Take Charge of Your Team

Posted January 26, 2016

I’ve had what feels like an insane number of conversations since the start of the year with leaders struggling with their teams.

This would be a much better company if there weren’t people here!

The “people” are a very difficult part of the management equation, but it is controllable. You can’t control external factors like the economy, mergers and acquisitions, budget cuts, clients changing their mind, etc. But you can control how you create, manage, and support your team to prepare them for success even in the face of obstacles.

Stop struggling with poor team performance
Building effective teams is hard. That’s why so many executives share with me the following frustrations: Many employees – even at senior levels — lack the ability to build and participate on teams effectively. Interpersonal dynamics create lots of friction and hassles that are time consuming and challenging to overcome. It is rare for team members to know how to set expectations and create engagement in ways that produce great results while strengthening relationships.

15 Questions to Evaluate Your Team’s Alignment and Performance Level
Despite a plethora of books about building effective teams, leading and participating on teams remains a significant challenge in most workplaces. Following are fifteen questions team leaders and participants should be asking in order to maximize their team performance:
What is the specific, measurable goal that defines team success?

1. How aligned are the values of each team member with each other and the organization?
2. How does the team recruit absolutely top-notch people?
3. How clear are expectations about what each and every team member is supposed to be doing and achieving?
4. How well do team members know and trust each other?
5. How clear is the path to results?
6. What are opportunities for early and ongoing small wins?
7. How well does the team anticipate, avoid, and mitigate risks?
8. Is communication open, honest, and transparent among team members?
9. How well does the team acknowledge each other as well as celebrate success?
10. How effectively does the team clear up and move forward after setbacks?
11. Does the team know the conversations to move things forward from vision to result?
12. Do team leaders know what motivates each member?
13. How well does the team handle transitions of team members out of the team?
14. How well does the team help new team members ramp up and achieve performance quickly?
15. How effectively does the team learn about how it can work together better?

These are crucial questions, and the answers are not always obvious.

So what can I do about it? Assess where you are right now.
There are plenty of simplistic books and manuals that make the best-seller lists about teams. However, these rarely have the depth or practical grounding to make teams really work.

Use this chart to assess your current team members – by name!
Here you can download a simple assessment to evaluate the conversations different team members are having, and whether those move the team forward, backwards, or hold it at a standstill. I guarantee it will open up some new ideas about making your teams more effective and efficient.

A robust, deep, and practical approach
Ressmeyer Partners has a 15-part methodology that helps teams be successful from start to finish. In fact, it was even used on a project that created a successful team made up of tenured faculty from universities around the world. It has improved performance on teams in professional services, technology, finance, and non-profits.

The secret to the success of our approach is that it is deep. It helps your team look at fifteen unique dimensions of performance, and can be delivered through training, coaching, facilitation, or a combination – whichever is most convenient for you.

Click Here to Get this Free Tool Now!