When you have all set. Your team is up and running, producing the value they are put together to produce. It is easy to think that the job is done, and the work ends there.

You have made a system, or a machinery of some sort that outperforms most other teams when you have built your team proper. You have placed a great amount of resources into building this value creating system.

The somewhat fun aspect of eople mindset towards most things, is the illution that things last forever. I think many can relate to the false asumption that the family car just takes us where we want. So many skip service and maintainance, for later to get annoyed when the car breaks down.

Having service agreements on the office cofee machine and not the organisations teams and people is unfortunatly quite common.

A team will need to be monitored and maintained. You simply need to have some sort of system to make sure the teams you have continue to produce the value they are placed together to produce.

Most people agree to all of the above when presented to it. It is not uncommon to scratch the head slightly in wonder. What do we actually measure when we monitor our team?

The key here for most teams is to not make it to complicated. We are measuring things that are somewhat subjective to various degrees. If you ask yourself, how do we measure leadership? It’s somewhat hard to do. What you rather should do is to measure the results the leadership produces, aligned with the goals. By thinking like this, we have taken the first step in the right direction.

Remember to measure what is relevant for you team. Everything else is irrelevant. So what should you focus on?

Methods to measure the team

Establish metrics for each team, or each project

Meet often with the team

Talk to other managers

Meet one on one with team members (co-worker conversations)

Constantly question if anything as value.

Measure team member performance

Attendance

Helpfulness

Efficiency

Initiative

Quality

How to measure leadership

Methods to measure the team

There are may methods of measuring team performances. We could go into advanced key performance metrics you most likely wouldn’t read. And even if you did read it, you would not implement them. I am a firm believer in making things easy, easy understood by everyone involved and off course something that gives good results. Even if you would understand some advanced approach on how to measure, it is a great chance it would be harder to establish in your team of decision makers to implement. And you would se no results. So let us present some easy metrics everyone can understand and implement.

Establish metrics for each team, or each project

Having a universal understanding of things is one of the key ingredients to cooperate. One mistake many do, is to assume people have a similar understanding of something.

These wishful assumptions does not have a place anywhere near teams that perform at at top level. So establishing and maintaining this common understanding is key to get the processes going smoothly. Assuring quality is made in process output and that the process input get what is needed the right way.

So doing good on- boarding where it is relevant, maintaining this understanding and making the universal understanding of changes made is important. There are many examples of this. But to make things clear with an example these kind of situations.

Example: If a team is responsible for generating leads. The process output they have would be leads (potential clients). The teams purpose would then be lead generation. If in such a situation the universal understanding of what a qualified lead would be is not defined and universally understood. This creates problems down the line for the sales team working with these leads. We then have a problem in the quality of the output in the lead generating team, affecting the quality of the input the sales teams receives.

It comes at no surprise that measuring a understanding of this universal understanding of what, how and when is important.

It can be hard to actually establish a position on these metrics. One good idea is measure to what degree team members are aligned with a common understanding of the important aspects. To do so, using the smart goals as a template can be a good idea.

Meet often with the team

Meeting the team often is such an important aspect of being visible as a leader. It is a great ground to build relationships and get valuable feedback from the team as a whole and from individuals. It is impossible to measure a team unless you meet up with the team regularly. So having structured meetings around clearly defined agendas is of great importance.

These kind of meeting are important for addressing issues related to the processes or other operational elements. It is impossible to create something that simply just function without supervision or improvements. And the only way to being able fix this, is by addressing them. And create this important aspect of a universal understanding that I can not address enough. These meetings address problems , changes that will be done, regardless the decision level. Everyone involved has to know what is happening. And it is very important that the information is as transparent as possible, and easily accessible to check on also after the meeting. If the issues goes around processes or changes in this, having a process map that is easily changeable is a great tool.

Talk to other managers

Establishing an open door policy, not only for members of the team. But for managers between each other is just as important.

Having standardised ways to address issues, how to communicate around problems is important. It should be a standard within the established culture on how things are done.

This policy should be both 1. cross- manager issues within processes. Where issues and questions in the process input- output are central topics 2. and issues that arise on teams of similar types. Where managers share problems, make changes to important issues in line with lean management and improving processes and develop standards for how to address with common issues.

Meet one on one with team members (co-worker conversations)

Having one on one conversations with team members is a very important aspect of leading a team. As a manager you are most likely meting up with your team members on a regular basis troughs the tasks done at wok. But you should also consider having one on ones where the time is dedicated to addressing and talking around that person and only that persons problems, performance and other aspects related to the persons function as a team member. It should be a setting where both the team members performance is reviewed and just as important the feedback the person has towards the role they have. be it positive or negative, problems or positive feedback. For this kind of conversations to have any effect, the team leader should leave the “ego” at home. These conversations if structured right, with the right amount of relation and trust is worth gold when it comes to making a team function. This is where feedback metrics related to all aspects of team member performance and issues can be addressed. A somewhat hard and subjective metrics to collect, but as important as any other metric you collect.

