Use the Teamwork
Effectiveness Evaluation and Find Out!
Effective teamwork
is essential for organizations to perform well and to continuously improve
operations. But teamwork is more than just people getting along.
High performance teams have developed the ability to collaborate and support each other, work through conflicts and practice problem solving for continuous improvement initiatives.
My team effectiveness evaluation worksheet will help you identify gaps in team
performance. You can have team members complete the form as well and compare your perceptions and
discuss the reasons for the gaps.
Once you take the
time to analyze the present state and involve the team members in discussion
you will see an immediate improvement in teamwork in your department or
organization.
One key goal that every business owner
should set especially for start-ups is to at one-point to focus most of their
time on strategy and innovation.
Looking at some of the most successful
businesses today like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and HP, they all started
from either a garage, a basement or college dorm. But they all quickly grew to
become multi nationals with thousands of employees.
At the outset most founders worked long
hours in their businesses and wore many hats. They did all types of tasks and
slowly hired staff. It became imperative for them to give up control and
delegate responsibility to their managers as they grew in numbers. If this
didn’t happen the business would have stayed small and eventually disappeared
or acquired.
The business founder is the driver of
innovation and strategic thinking and the larger the business becomes the more
important these activities come to be as competitors want to copy their
products and services and capitalize on them.
Thus, the business owners must stay ahead
of the competition and take time to forge the road to future growth with new
products and services.
For this to happen the leader needs to hire the right person in a management role so that full responsibility and authority can be given. The leader needs to develop their leadership abilities to be able to do that effectively.
A suggested long-term goal for the business owner would be to spend a minimum of 50% of their time on strategy and innovation. Having a goal like that in mind at the start of a business can be a great guiding principle for the founders.
Employee
psychometric assessment tools such as the PXT Select are widely used to aid in the
selection of new employees. But they are also a great tool to use to determine
employee training needs and to coach employees.
The
better you understand someone the easier it is to train, coach and lead them.
But you need accurate information that is relative to the job they are doing.
That
is where the PXT Select shines as a workplace employee
assessment. It matches people to a performance model for the job. This clearly
shows the strengths and challenges of the person relative to their position.
Here
is a screen shot of the graph from the coaching report. It shows the
performance model in green and where the employee (OC) scores for each of the
behavioural traits. Wherever he scores above or below the shaded green area he
is outside of the performance model established for the job.
Notice
on the assertiveness scale for example how OC scores far to the right or above
the performance model. This means he is much more assertive than the position
requires, and this could be very challenging for him and others he interacts
with. People may find him too forceful and commanding.
The
coaching report also provides management tips on how to train and coach the
employee to address this situation.
The
PXT Select is a total person
assessment as it also measures thinking style and occupational interests,
besides nine behavioural traits.
Coaching Tool
To
use an assessment to coach employees, I suggest have them review their
individual reports and highlight strengths and underline challenges. I then
meet with them individually and discuss their report and listen to their
thoughts on how they perceive the feedback in the report.
I
then give my input and discuss what they feel they want to work on to improve
their work performance. This is usually tied to their interaction with other
team members as the way we approach situations directly impacts others.
I
then like to agree on one objective or goal for them to work on and schedule
follow-up meetings. If training is required, I make sure to find solutions.
This
approach can be done with any assessment, but using on like the PXT Select that matches the person
to a performance model and that assesses the total person is ideal.
To
test drive the PXT Select visit this page and fill out the form. Watch the
video for a more detailed explanation.
Writing
a good job description can be a quick and painless process and brings great
immediate benefits to both the team leader and employees.
I recently wrote up five job descriptions for a client who wanted to make sure everyone knew what was expected of them. Here is my process and how long it took
Job Description Process
I held a meeting with the business owner and the five staff members to explain the purpose of writing the job descriptions and how it would improve communication and benefit them in numerous ways
I met with each person individually to have them describe their tasks, the knowledge and skills required, the desired knowledge and skills and the minimum performance standards. One of the employees reported to another person amongst the five so I had the two meet to list the tasks and then I reviewed with the supervisor.
I wrote up the job descriptions on my job description template form. The last thing I added was the summary of job responsibilities, which is the first section after the job title and details section. I like to do this last as it seems to make better sense.
I sent the completed forms to the manager for his review and feedback. I will then adjust accordingly.
Next I will meet each person again to review and finalize the documents.
Time
I
estimate the total time will be between 2-3 hours per job description as each
job is unique. The time it takes would vary depending on the person who is
writing the description. Some people are very detailed oriented so it would
take longer. I like to do things quickly but well. If I didn’t have to discuss
the descriptions with the manager, it could take less.
Using the Tool to Manage Performance
I
will use the tool on an ongoing basis with this client as the manager has asked
me to coach the employees on teamwork and performance improvement each month. I
plan to meet each person regularly to review their performance based on the
minimum performance standards that is part of the job description.
I
will also discuss their needs for training and development based on what they
had told me were the desired skills for the position.
Managers
may procrastinate on writing or updating job descriptions because they are busy
and don’t see this tool as urgent. People are doing their jobs and they might
not see a need.
A
job description is an important tool for managing and coaching employees as I
wrote in my article 10 Good Reasons to Write and Use a
Job Description. It is also essential for recruiting and selecting new
employees.
