As a leader, my priority is ensuring team morale stays strong, even when a few difficult team members create challenges. To manage this effectively, I use a traffic light system — Green, Yellow, and Red — to categorize behaviours and conversations. This system helps me stay proactive rather than reactive, addressing potential conflicts before they escalate.
The Traffic Light System
Green (Encourage & Reinforce)
These are the conversations and behaviours that contribute positively to the team’s morale, collaboration, and productivity. When I see these, I make sure to acknowledge, encourage, and reinforce them.
Open communication, respectful debates, and constructive feedback.
Collaboration across teams without friction.
Team members stepping up to support each other.
Ownership of tasks and proactive problem-solving.
Actions:
Publicly recognize and appreciate good behavior.
Encourage more of what’s working well.
Provide growth opportunities to reinforce positive contributions.
Yellow (Monitor & Redirect)
This category includes behaviours and conversations that have the potential to become disruptive if left unchecked. I keep an eye on these and step in early to redirect them before they escalate.
Passive-aggressive comments or subtle negativity.
Avoidance of responsibility or lack of ownership.
Minor team conflicts that could snowball.
Repeated misunderstandings or miscommunications.
Actions:
Privately check in with individuals to understand underlying concerns.
Facilitate conversations to clear up misunderstandings.
Reinforce team norms and expectations.
Redirect behaviour through coaching and feedback.
Red (Immediate Intervention Required)
This is where serious behaviours threaten the team’s morale, productivity, and psychological safety. At this stage, I act immediately and decisively to prevent long-term damage.
Open hostility, aggressive behaviour, or public shaming.
Repeated withholding of information, sabotaging teamwork.
Persistent resistance to change that disrupts progress.
A toxic dynamic where one or two people drag the whole team down.
Actions:
Address the issue directly and privately with the individual.
Set clear consequences and expectations for change.
If behavior persists, escalate appropriately (HR, leadership intervention, performance plans).
Protect the broader team’s morale by preventing toxic influences.
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How does it help me?
This framework helps me stay ahead of potential team disruptions and ensures that I’m addressing issues at the right level. My role is to create an environment where the team feels safe, valued, and empowered to do their best work. By actively reinforcing positive behaviours, addressing concerns early, and stepping in when necessary, I keep the team focused on growth rather than conflict.
No single approach fits all situations, but by categorizing issues clearly and responding appropriately, I ensure that one or two difficult individuals don’t derail the team’s progress. Leadership is about balance — knowing when to encourage, when to step in, and when to take firm action to protect the team.

I use a basic tabular format for documenting conflicts it helps me uncover pattern, track frequency of occurrences, and also set clear expectation with involved individuals. Collecting data can supports build solid strategies based on actual data and not assumptions.
Practical concerns and how to handle them
This framework needs to strikes a balance between proactive leadership and allowing autonomy. However, the key risk is that if you intervene too early or too often, the team might feel micromanaged or not develop resilience in handling conflicts independently.
Where It Might Feel Like Micromanagement:
If Yellow zone behaviours are always addressed before the team has a chance to resolve them on their own.
If every minor disagreement is escalated rather than giving the team space to figure things out.
If Red zone interventions become too frequent without first trying to empower individuals to self-correct.
Where It Protects the Team Without Overstepping:
If the team is given guidelines and tools to manage conflicts themselves before leadership steps in.
If intervention is only triggered when the impact starts affecting team morale and productivity.
If after stepping in, the leader helps the team build skills to prevent similar issues in the future.
How to Maintain the Right Balance:
Set Clear Expectations — Define what behaviours the team should self-manage vs. when they should escalate.
Encourage Self-Resolution First — Before stepping in, ask: “Have you tried addressing this directly?”
Use Coaching, Not Just Intervention — When stepping in, focus on helping individuals learn from the situation rather than just solving it for them.
Step Back Once Stability is Restored — Avoid constant monitoring; once a conflict is resolved, trust the team to maintain it.
This framework is not inherently micromanaging, but how often and how early you intervene will define whether it empowers or overprotects. Would you like to adjust the approach to include more autonomy-building elements?
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