Constantly question if anything as value.

The key is to constantly monitor if something ad value to the purpose of its design. Use simple and efficient methods to measure and change things that doesn’t add value.

Become a great lean manager. Delegate and train other leaders to become great lean managers and instruct them to delegate and train further. Constantly go cleaning your system of waste.

And I am mentioning this again to address the importance within changes:

1. Have clear deviation making processes of who have deviation power, and what can be changed by who. And how changes are implemented,

2. And how this is communicated up and down the line to maintain this critical mutual understanding that I speak so warmly of.

And no need to mention, but I have to address the importance that this has to be in line with the overall strategy. So identifying what can be changed by who is important. Some parts are more critical, and require understanding from more people, more teams, maybe clients or external resources. Identifying authority and line of communication is important.

How to monitor team member performance

As addressed above, you are equipped with simple methods on how to gather data and measure team performance. The metrics on the processes itself and the value produced is a different stage, and the metrics of what is produced there are done differently.

Attendance

An obvious part worth mentioning. But more relevant for virtual teams than for teams who gather at an office every day at fixed times.

Having some metric on attendance is important. For most high performing teams I do not address to a time stamp system here (counterproductive and breaking down trust)

Having some kind of metric on attendance is important to be able to follow up employees and offer assistance. Situations where attendance declines indicates something in need of attention from leadership. It can be lack of motivation for various reasons, conflict and discomfort of some kind, health issues, family problems, burnout and so many more things. To address problems like this early is a good idea.

As I can’t mention to often, view yourself as the leader of your team as a resource you alicocate where it is needed. It is not like you go in and fix all problems that occur, but you often provide what is necessary to solve problems. Sometimes that requires providing services with own skillset, and sometimes this includes facilitating or acquiring professional services. Any way, serve your team, as your servant.

An easy metrics to measure, but still very important to be able to address various issues before they become a potential problem. This can often be done by meeting your team often, and having regular structured co-worker meetings.

Helpfulness

Somewhat hard to measure, and relatively subjective. But still and important part in your monitoring work. This as one component mirrors a productive culture. A short way to ask for help on various issues is extremely important, and it get increasingly important the more competence demanding, complex and complicated the tasks the team work with becomes.

Fostering and maintaining helpfulnes within the teams you manage is important. This is why it is just as important to monitor this feature in your team members and teams. Some suggestions on how to do this is to continue to maintain this within the culture, leading with example and provide resources to do so.

As mentioned monitoring this can be challenging. But simple methods such as good relations as a trusted leader in a co-worker setting or anonymous surveys on when someone was helpful the last 3 months is quite more efficient tools than you would imagine. It’s a simple part of culture that brings huge value.

Efficiency

Obviously team members need to finish task on time. Not referring to old movies from the 90s where the middle manager or team leader came with a pile of documents to finish at the end of the shift.

A high performing team work by processes. They operate as a clockwork. Everyone produces something that another team member, other team or client will use the output of.

So the managements role is obviously to design a good system. Where it is possible to train and on- board the people that enter the talent pipeline or other processes chosen to get access to people and competence. It is also from this side important to design the task in the processes good, so that people can produce the quality required within the time required. Without getting burned out, or pushed to quit.

In some cases the efficiency can be put on the employe to not perform as well as the system requires. It may be a new employee, or other reasons for this decline. In this situation it is important to locate the reason for this performance problem. Often this is a result from lack of competence or knowledge around the processes and the universal understanding I often refer to. Or issues that are at the side of the operational tasks itself, as mentioned in the Attendance section.

This is one of the easier parts to monitor, since it is quite easy to locate where halts in efficiency and quality come from in a predefined system.

Initiative

Employees who take initiative and engage in what the team is producing of value is a clear sign of a team that has a high level of satisfaction and alignment with the common goals. So keeping an eie on this metric is important, you will need people who have a higher level of initiative to be able to delegate tasks that are outside of the operative side of processes. You will need to foster this in your culture to actually have people seeking to improve your processes and “do the little ” extra that benefits the goal of the team. Without initiative you will at the best have people who perform their operational tasks. Viewing all other aspects in the teams function as none of their business. If there is a halt or issues occurring, leadership has to enter the situation to fix or make improvements. And as we all know, the people working on the operational aspect, they are the ones who really know the important details of how things actually work. At the worst a team with no initiative may come to a complete halt, and may be really hard to fix. Even team leadership may be affected by low levels of initiative and hopelessness around the situation. When it comes to building a high performing team, this is a situation with a “broken” team, that can be hard to fix. You will need people with high levels of initiative in periods of rapid growth or change, where you will need people to be able to adapt and be proactive. As the purpose of building teams with teambuild would be, to make scalable teams that are robust to change.

