Teams That Work: Why Great Teams Embrace Healthy Conflict | Part 2

“My door is always open” is one of the most repeated phrases in leadership. But does your team actually trust you enough to disagree, deliver bad news, or tell you something you don't want to hear?

In Part 2 of our Teams That Work series, based on the work of Scott Tannenbaum and Eduardo Salas, we explore team trust, psychological safety, healthy conflict, and high-performing teams. Why do some teams speak honestly while others avoid difficult conversations? And what is the cost when a team can't tell itself the truth?

We look at four forms of cooperation that shape effective teams: trust, psychological safety, collective efficacy, and cohesion. We also explore why strong team cohesion can sometimes make honesty harder—and why leaders must separate what a team believes about itself from the performance standard the mission requires.

You'll also hear a practical leadership story about learning to understand an opposing viewpoint before trying to change it, along with three coaching questions designed to help you examine trust, conflict, and the conversations you may be avoiding.

How are you defining “great”? What evidence do you have? And what is the cost if the conversation that needs to happen never happens?

Key Takeaway: Great teams don't just believe they're great. They trust each other enough to tell the truth, examine the evidence, and measure themselves against the standard the mission requires.

Subscribe to The Leadership Buzz Podcast, share this episode with a leader or team, and leave a rating or review.

The Leadership Buzz is hosted by Lloyd “Buzz” Buzzell, an ICF-ACC executive coach, DISC practitioner, and retired U.S. Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. Each episode focuses on one book, one idea, and one practical leadership concept to help you align your behavior with your values and lead with greater clarity, trust, and impact.

If you’re a leader who wants to build stronger teams, improve communication, and create real ownership, subscribe and share this episode with someone on your team.

Connect with Buzz on LinkedIn or visit workhardtellthetruth.com for coaching and leadership development resources.

Work hard. Tell the truth.

Transcript

Welcome And A Hard Question

TJ 0:00

Welcome to the Leadership Buzz with Lloyd Buzz Buzzell, an International Coaching Federation credentialed coach, disc practitioner, and retired Air Force officer with 37 years of leadership experience. This podcast is for leaders who want to align their behavior with their values and grow in self-awareness. Each episode features one book, one idea, one story, and three coaching questions to help you reflect on your leadership. Work hard. Tell the truth. Here's Buzz.

Buzz 0:34

Thanks, TJ. Before we get started today, I want to do something a little different. If you listen to this podcast for a while, you know I love leadership and I love books. So I love taking an idea and trying to figure out what it means for those of us who are actually out there leading people. But I'm really a coach right now. And one of the things I'm learning more and more is that I don't always need to give you the answer. Sometimes I need to ask a better question. So that's what I want to do a little more of today and going forward. As you're listening, I want you to think about your team. What's working, what's not working, what are people talking about? And maybe more importantly, what aren't they not talking about? Last week we talked about being on the same page, and I asked a pretty simple question. If I interviewed every member of your team separately, would they tell me the same story? This week I want to push a little deeper. What happens when people disagree? What happens when someone sees a problem doesn't say anything? What conversations are happening in the parking lot, in a text message, or after the meeting that probably should have happened in the meeting? And here's one more question. What conversation are you avoiding? I don't know that answer for you, but my guess is something probably came to mind. So today I'm going to talk a little less at you and hopefully ask you a few more questions. You don't have to answer them right away, just notice what comes up. Because sometimes the question we don't want to answer is the question we probably need to spend a little more time with. All right.

Trust Gets Real Under Disagreement

Buzz 2:05

Now let's get into part two of Teams That Work. TJ, tell us a little more.

TJ 2:10

Last week Buzz challenged us to ask whether our teams are really on the same page. Today, in part two of this three-part series on the book Teams That Work by Scott Tannenbaum and Eduardo Salas, he explores another ingredient every high-performing team needs trust and healthy conflict. It turns out the best teams don't avoid difficult conversations. They learn how to have them well. Over to you, Buzz.

