Is Your Leadership Team up to the Challenge?
Think about those times when you feel the least productive or the most stressed— when things aren’t getting done — and you’re picking up the pieces.
Most of us know, deep down, that these issues can be directly traced to the shortcomings of our team— and it's on us if we accept those limitations.
The Leadership Team Challenge is a quick and honest way to assess the strength of YOUR TEAM. Rate the individual team members, calculate your team's overall score — and see what the results tell you.
Why talk about being the best — if you're going to accept second best from members of your own team?
Here’s what I want you to do
Take 5 Minutes and Score Your Team
1. List Your Team Members
For each of your direct reports, write down their Name alongside their Position.
2. Use a Scale of 1-10
Give each person a score from 1–10, with 10 representing exceptional performance and contribution.
3. Do It Quickly
Do it quickly. Be honest and don’t flinch. Don’t overthink it.
4. Total the Score
For example, if you have 7 direct reports, a perfect score would be 70 or (7 x 10). How many points did you tally for your team?
5. Divide Your Team Score by the Perfect Score
In our simple example, let’s assume that the total for your 7-person leadership team is 53. The fraction of 53/70 equals 75%.
6. Just Like in School
Let’s assume we use a simple grading system like we’ve all seen in school, something like I've shown in the example above.
Using the Final Score in the example above ...
Are you happy with that Final Score?
I suspect your Mom wasn't!
Why Such a Simple Approach?
Experienced leaders always know the number that would assign to each individual. You may be surprised to learn that further discussion rarely changes their first assessment.
Their "gut" has already captured the history of that person's performance and contribution. Even after an extended conversation with me about an individual, the score rarely diverges from the original number.
What Does This Score Mean for Your Team & Organization?
Think about the resulting score and its significance.
Identify individual performers who are bringing down the total score.
Be thoughtful about what’s missing and begin to lay out a course of action to improve the score for your Leadership Team.
I Will Help You
If your score bothers you — and I've never seen one that wasn't troubling to the leader making the assessment — feel free to send me the results and tell me where you think the problem is.
I’m happy to take a look and, if it makes sense, we can find a time to talk through what you might do next. No cost or obligation.
When you address this issue, you’ll be amazed at how many other problems begin to resolve themselves.
By requesting the worksheet, you’ll also subscribe to Sword Tips. If you're already a subscriber, just use the same email address.
