Based on our continued study of organizations over the past 20 years, 87% of leaders believe that teamwork performance is crucial to their ability to create value for customers, owners, and employees, but only 18% of leaders actually evaluate teamwork performance effectively.
Although some leaders may see measuring team effectiveness as a time burden or an overly complex and lengthy process, taking the time to check in with your team and evaluate their performance will ultimately result in increased communication, higher production, improved efficiency, and improved morale. Thus, teamwork evaluations are beneficial for all teams and yield significant value for the team, the leaders, and the organization.
Below are the specific steps you can take to evaluate your team’s teamwork performance.
These are things your organization values in terms of performance and the achievement of common goals and the overarching mission of the organization. It is important to define these values before you begin the process as it will influence what metrics you use.
Choose the key performance indicators (KPIs) that best reflect the team’s ability to achieve its mission and purpose.
This can include the following quantitative indicators:
The criteria or indicators of teamwork performance can also include qualitative indicators such as:
Although these are more difficult to track, they are critical for learning about the team’s culture and overall atmosphere.
Collecting data for a team performance evaluation can be done by
Whether you are conducting a one-time evaluation, evaluating data overtime or compiling and comparing survey and qualitative interview responses, we recommend that the assessor and/or the team carefully review the data. Identify the team’s advantages and disadvantages or limitations and then formulate action steps to elevate teamwork performance.
In order to achieve better teamwork performance, the team and key sponsors need to choose and reach consensus on specific changes necessary to become a highly optimized team. Based on the data and team’s purpose, you must decide how to go forward.
Applying changes or modifications to a team requires a simple plan of action with clear roles and action steps that each team member will commit to in an effort to elevate overall team performance. These action steps should be followed by periodic accountability check-in points which are designed to ensure progress for the deployment of the action plan.
Taking steps 1-5 can take anywhere from a day to a few weeks, but the true change in teamwork performance will come with the sustainability of Step 6. When people feel involved in decision making and part of the execution process, they are more likely to be engaged and complete their assigned action steps.
By completing a teamwork performance evaluation, you will ensure that the team is being held to a standard and also has a path to improvement. Even if the team seemed like it was working well before, there are always opportunities for improvement.
The payoffs and benefits of an evaluation with supported action steps will drive increased engagement, productivity and stakeholder satisfaction.
Teamwork performance evaluations are important because they:
In addition to evaluations, there are three strategies leaders can leverage to foster better teamwork.
Communicate the goal of the team and projects. This unifies the team under one common, clearly articulated objective.
You can take this a step further by:
When defining goals, be sure to define roles and responsibilities to ensure everyone knows what is expected of them. You might consider building a team roles and responsibilities matrix. This provides general direction of who is taking ownership of what and who to approach when there is a question or need for collaboration.
When setting role roles and responsibilities, you might consider:
Help team members identify, learn from, and leverage the strengths their peers possess to help maximize team effectiveness. Team members will recognize ways to use the strengths to their advantage as they navigate the project.
Identifying and leveraging strengths can also be an opportunity to drive coaching within the team. For example, if one individual excels in a skill where another team member is less skilled, they can work together to help elevate one another’s abilities.
Gartner reports that people seek purpose at work. As a team leader, discuss the type of purpose team members seek during their 1:1 meetings with you. Purpose and fulfillment vary from one person to the next, but it’s critical to engage people in the work and why their contribution is important to the business.
Consider sharing these purposes with the team. Is there a common thread that weaves through them? This can serve as a catalyst to amplify inclusivity and community.
By unifying teams under a common purpose and using the right collaboration techniques, you can enable your teams to reach break though results and exceed their full potential.
Talk with us and learn about CMOE’s Team Product and Services. Our solutions are proven to help your team improve metrics and create true value for the team and organization.
Contact CMOE with any questions.
