■ Don’t let slackers get away with not doing their part; their low level of participation can hurt cohesiveness and productivity.

How do you confront a slacker? At the very least, start with gentle questions and efforts to encourage the nonparticipant to do his or her share of the work. If gentle suggestions don’t help, and more direct requests yield no results, you may need to seek help from someone outside the group with greater authority or power.