Leading Teams Assessment: How Well Does Your Team Function?

Leading Teamsassessment How Well Doesyour Team Functionby Jessica

Leading Teams Assessment: How Well Does Your Team Function? by Jessica M. Logan, Courtney L. Holladay, Andreas (Andy) Schumacher, and Darrell Simmons February 28, 2019 Summary. Fuse/Getty Images Teams are a critical part of today’s workforce – but they’re often unsuccessful. Some of the reasons for failure include problems with coordination, motivation, and competition – as well as waiting too long to address these issues. How do you know if your team is... more Teams are a critical part of today’s workforce — but they’re often unsuccessful. One wide-ranging study looking across industries found that 75% of cross-department teams are dysfunctional. Some of the reasons for failure include problems with coordination, motivation, and competition — as well as waiting too long to address these issues. How do you know if your team is working at the highest level? We crafted an assessment of 23 items designed to help members of a team become more aware of how it functions.

By assessing a series of factors known to influence a team’s success — such as team purpose, commitment, talent, norms, goals, morale, and rewards — you can examine how well your team is functioning and see what levers might be most effective for improving productivity and satisfaction. Our tool has been validated by both current team theory and existing team assessments, and we’ve deployed it within 14 teams at a large-scale health care organization. We’ve received positive initial feedback that it helped those teams diagnose where they need to focus to be more effective.

Assessment How Well Does Your Team Function? - Results by Jessica Logan and Courtney Holladay

You’re on a high performing team

This team is not only ready to go, they are ready to climb the highest mountains! It’s likely that there is only some fine-tuning needed to maintain or elevate your status to a truly high performing team. Focus on 1-2 areas to work on in the next few months to further solidify and sustain your team’s commitment and morale. Foster good team dynamics and reiterate your team’s vision to sustain cohesion and productivity. Remember, amazing teams don’t just happen, they take nurturing. So take time to celebrate the exceptional levels of performance, even if they have become the “norm” for this team.

And try to have other members and leaders routinely assess the team as well, so everyone is involved in evaluating progress, commitment, and energy.

Credit in-Text References

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