Lion tamers and snake handlers can be great entertainment. But taming the wild beasts in your own office is no fun. It's something you have to do, however, if they're preventing your team meetings from being productive.

If they're on your team, you must control, channel or remove these destructive beasts:

• The Hog: He knows best about everything. He pushes his own ideas and agenda. He won't give anyone time or space. He snorts with derision at their ignorance or naïveté and then plows ahead.

• The Vulture: She picks on the carrion of past mistakes. She smugly points out where everyone else has gone wrong. If anyone mentions her mistakes, she attacks them or dissolves into tears until the rest of the team turns on her oppressor.

• The Monkey: He's always chattering and distracting. He's not interested in moving ahead. He's interested in sharing whatever is on his mental screen.

• The Poisonous Snake: She's vicious and sarcastic. She bites everyone she wants to belittle or destroy. She pretends that she's sweet and meant nothing by her remarks or that she's only trying to make the team better. The more her targets are hurt, upset or reactive, the more she knows she has won.

• The Stubborn Mule: He always says, "Nay." No matter what's suggested, he can raise 100 objections and show why it won't work. In addition to his logical arguments, his dismissive voice tone and eye-rolling convey his message: Everyone else is too stupid to participate. He loves making everyone feel small.

• The Venomous Spider: She's a silent assassin. She never complains or contributes during meetings. But afterward, she cuts everyone down, especially leadership. She always knows best, but never risks exposing her ideas to public scrutiny.

• The Perfectionistic Owl: He's always thinking and often lecturing. He won't move ahead until all the ducks are lined up in a row, and he has a perfect response to every possible contingency - which means he never shifts into action.

• The Sloth: He takes forever to process. He's never met an emergency he couldn't slow down. He doesn't want to be perfect; he just wants to be slow and deliberate. He's probably been scarred by seeing someone jumping precipitously into disaster. He ignores the examples of people who've been ruined by responding too slowly.

• The Parrot Master: She comes prepared with her group of parrots who will support whatever she wants. They think she's right or they're afraid of what she might do to them if they ever disagree. Sometimes she's vicious, like the pig in George Orwell's "Animal Farm," who trained his own loyal mastiffs to destroy anyone who disagreed with him.

• The Caffeinated Kangaroo: He has no patience with meetings, discussions or analysis, but wants to jump on the first idea or task. He explodes if he's thwarted from acting.

• The Docile Sheep: She'll agree with everyone. Everything is a good idea. She hates tension and confrontation; any discussion or disagreement makes her uncomfortable. Instead of being productive, she'll spend all day, every day, making people feel good. She needs to be micromanaged.

• The Office Drone: He's not interested in working. He's interested in watching everyone else work. Sometimes drones are content to do nothing and get lifted by the rising tide of everyone else's efforts. Some drones cleverly take credit for other people's efforts.

• The Chicken Without a Head: She sees total disaster at every turn. Her squawking throws many others into a panic. She can't think straight and prevents deliberation, especially when it's needed most.

• The Proud Peacock: He's always strutting his feathers and wants to be praised, whether he's earned it or not. Praise is more important than productivity. If he can get praised for a promise, he's satisfied and won't deliver.

None of these people are interested in moving the team ahead, despite their protests to the contrary. They're more interested in running their own processes, no matter what happens. They want the strokes they give themselves when they act like the beasts they are. They feel superior.

Of course, each of us has a little of these tendencies. But by the time we've become productive adults, we've learned to rein in our destructive tendencies.

You'll probably try to coach your team members to become more balanced. But don't waste too much time on these wild beasts. Professional adults will see what they're doing and the problems they're causing, and make changes rapidly.

When cornered, beasts can be vicious and deadly. The longer you try to be a kindly therapist or educator, the more they'll infect your whole team and stab you in the back in front of your superiors. These people aren't stupid. They simply have their own agendas, which are more important to them than the team's goals.

Ben Leichtling, a Denver-based speaker, consultant and leadership adviser, can be reached at 303-458-6616 or Ben@LeichtlingAssoc.com.