This is also somewhat a harder and more subjective quality to measure in individuals and teams. A good place to start looking for this, is to keep track and an estimate on team members taking initiative in various situations that require it. But keep in mind, not everyone give initiative in the same ways. Some people are active on meeting, some keep track on important things and see this responsibility as important. You will also have people who don’t really take initiative in clearly visible ways, some team members may take initiative on improving things not clearly visible for all. Make people feel seen for all kind of initiative, or you will rapidly see that the initiative will decline.

Quality

The quality of the work your employees produce is arguably one of the most important metrics. It is hard to measure and somewhat subjective to define what quality is. And again I can not address this enough, to communicate a universal understanding of things. There should be as little room as possible to subjectively define important metrics. Quality and what quality looks like, the expectations of the output the processes in the teams produce. Has to be clearly defined. Everyone involved in any way should know exactly what is expected when it comes to also this metric.

Team member who are engaged will likely perform better. Knowing what is expected, leaving absolutely no room for doubt is key to being engaged around the right thing. It is a good idea to give recognition when observing achievements in this direction.

In some processes it is hard to simply define what quality would be. For example in process lines where people generate leads, make sales, publish content. How can we identify what quality would be here? Most likely they are the ones who are the professionals in what they do. It is hard to define what quality would look like in these situations, do we measure this in amount of sales calls? How many content piece produced and posted? How many leads or potential clients generated? In these situations, even if the quality is well defined, does productivity count as a measure.

In these situations where results are more complex, but the quality of the tasks are important for the teams performance. It is important to establish additional metrics in connection to this, and:

• Rate quality based on the results it produces
• and, measure the amount of work that gets rejected or needs to be re- done as a metrics for quality of the work done.

How to measure team leadership

How do you measure great leadership? I am sure if you search for answers you will get many opinions on that. Often leading to interpersonal skills or traits the leader has, such as great communication skills, personal integrity, selv awareness etc. or you will find much information more work description oriented advices. Such as what kind of tasks a leader do: measure workforce performance, measure company profitability, forter growth and strong values etc.. These are all important, and all true. But they will not help us anything to actually measure our team leaders performance. A position that has an important function for the team to function and communicate both “input” and “output” to the team and other external stakeholders.

The measuring of leadership is nothing more complex than measuring the results that the leadership gives. What kind of results does the leadership produce in direction of the team goal? In many cases producing some kind of value, trough for example great processes. To be able to do this we off course have to acknowledge the competence, interpersonal skills, traits and great performance on related work tasks. But trying to measure them individually will not give us any metrics we can work with to be able to up the performance of the team leader.

The main one metric to look for or train in a team leader, is

• emphatic intelligence
• and as a second you find relevant competencies that are critical for being able to make the process going.

As a leader you manage and give service to people. You are fixing people issues first. Since the system/”machinery” is made up of people put into an automatic system. So having the ability to understand others, understating one-self and understanding others in relation to others and one-self is important. The team leader can be seen as a serviceperson maintaining the team. So by focusing on emphatic abilities as first trait to develop. As long as other criteria to become a leader is meet off course, is the key.

Secondly and also highly trainable for a qualified leader is the ability to understand what value is being made and how. It is important to have an overlook of what the team is doing, what they need to perform and how this functions in relation to others involved in the input(s) and outputs(s) of the processes.

Effective leaders are known for being excellent communicators. Here’s what to do.

1) Avoid “Not.” Negative talk encourages arguments, counter attacks, and attempts to solve your problems. It also creates a negative impression. For example, when you say, “I can’t,” you appear helpless and ineffective. Instead, talk about what you can do and what you want.

2) Deal with impossible requests by 1) acknowledging the request, 2) empathizing with the other person’s feelings, 3) saying, “I wish I could fix it.” and 4) suggesting a reasonable alternative.” For example, imagine that you work at a resort and it is raining. A guest walks up to you carrying a golf bag, slams it against your desk, and shouts, “This place stinks! I spent thousands of dollars coming here and it’s raining.”