Buzz 2:38

Thanks, TJ. Let's start with trust. We talk a lot about trust and a lot in leadership. We say things like, You've got to trust your team, or my team knows they can come to me. And one of my favorites is my door is always open. Okay. Here's the question. What happens when somebody actually walks through the door? What happens when someone disagrees with you? Or what happens when a member of your team tells you something you don't want to hear? Think about that for a second. It's pretty easy to say you want people to speak up when you agree with what they're saying. That's not really the test, is it? The test is what happens when they challenge your idea or question or decision or point something out you may have missed. How do you respond then? In teams that work, Scott Tannenbaum and Eduardo Salas talk about cooperation and the attitudes and beliefs that develop within a team. And I think the word beliefs is really important. Because your team has beliefs about you, they have beliefs about each other, and beliefs about the team itself. But here's something I've been thinking about a lot lately. What happens when the leader believes one thing about the team and the team is telling the leader something completely different? Maybe the team is looking at the team and thinking, we're not where we need to be. Or maybe the team says, We're really good. Maybe even they say, We're a great team. Now what? What happens there? And maybe that's not even the best question. Maybe the best question is, how do we know? Are we seeing something in the team that they can't see? Or is the leader making assumptions before really understanding the team? Let's turn this a little around. Is the team strong enough to tell the truth about itself? And what is that level? That's a whole different question. Because sometimes teams protect themselves too. We've always done it this way. You don't understand how things work here. We're different. And that's not really the issue or problem. Sometimes those statements may be true, but sometimes they're protection. Sometimes Teams has told itself the same story for so long that nobody stops to ask whether the story is still true. Have you ever been part of a team like that or can describe a situation you've been in? Everybody knows what the problems are, and they know which processes does

Can The Team Tell The Truth

Buzz 5:10

don't work. But what conversation isn't happening? But somehow when someone from outside asks how are things going, it comes out as we're good. So I got a question for you. Does your team know the truth about itself? And if it does, is it strong enough to say it out loud? Because there's a cost when teams can't tell themselves the truth. Problems hang around longer than they should. Poor performance becomes normal. People start working around issues instead of addressing them. And the strongest people get frustrated. Sometimes they even leave or disengage. And maybe the most dangerous thing happened. The team starts believing its own story and doesn't really even understand what good or great is. Okay, they're good, but compared to what? Last year? Another team? Compared to what that mission actually requires from you right now? It's a pretty hard question. And leaders aren't off the hook either, because sometimes we're so convinced we see the problem that we lot we stop listening to those people closest to the work. We walk in with experience, expectations, and ideas. And sometimes we're right. What if we're not? What if the team knows something we don't? So now we have an interesting issue. The leader has to be strong enough to hear the truth from the team, and the team has to be strong enough to tell the truth about itself. That's where trust comes in. Do I trust you enough to tell you what I really see? And do you really trust me enough to listen when I do? So think about your team. When's the last time somebody said something in a meeting that made the room a little uncomfortable? Not disrespectful, personal, just honest. And when was the last time somebody said, I don't think we're as good as this as we are? What if we're wrong? What happened next? Did the room get curious, or do we always have to be the best? Did everyone start just defending the team? Cause there's a difference between being proud of your team and protecting your team from the truth. Let me say that again. There's a big difference between being proud of your team and protecting your team from the truth. And I think leaders have to understand that difference. You can't force somebody to trust you, and you can't control what another person believes about you. But you can take actions that may influence those beliefs. You can listen, you can ask one more question and get curious before you get defensive. And you can create a room for someone to say, I see this entirely different. So here's what I want to think about. Is your team strong enough to tell itself the truth? Are you strong enough to hear it? And what's the cost if neither one happens?

TJ 8:02

Buzz, you just asked whether a team is strong enough to tell itself the truth. So let me turn that back on the leader. How does a leader know when the team is protecting itself from the truth? And how does the leader challenge that without destroying trust?

