When brown-headed cowbirds started appearing at our feeders this spring, it got me thinking about personal boundaries and team accountability.
What the heck is a cowbird?
The cowbird is a brood parasite. A female cowbird can quickly lay an egg in another bird’s nest while that bird is out searching for food. When it returns, the unsuspecting bird gets tricked into nesting and raising the cowbird chick as its own, often at the expense of the rest of the clutch of eggs.
Cowbirds at work?
Chances are, you have at least one cowbird on your team, or you have worked with a cowbird in the past. Cowbirds are colleagues who offload their responsibilities onto others rather than learning to handle the job themselves. They essentially lay their problems in your nest, which was full to begin with.
If you are like most people, you would rather take on one more egg than deal with the discomfort of saying No. But that does not help anyone. You end up taking on more work (and resentment), and your cowbird colleague never learns to manage their responsibilities.
How do you set personal boundaries?
Many of my clients struggle to set boundaries. Through coaching, we address the values, beliefs, or thoughts that compel us to say Yes when No is the right answer. Then we develop strategies to set and maintain boundaries in the future. It is common for clients to regain a full day of professional or personal time each week after working through this process.
How does your team embrace Accountability?
When teams embrace Accountability, everyone commits to a course of action, and team members hold each other accountable for doing their part. Expectations are public and clear, and the team leader is the last person who steps in to address an issue. When I help teams develop Accountability systems as part of Patrick Lencioni’s Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team, relationships and results improve.
Cleaning out the nest
Do you want to deal with the cowbirds in your own life, or build a team where members hold each other accountable for their commitments and actions? Let’s work together to make that happen.