You respond by saying, “You’re right it’s raining. And I know how upsetting it must feel to travel this far and be stuck inside. I wish I could make it stop. In the meantime, you may want to visit our indoor putting center. Our golf pro is offering instructions this afternoon.”

3) Deal with difficult requests by 1) affirming your willingness to help and 2) asking the other person to help you plan a solution.

For example, if your boss asks you to start another project, you could say, “I understand you want me to start a new project. And right now I’m working on another project. To help me set my priorities, I wonder which one you want me to finish first.”

4) When possible, offer choices that show the consequences of different options. This allows the other person to choose both the process and its impact.

For example, you can say, “That’s a great idea. And there are different ways I can meet your request. We can use our existing supplies, which are free, or we can buy custom materials, which will cost $500. Which option would you prefer?”

5) Deal with complaints by asking the other person to describe a fair settlement. You can say, “What do you want?” or “What would you consider a fair solution to this?” or “What would make you happy?”

6) A smile significantly affects how you sound. It also makes you more approachable. When you frown, other people hear anxiety, caution, fear, and rejection. A smile (or at least a pleasant expression) encourages open communication.

Resource Planning: Before the Strategic Plan can be finally agreed and implemented, the leader(s) must ensure that there will be sufficient resources available for each activity at each stage of the plan. In reality the planning for the provision of resources must be viewed as a critical element of the plan itself. The strategic plan and the objectives within it will not be achieved if the activities needed to carry out the plan are not properly supported by appropriate resources.

Resources Forecast: A resources forecast should be carried out. All planned activities, stages, and objectives, should be analysed for resource requirements (resources as in the list below). If the forecast identifies areas where the available or deliverable resources do not match the levels required, then this must be corrected or the plan must be altered. Once the leader(s) can be satisfied that the necessary resources will be available, the plan can be finalised and implemented with confidence.

Prioritising Resources: It is tempting to rank these resources, perhaps arguing that human resources, and accompanying expertise and experience should be the highest on the list, but this is not logical. Lack of, or inadequate, financial, physical, or systems resources for any one of the many activities, or at any stage of the plan, can be as damaging as not having the required human resources. It is also tempting to think of resources as only human, financial, or physical, and also as coming only from internal sources. Again, this is not appropriate, as the strategic plan needs support from other areas, internally and externally, that should also be described as resources, such as systems, policies, suppliers, external stakeholders.

Organisational Infrastructure: The shape and complexity of the organisational structure should be designed to serve the strategic direction taken. A structure that is as flexible, dynamic, and responsive a structure as possible is essential. In some business sectors, for example in many parts of the public sector, there will be constraints and barriers that will dictate a more bureaucratic and rigid structure that limits responsiveness and flexibility. Much of this may be unavoidable, but it should be continually challenged and loosened where possible. In most other sectors there is no excuse. The leaders of organisations in commercially driven sectors, and this now includes education, health, charities, and the utilities, must strive to structure their organisations so that they can respond to the fast pace and continual changes of today’s business world.

Systems, Policies, Procedures: In functional areas such as IT, Finance, HR and Personnel, Performance Appraisal and Reward, Conditions of Employment, Working Patterns, Training and Development, the systems, policies, and procedures must be operating in support of the strategic plan and the accompanying operational activities. An appropriate Quality Assurance Management System should be in place, guided by the strategic objectives, constantly monitoring the quality standards of all the systems, including its own, to ensure that they are not hindering or damaging the chances of achieving the strategic objectives.

Location: For most organisations the location is not easily changeable, and would not normally be challenged. But the leader(s) must look at the current location in terms of its strategic suitability. If the location is not supportive to the strategies, then alternatives must at least be explored. If moving to a more appropriate location is logistically and financially possible, then that relocation should take place at the earliest opportunity.

Front-line Physical Resources: For manufacturing organisations this will encompass production facilities, plant, equipment, and so on. For service sector organisations this will mean the physical resources at the point of sale and-or delivery points. The condition and capacity of physical resources in these areas must be able to meet the operational demands dictated by the strategies.

Support Functions Physical Resources: For most organisations this means activity areas such as procurement, design, research and development, administration, finance, human resources, maintenance, marketing, sales, distribution, and so on.

Managers in front-line and support areas must focus on achieving the operational objectives that have been derived from the strategic plans. The leader(s) must implement a system of regular performance appraisal and consultation to ensure that these areas are resourced appropriately and operated effectively.

Suppliers: A key resource, but because they are outside the organisation, are often forgotten. The quality of supplies, be they raw materials, equipment, parts, consumables, people, or advisory services, is a critical factor in the capability of the organisation. If inputs are not of the right quality then costs can rise, damage can be caused, delays can occur, and the operational performance of the organisation could suffer. In turn, the achievement of the strategic objectives of the organisation could be delayed or damaged.

