That person. The one with the sour attitude ruining the mood. When infectious, this means higher error rates and more time spent putting out fires. It means more time reacting and less time coaching and empowering your team to do their best work.
Here are a few causes for grouchiness, and a few solutions.
WASTED TALENT
Talent hates to be wasted. Every idea they have will not be brought to life, but folks need outlets to share ideas and offer contributions. Create containers for people to test their theories. Document everything and do a post mortem. Incorporate the learnings and share them publicly. Let this be a group learning experience. If that sounds like more work for you, it shouldn’t. This is where you delegate and let them spearhead an initiative. It’s an effective way to cultivate talent and potentially make the lives of everyone easier.
NEGATIVE AFFECT
Unfortunately, we’re not always aware of our affect. Sometimes people have resting you-know-what face without realizing it. You’ll need to practice having sticky conversations. Anchor them in your noticings. Be curious and ask questions about their experience. Provide feedback and bring awareness of their impact using concrete examples. Above all, take real interest and make a plan. When they’re doing well, be sure to make note of that as well and encourage it in your next check-in.
IS IT WORK RELATED?
Do they have sufficient time for their personal life? When people are able to effectively balance work and their personal life, they show up in both places as a better version of themselves. And if their load is a bit too high because the team’s load is high, do you have a clear indication about when they will finish climbing that mountain? Sometimes having an end in sight goes a long way.
Also worth mentioning:
TRIGGERING PERSONALITIES
The less stated side of leading effectively is the socio-emotional component. Good leadership starts with self-awareness. Sometimes the person isn’t the problem. Sometimes its you. And that’s OK if you can check it and adjust. When rubbed the wrong way by an individual, consider how this person affects you? Do they remind you of someone else? It's important to separate fact from feeling. If you’re flooded with emotions, it can be helpful to anchor yourself in the facts. Are they performing poorly or performance style rub you the wrong way? There are a number of questions you can ask. Things like skill matrices are helpful. Work with a coach if you’re looking for more guidance around self-awareness or techniques to effectively lead your teams.