Using Your Team To Evaluate Team Performance

Dec 23
08:23

2008

Cash Miller

Cash Miller

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Businesses today rely on many different types of teams to get the job done. But you have to evaluate team perfomance regularly to see if they are actually getting the job done. Why not use the team itself to help evaluate their own performance?

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Teams need to be evaluated and they must be evaluated regularly. For the simple fact that if they are not you may not realize when your team is losing its edge. Truly being able to evaluate performance comes from communicating effectively,Using Your Team To Evaluate Team Performance Articles solving problems, team conflicts, evaluating team performance, and more. It essence it means really interacting with your team, not just observing. Your evaluation needs to come as a member of the team not just its leader. It is important when evaluating team performance that you are one of its participants not just an outside observer.

If you want to get the most from your evaluation though then you need to consider letting the other members of your team conduct their own evaluations as well. Participants will gain a clear understanding of their team's strengths and weaknesses, and will develop a process for improving team performance. Factors commonly used are attendance at team meetings, constructive participation in team meetings, contribution to group efforts independent of team meetings, ability and desire to work as a team, and overall contribution.

An increasing number of managers have come to recognize the benefit of creating employee teams that bring a common focus to the challenges and opportunities of business. More and more managers and employees are recognizing the interdependence of their tasks and the importance of teamwork. What advice did they offer to improve performance for newer team members? Your high performers will feel appreciated and valued, your low performers will improve skills and the overall team or department will function with more efficiency and success. Remember the old axiom that "There is no I in Team".

Get you team involved in its own evaluation. Make them ask the hard questions that you would normally have to ask. Who are the individuals who consistently meet or exceed expectations in an area of performance? Think of the questions as the keys that unlock the secrets to improving team performance. What advice did they offer to improve performance for newer team members? Create a list of questions that each team member should have to ask and then compare the answers with your own results. This will let you know what your team members think.

From the questions to ask before establishing teams and the relation of teams and business strategy to team dynamics and evaluating team performance there are many questions that need to be asked. But consider letting your team ask them of themselves first. You might be surprised by the answers.