Human Resources: The question that the leader(s) must ask is whether the quality, quantity, and distribution of the human resources within the organisation, is sufficient to satisfy the needs of the chosen strategies. Existing staffing levels, degrees of expertise and experience, flexibility, distribution, predicted wastage or turnover, are all areas that need analysing. Intangible factors, such as levels of morale, motivation, cultural attitudes, should also be evaluated. A human resources audit must be carried out and where gaps or weaknesses are identified these must be corrected, and brought up to the required levels.

Financial Resources: In simple terms, the leader(s) must be satisfied that the funding, the cash-flows, the budgets, will meet the demands of the activities. If necessary, and affordable, additional funding must be obtained, linking this resource need to external stakeholders as discussed below, such as banks, shareholders, and other investors.

Marketing and Distribution: whatever the product or service that the organisation is offering, the marketing and distribution functions are as important, if not more so, than any other internal function. Without revenue, whether from customer sales, grants, government funds, or other sources, the organisation must persuade the purchaser, or provider, to deliver revenue to it. This revenue will be a critical element of the financial resources needed to support the planned activity, and the continued flow of this revenue must be protected. This entails ensuring that the marketing and distribution function is itself appropriately funded.

External Stakeholders: This group of resource sources includes shareholders, investors and other funding organisations discussed in the section on Financial Resources. These need to be managed and informed appropriately. Other stakeholders could, depending on the nature of the business, include the local authorities, public services, local and-or national media, trade unions, local residents, national or international governments, national or international trade organisations, business partners, and so on. Where the support of any external stakeholder is identified as important to the success of the strategic plan, then effort and energy should be spent on building and maintaining a positive relationship with them. Maintaining positive relationships with external stakeholders is essential, as they are a vital resource in supporting the organisation’s strategic direction.

Intangible Resources: These include goodwill, reputation, and brands. Individually and collectively these can be important to the success of the strategic plan. Goodwill is a value given to the reputation, the customer loyalty, the brand values, and in some cases the public image of the organisation. In monetary terms it is the difference in saleable value, or total value, between the tangible assets value given to the business and the actual value that a buyer would pay or an investor would calculate when deciding to invest or not. Reputation that the organisation has amongst its competitors, with its customers, in the public psyche, and although difficult to calculate, is also valuable. Brands can be highly valuable, as demonstrated by some of the best known, which generate immediate positive responses throughout the world.These intangible assets are resources, with a value, which the strategic plan will have considered and made use of, or planned to protect, or develop, as part of the plan. The leader(s) must ensure that these resources, these assets, are managed effectively and support the strategic plan as intended.

Management: The effectiveness of the individuals and teams that make up the management of the organisation are critical to the success of the chosen strategies. Without an effective management network supporting the planned activity and striving to achieve the strategic and operational objectives, the strategies will fail. As discussed in an earlier article, the leader(s) must put in place an effective management network, and ensure that this highly valuable resource is itself resourced appropriately.

The Operational Employees: Sadly this resource, this group of people, is often overlooked when the achievement of strategic objectives is discussed. Wrongly, it is assumed that objectives can be achieved as long as there is good management, good leadership, and appropriate financial and physical resources in place. Not true. Unless the workforce is appropriately skilled, experienced, qualified, continuously developed, and committed to support the achievement of the strategic plans, then the plans will fail. It is critical that the operational employees, in all functional areas, are involved, informed, and persuaded to support the strategic plan. The role of the leader(s) here is to ensure that the management team makes this happen.

Leadership: The final resource that we look at is the leadership of the organisation. The role of the leader(s) is to lead the organisation into the future, in a direction and a condition that will ensure that the organisation is successful. Whichever direction is chosen and whatever the measure of success is, the leader(s) must make certain that the strategic plan is appropriately resourced at every stage and in every activity area. In addition, the leader(s) must ensure that they lead the organisation in an appropriate manner, adopting an appropriate style of leadership for each stage of the journey that the strategic plan is leading the organisation into.

In Summary: At the start of this article it was stated that it was not logical to prioritise, or rank, the resources needed to support the strategic plan. The range of resources is broad and diverse, and all should be treated as equally important. Each stage and each activity area must be resourced appropriately, otherwise serious damage can be done to the chances of the plans being successfully implemented. However, there is one exception to this rule, and that is regarding Leadership. The leader(s) must ensure that the plan is resourced appropriately and then accept responsibility for being the most critical resource of all. Without the essential resource of effective leadership, regardless of how well other resources are provided and applied, the plans will fail.