Buzz 8:21

TJ,

Pride Versus Protection From Truth

Buzz 8:22

that's a great question. And I think the first thing a leader has to do is slow down. Because if you walk into a room and your first message is you're not as good as you think you are, I'm not sure that's going to build much trust. Probably not. But I also don't think we help teams by allowing them to believe something that performance doesn't support. And here's where I think we can have to separate belief from standard. You may believe you're a good team, but based on what? What's the standard? What does great actually look like? And more importantly, what does the mission require? Because being a great team isn't simply a feeling. So maybe the leader's job isn't to walk in and say, you're not great, you're not a great team. Maybe the leader asks, how are we defining great? What evidence do we have to show that? Where are we the strongest? And what are the issues out there? And where might we be giving ourselves a little more credit than what we've earned? In teams that work, Tannenbaum and Salas identify four forms of cooperation. I want to get these right from the book. And I think the questions they ask are important. The first is trust. Do I expect my teammates to do the right thing? Do I believe they have positive intentions? And that second one is something that we've always talked about is psychological safety. Do I feel I can be genuine and openly share my perspective? Do I believe my teammates will give me the benefit of the doubt? The third is collective efficacy. Do we believe our team can get it done? Are we confident that our team will win? And finally, cohesion. How do your team members feel about the team and our work? To what extent are we attracted or committed to the team and the task? Trust psychological safety, collective efficacy, and cohesion. Which one is strongest on your team? What makes you say that? Describe that. And which one is the weakest? What evidence do you have of that? Because a team can have tremendous cohesion and still not be a great team. People can really like each other. They can protect each other, enjoy coming to work, that's great. But does that mean they're performing at the standard the mission requires? Not necessarily. And what if that cohesion actually makes the truth harder to say? Have you ever protected someone because you like them? Have you ever looked at a team you cared about and struggled to admit they aren't or weren't performing as they needed to? I know I have. What's the cost of that? What's the cost of the mission? And what's the cost of the team if nobody's willing to tell the truth? Years ago I had an officer come to me who was convinced about something he wanted to do. He had a very strong position and he felt strongly about it. As I listened, I asked him to explain the opposing viewpoint. Why did the other side see it differently? Why did they want to do what they wanted to do? He couldn't tell me. He said there was no reason. He could tell me they were wrong. He could tell me why his idea was better, but he couldn't explain their position. So I challenged him. Come back tomorrow and tell me their side tomorrow afternoon. Not why they're wrong, just tell me why they believe what they believe. Put yourself in their shoes. The next day he came back and it was a different conversation. He hadn't completely changed his mind, but that wasn't the point. He under the situ he understood the situation better. He understood their concerns, and he started to understand why they didn't trust what he was proposing. His own position became more reasonable, and eventually there was common ground there. So let me ask you, can you explain the opposing viewpoint and not mock it or criticize the people that do, but just explain why it's wrong? Can you explain it in a way that the other person would say, yes, that is what I believe, that's my viewpoint? That's pretty hard because things sometimes get personal. And especially when you're convinced you're absolutely right. And maybe you are right. But what haven't you heard yet? And what

Challenge Beliefs With Standards

Buzz 12:35

might they know you don't? What if the team isn't protecting poor performance? What if they're just protecting something they believe you don't understand? How would you or how would we know the difference? Well, you have to ask, listen, get curious. And leaders, understanding something about somebody else's viewpoint does not mean lowering your standard. You can listen and you can put yourself in their shoes. You can still say this is the standard. I think sometimes leaders believe they have two choices, be tough and hold people accountable, or be understanding and take care of people. I don't believe that. Great leaders can do both. Maybe the question isn't how do I convince this team they're not as good as they think they are? Maybe the question is how do I get help this team see itself clearly? Here's where we are, here's the standard, what's the this is what the mission required. What's the gap? What do we do about it? Because if I walk in with all the answers, I may get compliance, but have I built trust, psychological safety, collective efficacy, and have I built that cohesion? Or have I just proven that I'm the boss? So, TJ, how does a leader know when a team is protecting itself from the truth? Get curious, listen, look at the standard, and ask for the evidence. And be willing to challenge your own assumptions too. Because maybe the team isn't as good as it thinks it is, or maybe the leader doesn't understand the team as well as they think they do. What if both are true? That's probably where the real conversation happens.

TJ 14:09

Coach Buzz, final thoughts?

Buzz 14:12

So maybe this week, don't rush to fix the team. Get curious and ask one more question. Listen to the viewpoint you don't agree with, and then ask yourself are we seeing the team as it really is or as we want it to be? The truth may be uncomfortable, uh, but that's where usually growth starts. Work hard, tell the truth.

TJ 14:35

Coach Buzz, can you give us this week's three coaching questions for our listeners?

Buzz 14:41

Here's three coaching questions to sit with you this week. Describe a conversation you may be avoiding right now with your team or one of your members of your team. Two, what's getting in the way of having that conversation with your team or any of the leaders in your team? Then finally, what is the cost to you, the team, or the mission if that conversation never happens?

TJ 15:10

Thanks for joining us for part two of our series on teams that work by Scott Tannenbaum and Eduardo Salas. Today, Buzz explored why trust and healthy conflict are essential to every high-performing team. The best teams don't avoid difficult conversations. They learn how to have them in ways that build stronger relationships and better decisions. Next time, we'll

Four Forms Of Team Cooperation

TJ 15:34

wrap up the series by exploring how great teams keep learning, growing, and getting better together. Until then, keep learning, keep leading. And thanks for listening to the leadership buzz. Back to you, Buzz.

Buzz 15:48

Thanks for listening to The Leadership Buzz. If you found this episode helpful, please subscribe so you don't miss future conversations. And if you have a moment, leave a rating or review that helps other leaders discover the show. If these kinds of leadership questions resonate with you and you'd like to explore them more deeply, feel free to reach out to me. Coaching conversations often start exactly this way. Until next time, work hard, tell the truth.