team, teams can cultivate trust, healthy debate, commitment, accountability, and focus, elevating their performance and giving them a competitive advantage in the market.

Thank you for joining me in this episode of THE CAREER ACCELERATOR. If you found today’s discussion helpful, please rate, subscribe, and share this podcast with your colleagues and friends. Together, we can inspire impactful leadership across organizations.

This is Percy Cannon, working to help you make the rest of your life…the best of your life®.