This is Part 2 of a 2-part article. This one focuses on the leader’s role in avoiding and overcoming team alienation, which negatively impacts results. Link to Part 1.
When teams are failing, many leaders will claim they “don’t have the right people” as a way to distract others from their own inability or unwillingness to lead effectively.
The problem? It becomes the root cause of alienation, groupthink, and team breakdown, and is often not the real issue. Failure to acknowledge responsibility avoids addressing the leader’s lack of coachability, awareness, and skills required to resolve conflicts and manage projects for clients and company growth.
What’s missing? Leadership accountability for results, believing in each person, and supporting the company, client, and team when issues arise. These issues are more likely to arise when the leader’s negative mindset is focused on lack, failure, and upset over team members’ upsets, attitudes, and lack of commitment to the goal.
The Leader’s Blind Spots:
- Over‑reliance on a few insiders or select team members
- Inability and failure to address conflict early
- Assumption of “I don’t have the right people” and fail to hire for job fit
- Failure to create structure for success, or created ineffective ones
- Allow groupthink to fill the vacuum
- Do not value team members’ contributions
- Fear of making mistakes or experiencing failure
- Inappropriate use of tools for decisions (e.g., critical thinking, job fit assessments, over-reliance on AI)
- Play favorites, create silos and factions
- Lack the skills to coach people effectively while managing the process
- Poor facilitation skills
- Are not accountable and responsible for the results
Your reputation is lost and the team’s performance and innovation decline too.
This is when groupthink, cliques, and those with shared frustrations take over. It’s time for leaders to leverage up and prevent the inevitable chaos.
What can you do before alienation occurs?
If you are experiencing team alienation, talk with an experienced executive coach immediately. Alienation will not resolve itself, and in the meantime, your career options become very limited.
Reset your expectations and mindset.
- If you expect to fail, you usually will.
- If you expect problems, they will occur.
- If you wish for different people on the team, they will wish for a different leader!
Instead, work with your executive coach weekly (or more frequently) to ensure your mindset and focus is on the goal and the process of achieving the intended results.
Get the support required to rebuild trust. This will not happen overnight or after one group meeting. It requires taking responsibility ongoingly and valuing your people in every interaction. Integrity is key … if you are cutting corners, ignoring issues, or allowing conflict to erupt, you have alienated the team.
It starts with you creating conditions for success:
- Create win-win-win narratives
- Share stories of other successes
- Address the facts rather than relying on AI, social media headlines, and other false narratives
- Ensure each and every team member are acknowledged for their contributions
Reintroduce structure and accountability, or create it. Structure is key, even for those team members that love to create and recreate and recreate some more. Put together the “game plan” and follow it, while holding yourself and team members accountable. Allow for initiatives and innovative ideas, but stay focused on the intention and end goal. Use a dashboard or other means to keep everyone apprised of the progress.
Use objective tools and processes to focus on the project, goals, and intended results. When mistakes and failures happen, and they will, have an objective way in which to address them. Blaming a person or smaller group will only add to dissension, finger pointing, and alienation.
Address groupthink cycles as they occur to stop them from taking over. This can happen very subtly when a group of people have worked together in the past, have hit a “wall,” and are skeptical or fearful of doing anything different. Address and talk through the fears upfront and consistently.
Learn how to achieve alignment. It’s important to learn this skill to avoid the consensus trap of stalling and negating others’ opinions and expertise. This requires courage since many teams use consensus as a way to stop progress, keep traditions, and avoid moving out of their comfort zones. It’s not easy when you have a small group that believes they are right or are unable or unwilling to see the bigger picture.
Remember:
- The leader’s belief and mindset become the team’s culture
- Groupthink forms around a leader’s indecisiveness and exclusion of people and ideas
- All people on the team are the “right people”
- Leaders need to build alignment
- Effective leaders have effective coaches
©Jeannette Seibly 2026 All Rights Reserved
Jeannette Seibly is a Leadership Results Coach, Talent Advisor, and Business Author with 33 years of experience activating greatness in leaders and companies. She delivers practical coaching and solutions that elevate performance today, build legacies that stand the test of time, and support people in empowering themselves to lead with clarity and impact.