How good is your team? How would you rate its effectiveness? Its efficiency?
The secret to improving teams is to occasionally assess where they are at and then take action based on what you discover.
The following are characteristics of team effectiveness. Look over the list and see how well these statements apply to your team.
- The team has a clear sense of purpose.
- The team has measurable objectives.
- The team’s purpose supports the larger organization’s purpose.
- Group members know how the team will be evaluated.
- The team understands its customers’ expectations.
- Groups and individuals that support the team understand the team’s expectations.
- Team members agree on the process for completing their work.
- Team members each do their “fair share” of the work.
- Team members have access to the resources they need.
- The team effectively makes decisions.
- Team members openly communicate with each other.
- The team communicates openly with interested external groups.
- Team members effectively resolve conflicts.
- Team members quickly address problems that are hurting the team.
- Each team member understands what is expected of him or her.
- Team members support one another.
- The team continuously monitors its performance.
- The team works at continuously improving its performance.
- The team achieves (will achieve) its goals and objectives.
- Each member feels good about being a part of this team.
If it seems that few of these characteristics describe your team, it’s time to take action. With the right help and the willingness to make a change, your team can do amazing things.
To help assess your team, we’ve created a process called the TeamCheck Assessment. It’s based on some of these 20 characteristics.
Take the TeamCheck Assessment
This is a free tool for you to use in order to organize your own opinions about how your team is doing. You simply rate your team on a list of team effectiveness characteristics. It will take about 5 minutes to complete.
