Developing as a Team
Good teamwork requires coordination, communication and cooperation among teammates. Unfortunately, too often “teams” are little more than collections of individuals who happen to report to the same leader and who meet together on a regular basis at the leader’s direction.
Members of the group may lead or manage different parts of an organization and thus may see one another as rivals for resources or for their leader’s time and attention. Members of such teams may see their teammates as competitors and often tend to see their relationship with their team leader as one-to-one only.
The challenge for the leader of such a collection of direct reports is to transform it from a group of competitors to a cooperative enterprise with a common agenda. As we saw in Blog Post 8, “The Agenda,” the staff meeting is the place in which teamwork can solidify over time. But what if the attendees don’t yet see themselves as true teammates working for the good of the organization as a whole, with the best chance of succeeding personally if the team as a whole does?
The transformation in attitudes and orientation should begin with an assessment of the extent to which the “team” works as a team. I say “should” because you are not likely to improve what you don’t measure.
We tend to be practiced at how to measure the strengths and weaknesses
of individuals, but not so practiced at how to measure the strengths
and weaknesses of teams.
Unlike personal staff reviews, evaluating a team’s effectiveness is a job for the team as a whole. It can be the first step in becoming more than a collection of direct reports. In other words, this is not a task for the team leader alone.
If this idea is new to you, you may need help in thinking through what to measure. I would suggest a questionnaire focused on the following dimensions of teamwork.
| Communication | Needs Improvement | Meets | Exceeds | Don’t know |
| 1. Team members share important information | ||||
| 2. Communication among members is thorough | ||||
| 4. Members listen well to one another | ||||
| 5. Members protect confidential information | ||||
| 6. Team members consistently shares meeting results with the organization |
| Interpersonal Relationships: | Needs Improvement | Meets | Exceeds | Don’t know |
| 1. Members seek out feedback, constructive criticism from others on team | ||||
| 2. Members are able to change their positions based on feedback | ||||
| 3. Members are respectful of other members’ views | ||||
| 4. Members demonstrate a high level of professionalism | ||||
| 5. Members make time available to other members outside a team meeting | ||||
| 6. Members are able to resolve conflicts that arise in a meeting |
| Team Leadership: | Needs Improvement | Meets | Exceeds | Don’t know |
| 1. The team is able to establish a focus and direction | ||||
| 2. The team is regarded as an organizational leader | ||||
| 3. Team members publicly support team decisions | ||||
| 4. The team is perceived to embody the organization’s vision and values | ||||
| 5. The team is seen as committed to the organization’s strategic goals | ||||
| 6. The team demonstrates pride in the organization |
| Meeting Dynamics | Needs Improvement | Meets | Exceeds | Don’t know |
| 1. There are an appropriate number of meetings | ||||
| 2. Meeting participation is high | ||||
| 3. The meeting follows an agenda that has been distributed in advance | ||||
| 4. All team members participate appropriately | ||||
| 5. Meetings result in decisions and actions | ||||
| 6. Meetings address important issues |
| Decision Making: | Needs Improvement | Meets | Exceeds | Don’t know |
| 1. The team establishes goals and milestones | ||||
| 2. Team goals are measurable | ||||
| 3. The team leader assigns responsibility for implementation of decisions | ||||
| 4. The team uses effective processes to arrive at decisions | ||||
| 5. The team monitors its own performance | ||||
| 6. The team demonstrates the ability to make corrections | ||||
| 7. The team leader encourages innovation | ||||
| 8. The team is an effective change agent |
My suggestion is that the first assessment be conducted by an independent external consultant. Results should be reported in aggregate. Neither the team leader nor anyone else in the organization should see individual responses. Outliers will be able to self-identify by comparing how they know they responded to questions against the aggregate data the consultant provides to the team. If the team develops to a level of high trust, they may be able to conduct this exercise on their own at some time in the future.
There will be a lot to digest in the collective response to this questionnaire, probably too much to absorb and address all at once. Initially, I would recommend that the team identify the top five things it collectively believes it does best and the top five things it collectively believes most need improvement. These items could be the beginning of a discussion about how to become a more effective team. The discussion should be forward looking. The idea is not to assign blame for past ineffectiveness but to decide what to do to become better. It might make sense to have the outside consultant lead the discussion.
The use of a collective assessment tool keeps the team focused on how its success
depends on working together to achieve collective goals.
Individual team members still have their own parts of the organization to manage, and they are still accountable to the organization leader to manage them well. However, the collective assessment is a reminder that taking care of their own domain is only part of their job. For the rest of it, their success also depends on the success of their teammates.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Howard Cohen
