Advice on coaching a dev team member who isn't willing to teach others

Is there any evidence that this person is a team member at all? He sounds more like an external dependency. If so, the team and wider organization ought to acknowledge the problem as such, and to consider their options accordingly.

Bringing an external dependency inside the team is an attractive idea but it is not always practical. Establishing complete transparency over the problem, and the range of available solutions, will be important for everyone involved.

There could be a number of reasons regarding this team member's reluctance to share his knowledge:

1. Perhaps this team member believes his value is centered on what he knows, and not on how he helps others?   What have you observed to either support or disprove this possibility?
2. This team member may be uncomfortable in group settings.   How do they behave in team-based meetings?
3. He may be inexperienced in instructing and guiding others.   Have they worked in a leadership capacity before?
4. He may just be selfish and motivated by self-interest

One thing that I learned early on is it is extremely rare to come across an individual who behaves like a jerk because they just like it.   In almost every instance, there is an end-goal that guides behavior.   

If it were me, I would focus my attention on what the reluctant team member may be trying to achieve through his actions/inactions.   What might be his motivations in refusing to teach his fellow team members what he knows?   

If you can identify what his end-game is, you can be in a much better position to have a conversation with him about it.

Good luck!

Hi Ian,

Thanks for the reply!  I'm not completely following on what an external dependency means?  He is part of our scrum team, a dev team member.  It's fairly new team, less than a year old, and the team has primarily been working on back-end web projects.  We recently began working on some new projects that require front-end work, which is why this issue has recently come to light.

Thank you Timothy, very helpful advice! :)

I'm not completely following on what an external dependency means?  He is part of our scrum team, a dev team member.

Is this person demonstrating the teamwork necessary to be a member of the team? Might the present reality be different, and that there is rather a team dependency upon him, due to his particular skills?

What do the others think about the importance of collaboration in establishing team membership, and how might this consideration help them to approach their problem?

Hi Lindsay, 

I came across your post while searching for posts related to 'cross-training'. How are the things with this team? Do you still have that front end developer?

It is a tough situation, I kinda faced a similar situation when one senior .net developer gave us a lot of resistance in sharing his knowledge with other .net guy who was new to the team. I guess he did that because he wanted to have this monopoly over the entire team and that no one would think of replacing him because the team depends on him. 

Here is what I did:

1) 1:1 sessions with him, getting to know him personally, his career expectations, how he feels with the team.

2) Bringing this topic during retrospective. 

3) Team building activities after Friday stand up just to get these team members interact with each other. 

4) Talk to his reporting manager (I had to do this too). 

he is still with the team and working fine. It all depends on the personality and team dynamics too. 

"Knowledge un-shared is Knowledge wasted."

Thanks,

Anuj