John Grifonetti Explains How to Assess Your Team’s Strengths and Weaknesses

As a business leader, you already know that having a solid team behind you is one of the most important predictors of success. Every successful business is comprised of effective teams that work both independently and together. Without a team, a business owner is left alone to deal with the myriad struggles of running a company.

To maximize your company’s efficiency and profitability, there will be times when you need to assess your team’s strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps you have noticed that one or more of your team members is no longer fully cooperating with their coworkers or personal sources of friction in the workgroup. These red flags may tell you that it is time to consider personnel movements within your company.

John Grifonetti shares suggestions for assessing the team members’ strengths and weaknesses, determining which members have the most value to the company as a whole.

How Do Teams Produce Results?

Teamwork has a measurable effect on the performance of any company. Effective teams can help organizations achieve excellent results. Teams that are not functional can cause disruption and strategic failure.

Teamwork and group work are two different things, even though many workers do not distinguish between them. The primary difference between a workgroup and a team is that a team is consciously working together to meet certain objectives. The team members support one another and give feedback as well as critical assistance when it is necessary.

Each member of the team needs to be part of the functioning whole. If anyone is slacking off or behaving irresponsibly, the team’s performance will suffer.

How to Assess Strengths and Weaknesses

Here are six suggestions of how you can begin to assess your team's strengths and weaknesses:

1. Get Feedback

As the person performing the assessment, you may have preconceptions about the person’s strengths and weaknesses that may not be accurate. Coworkers may have a lot to say about others’ contributions to the team. Talk to the person’s closest contacts at work as well as to the people who supervise them. Also, talk to the people they supervise. Use your assessment and the valued opinions of others to form your determination.

2. Understand Team Successes and Failures

To assess an individual’s performance, it is necessary to consider their success with the team first. Look at the team’s history of successes and failures. Find out which team members were responsible for good or poor performance.

3. Evaluate Consistency

Assess how consistent each team member has been in their responsibilities. If one member has been responsible for one type of task and this task has been done well, those skills are part of their professional strengths. On the other hand, if the team member has failed to perform consistently, this may be one of their weaknesses.

4. Look at Individual Qualities

If possible, look at every team member’s performance record outside of team activities. This will help you see where their strengths and weaknesses lie. You may notice that certain employees thrive on being part of a team while others do better working independently. This can help you to construct your team for maximum efficiency.

5. Openly Discuss Strengths and Weaknesses

While not every employee will be upfront with you about their self-assessment of their strengths and weaknesses, it is a valuable part of making decisions about which team members are the most effective.

When managers reveal their human side and talk about their strengths and weaknesses, their employees are more likely to feel free to follow suit. An open and honest conversation between employer and employee is always worthwhile. If you can encourage your team members to open up, assessing their strengths and weaknesses will be that much easier.

6. Listening and Observation

When you work with a team every day, it can be challenging to view them objectively. You may have developed personal relationships with them, which color your view of their strengths and weaknesses. You are attuned to their normal behavior, but you may not have any conception of their unique abilities.

Try to go beyond the surface assessments of each team member. For example, if you have an employee who always seems calm, it could be that they are disengaged and apathetic. Speaking with their coworkers to find out exactly how their personalities work is an excellent way to get past these surface assumptions.

Creating a Team Vision

John Grifonetti understands the importance of adequately building a team. Assessing your team’s strengths and weaknesses can help you decide whether to keep teams together or split them up for maximum efficiency.

Getting to know your employees on a human level and their roles on a team can be a huge help in understanding their strengths and weaknesses. Try to keep an objective view of each person’s abilities even though you have a personal history with them.

It may be wise to consult with your human resources department to help you plan team assessments. These professionals can help you manage the assessment process and decide which personnel moves may be necessary when it is complete.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or the management of EconoTimes