Want to get the best out of your team, but feel that you haven’t got the time to do it? Your workload may well already be stressful enough, with targets and demands from senior executives. I can certainly relate to that sentiment, as I often found myself “managing” during the day and “working” either side of the normal working hours! Although, I don’t recommend it, at least not in the long run!!
However, taking some time out to assess your team will give you a long term advantage. Get the right team to achieve their best results, and reduce the time you need on management issues.
Discovering the facts regarding the team members, their skills, and the way the group is structured needs to be identified early in your management of them, if possible. However, you can assess your team at any time as doing so will give you a great advantage for successfully driving them forward. Ultimately this assessment will help you to perform better and achieve the success you have been targeted with.
You can assess not only whether you have the right people in the right role, but any resource constraints that could be affecting the team’s achievements now and in the future.
I’d recommend that you discover how closely your team members meet the demands of their roles. It is easy to make opinions and assumptions of your own, so it is worth stepping back and evaluating the individuals and team dynamics more rigorously.
- Do they have the skills, knowledge and experience and meet the future goals and objectives?
- What are their values? Do they demonstrate good judgement, trustworthiness, focus and energy?
- What level of motivation and engagement is being shown, and are there concerns with any changes expected of them?
- How well do the team work together: what are the team dynamics; are there conflicts that need to be addressed; who are the influencers?
- What information can you obtain from historical appraisals (especially if you’ve recently taken the team on)?
- What development areas need to be addressed for each of the individuals?
- How is the training structured and is this currently in line with the requirements you need to get the best out of each team member?
- Have you identified the team and the organisation’s approach to ethics and business culture? Does the team’s culture differ from that of the organisation? Could your organisation’s working environment unintentionally encourage employees to take unnecessary risk, hide mistakes, manage only good news upwards, or concentrate on their own benefits rather than those of the organisation and customer? In order for progress to be made, any issues should be identified and addressed as early as possible.
- Review Exit Interviews, if they are available, as these (when taken in context) can give you some interesting insights into issues that may or may not have previously surfaced.
- Have there been any Employee Surveys conducted to assist with your assessment of the current status, or can you arrange for one?
A recent People Management report highlighted that when it comes to supporting those on their team with their stress issues, a quarter of respondents [managers] said they felt too stressed to help them. The key workplace stress triggers were found to be workload and trying to meet targets.
Spend a little time early on to assess your team will help reduce your stress and allow you and your team to meet those targets, whilst maintaining engagement, motivation, morale and tenure.
How have you seen a positive impact on results after taking the time to assess your team?
Contact us to find out how executive coaching can help you assess your team quickly and efficiently.