Key Point Summary

The road to team success is not an easy one. Teams frequently run into obstacles and problems. Many fail to live up to their potential, fail to deliver expected outcomes, or fail to produce their results in a timely manner. Many of these failures can be prevented if team leaders assess their team’s effectiveness at regular intervals and monitor their team’s performance.

When problems emerge in teams, they can often be traced to a flaw in the team’s basic foundation. Perhaps the team doesn’t have a clear mission. Maybe it doesn’t have the support it needs from the top level of the organization. Members may not be clear about their roles and responsibilities. Maybe the team hasn’t been given the time, the training, or the authority it needs to carry out its task.

CCL has identified six key aspects, or dimensions, that are consistent across all teams. If all of these dimensions are strong within a team, the team has the means to conduct its work and perform effectively. Those dimensions are a clear purpose, an empowering team structure, strong organizational support, positive internal relationships, harmonious external relationships, and efficient information management.

In addition, CCL marks four indicators of team effectiveness that signal when a problem exists along one of those six dimensions. By assessing their team’s effort, knowledge and skills, tactics, and group dynamics, leaders can diagnose problems and make corrections to bring the team back on track.

Team success isn’t inevitable. Even the best-formed teams can run into trouble when people leave, the market shifts, or the organization realigns for strategic reasons. Leaders who monitor and maintain their team so that it operates at peak efficiency can ensure that it successfully achieves its goal.