Your Team Leader Checkup Score

Here are your category scores for the Team Leader Checkup. By clicking on the "Analysis" you will get tips on how this team leader can improve in any of the category areas.

Leading By Example  Analysis 0 Encouraging Innovation  Analysis 0 Innovative Problem Solving  Analysis 0 Decision Making  Analysis 0 Delegating  Analysis 0 Observing  Analysis 0 Listening  Analysis 0 Team Building  Analysis 0 Resolving Conflict  Analysis 0 Performance Coaching  Analysis 0 Performance Management  Analysis 0

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Leading by Example

• Works on improving own knowledge and skills.
• Uses time effectively - works in high-priority actions first.
• Remains calm and effective in high-pressure situations.
• Demonstrates high standards of ethical conduct.

Effective leaders have to be living examples of their expectations. If your score here is not up to the level you had hoped, you might want to consider re-evaluating the standards that you hold up for your team. Do you really believe in what you are asking for? Is it evident by how you perform your tasks and how you treat others? Would the feedback of others affirm that you operate the way you think you do?

Remember that, since we are viewed as leaders, others are continuously observing our words and actions for congruence. In short, we need to walk the talk. We may believe that we do this; feedback that indicates otherwise can be quite surprising. Remember that, as a leader, our job is to manage the perceptions of others. If people do not see us in a way that matches our self-perception, then we have a personal marketing problem...our should we say marketing opportunity. Find ways to connect the things that you do to standards, organizational values and principles. Be sure to communicate how these actions relate to these principles whenever possible.

 

Encouraging Innovation

• Expresses a vision of the future - exciting goals and ambitious plans.
• Encourages team members to ask "why" and to questions the status quo.
• Encourages team members to look at problems in new ways.

In this day of rapid change, effective leaders must regularly encourage people to offer ideas and take risks. If your score is not up to par as one who encourages innovation it may be due to your own lack of clarity about team objectives. Or perhaps you have difficulty in promoting an environment of enthusiasm for the departmental/company vision. It may also symbolize suspicions on the part of your team around how they would really be supported if they did try new things, especially if their efforts were unsuccessful.

Reflect on the level of openness that you have shown to team members who have presented new ideas or taken a risk to do a task a new way. Have you reinforced innovation positively? Any barrier to innovation, even in small matters, will communicate that you really are interested in maintaining status quo. Be sure to make note of the new ideas or approaches that you embrace as these are tried or suggested by team members. If others note that you are supporting these efforts, they may be more likely to offer their own innovations.

 

Innovative Problem Solving

• Affirms positive aspects of coworker's suggestion/idea before stating concerns.
• Helps coworkers brainstorm to generate ideas.
• Goes outside the team for resources and solutions when needed.
• Reacts constructively to disappointments and setbacks.

We cannot prevent change, but we can determine how we will respond to changes. Smart leaders know that if employees are involved in the process of creating the new approaches that will affect them, their support for change will be more rapid and more complete.

To cope with changes in the workplace, leaders must regularly encourage people to offer ideas and take risks. To creative leaders and teams, seeming failures are but stepping-stones to success. Team leaders need to know how to respond to disappointments constructively in order to build confidence in using innovative problem-solving behaviors.

 

Decision Making

• When possible, gets opinions and ideas from the team before making a decision.
• Makes decisions that support the organization's long-range goals.
• Makes decisions that support the needs of team members.

Decision-making is a key skill that team members judge us by. Low scores in this area could result from a variety of problem behaviors. The first might be putting off making decisions for fear of making the wrong choice. Decisions that never get made will often mushroom into larger problems; even though sometimes they can magically disappear. Hoping for the latter is no reason to avoid this key leadership task.

Another potential reason for a low score in decision-making is the leader thinking that they must go it alone. In other words, leaders who do not involve others in a decision-making process are perceived as not valuing the input that others have to offer. Involving others can often lead to a higher quality decision. A third problem comes from making decisions too quickly without any investigation or research.

Reflect on what your decision-making style has been on your team. Do you move quickly, put off decisions entirely or are other dynamics causing you to have a lower score in this area? For simple decisions, you may want to review our Pit the Pairs process and try it with your team in situations where it fits. It is a great collaborative team decision making tool.

 

Delegating

• Makes clear how individual roles are important to team success.
• Assigns tasks based on individual team member's strengths.
• Explains why a task, objective or goal is important.
• Explains clearly how much freedom of action and authority have been granted to the team member.

Effective delegation not only requires leaders to exercise trust and willingness to take risks, but sensitivity around when to give direction and when to keep hands off. Clarity of communication is critical to effective delegation as is matching the assignment to the team member's strengths and providing the resources for the team member's success.

What is behind your lower delegation score? Are you too quick to delegate? Have you handed off projects without an inventory of who is best suited for this work? Do you provide details of the project when handing off assignments or do you leave people to sink or swim? Do you micro-manage after you delegate the work causing people to wonder why you gave them an assignment in the first place? Do you delegate things just to get rid of them or do you delegate to challenge people to grow, freeing yourself up for tasks that really need your skills? Are you delegation phobic...do you feel the world will end if you do not complete all the projects and tasks yourself? Reflect on why you are or are not delegating and consider how utilizing this skill might help both you and your team to grow.

 

Observing

• Enforces team norms and standards.
• Supports and encourages team members when they take initiative.
• Reassures and supports team members when they encounter obstacles.
• When needed, helps team members overcome difficulties and roadblocks.

