Getting Along vs. Getting Work Done

How To Assess Team Dynamics To Determine The Right Balance

Everyone’s dream at work is the perfect team where there is mutual respect, perfect and clear division of responsibilities, a dose of strategy for every dose of execution and accomplishment and celebrations of accomplishments that never end.

But does this describe your team or division? Likely, not every day or even every month.

Team Coaching International has created a great assessment tool called the The Team Diagnostic™ which looks at how efficient a team works with each other and how effectively the team is at moving projects across the finish line.

Why does this matter?

The challenge for many teams is that they are good at one factor – like getting things done – yet languish in the other factor – like working well together. Think for a moment about the following scenarios and see if you recognize the likely behavior of the teams.

SCENARIO ONE: A team that finishes projects in record time, but doesn’t work well together. Everyone is exhausted at the end of the week and the last thing they want to think about is their team.

SCENARIO TWO: A team that loves working together, but struggles to get things done. Every week is great socially, but bitter times come when accountability is needed and no one steps up to manage projects that are lagging behind schedule.

Now think about the scenarios above. Do either of them sound like your current team? If so, you might want to spend time thinking about the attributes that are causing the team behaviors. Maybe conflict flies in the face of a friendly culture – but there are ways to effectively manage conflict (and not avoid it) to make the team more effective. Or perhaps abrasive relationships can be cleared up with mutual goals and understanding of what makes a responsible work relationship and process. Finally, communication often shows up as an area that can help the team work better.

Team Coaching International offers an assessment tool that can formally rate your team on 14 different attributes relating to team efficiency and harmony. Corporate Path Leadership has led teams through the process and can attest to the eye-opening results that help teams realize root causes that can create hiccups in performance – and action plans to fix them.

The bottom line is that teams are a living breathing ecosystem and time spent thinking about the effectiveness of your team is invaluable to reaching business goals. So think for a minute at some small steps you can take in 2018 to improve your team’s performance.