Being aware of people, process and performance is a key role you play as a team leader. Some team members require a lot of supervision, but others prefer to rely on their own experience, ability and internal motivation. Self-motivated people can react negatively to a team leader who is looking over their shoulder. Others may need you to tune into them and their work so you can coach or support them as needed. Knowing how to observe all kinds of team members so you can coach and provide further direction as needed is a key skill; and doing so in a way that builds self-esteem is critical.

Observing trends in the environment is another critical trait for team leaders today. Knowing how things in the internal and external environment might affect you, your team, and your organization enables you to create new strategies before problems crop up for you and your team. Leaders who tune into people, process and performance become invaluable to the organizations that they serve.

 

Listening

• Shows genuine interest when another person is speaking.
• When listening, checks the meaning of the speaker's tone of voice, gestures and facial expressions.
• When listening, summarizes the speaker's thoughts, feelings and ideas.

According to Bob Conklin, 75% of all spoken word is NEVER heard. Think of the cost that poor listening has on your organization every day. Lost opportunities, errors, damaged self-esteem, and broken relationships.

Listening is more than hearing. Smart leaders listen well - not only to the words, but to the non-verbal signals being given along with the words. They know how to summarize not only what a person said, but to reflect the feeling tones as well. Learning to listen, and helping others to listen, are critical ingredients to developing a healthy team. Listening helps team leaders become aware of challenges at their earliest indication. The best way to increase listening on your team is to role model it. The best way to become a better listener yourself is to want to listen. You can begin practicing today. Every person you encounter is an opportunity to change the perception of how others view your listening ability.

 

Teambuilding

• Gives praise or recognition to the team when it has performed well.
• Helps the team address and resolve team issues.
• Represents the team effectively to the rest of the organization.

There is a huge difference between a group of people working on a project and a team. To develop a high-performance team, a leader must involve the members in sharing information, solving problems and making decisions. Respect for others unique abilities, and trust among members, are key characteristics of a true team.

A number of things can contribute to a lower score in this area. Do members feel you value them and their unique skill sets? Do you demonstrate this by building an environment of involvement? Does the team work through issues that may arise, or do these get swept under the carpet? Have you invested time in creating a climate of openness where members feel that they can bring up issues, and suggestions? Do you make an effort to get the team together regularly to check in on people and their projects; recognize efforts and involve everyone in the matters at hand? Building a team is not difficult, but it is a time investment. There is just no way to have a team without taking the time to build one; so consider the costs to your organization when teamwork does not exist. Building a team is definitely worth the effort.

 

Resolving Conflict

• Encourages coworkers to communicate with each other directly to resolve conflicts.
• When other coworkers are in conflict, helps them listen to each other.
• When other coworkers are in conflict, helps them identify areas of agreement.
• When other coworkers are in conflict, encourages them to consider new options.

Few people like conflict, yet conflict managed in a healthy manner can enhance the effectiveness of a team and promote a sense of team ownership. Reflect on why your team may have rated you lower in this area. Do you avoid conflict? Do you charge ahead in conflict with your own solutions and cut off real discussion that needs to take place?

To be sure, conflict left unchecked rarely results in anything positive. Cultivating listening skills, discovering common ground, and exploring alternative options are but a few of the helpful techniques in transforming conflict into team enrichment. No one wakes up in the morning wanting to encounter conflict so they can develop greater conflict skills, but by working through difficult situations you will experience personal growth and you can encourage the growth of others involved in conflict. Most importantly, your organization can make gains or improvements through this process because improvements are usually the end result of conflict handled properly.

 

Performance Coaching

• When helping team members develop new abilities, is patient and encouraging.
• Encourages team members to think and solve problems for themselves.
• Encourages team members to attend education and training programs.

Smart team leaders know that when they invest in the development of their team members, the capability of the team is magnified. Properly nurtured, team members improve their skills and use better judgment. Frequently, when team leaders focus upon the development of their people it enhances creativity, time efficiency and customer satisfaction.

A low score here may indicate that you've not paid enough attention to how team members are performing in their roles. The cost of poor performance can be very high. Examine what might be behind the lower score in this area. Perhaps you are pressed for time and just have difficulty fitting this kind of activity into your day. Do you feel you have a good awareness of the performance coaching needs of your team? Before you can practice this skill you must first be aware of need. This is where your observing skills come into play. Give some thought to where this may be breaking down and build a strategy to improve this key skill.

 

Performance Management

• Gives ongoing performance feedback throughout the year.
• Gives informal verbal feedback about performance soon after it occurs.
• During performance appraisal meetings, helps the team member set performance and professional development goals.

Few people like performance appraisals because they are usually arbitrary, unfair and inaccurate. There are ways, however, in which good team leaders can provide motivational feedback to their employees in ways that help team members appreciate their strengths and motivate them in their professional development. One of the most effective techniques is to involve team members in the process of setting their own performance and development goals.

Performance management today requires far more than the dreaded annual performance review. It is an ongoing process of providing feedback on performance. By taking this kind of approach, the formal appraisal process should contain no surprises and should be less stressful for everyone. Look for ways you can build performance feedback into your regular routine. Make it a habit. But remember, for best results try a 7:1 ratio on the feedback you provide to each employee. That is, give seven positives to every one negative. It will go much further toward being accepted, appreciated and acted upon. If you really want to create a feedback culture with your team, you should ask them regularly to give you feedback as well. Not formally, but informally ask for feedback related to specific projects, or behaviors that you are working on.