As a leader, it’s natural to want to nurture team strengths. But if you ignore underlying constraints, eventually, your team’s performance will suffer. To create a long-lasting, high-performing team dynamic, it is imperative to notice, assess, and address the constraints you see in your team.

Notice

The first step toward improving team performance is to notice the areas in which your team struggles. It’s possible you already have a list in your head of the ways your team could improve. In fact, some leaders tend to focus only on the areas that are lacking, but that doesn’t mean you’re seeing everything clearly. If these issues have been occurring for a while, try to observe the dynamics with fresh eyes and note if anything specific seems to trigger negative team behaviors.

Whether you have a list of improvements or not, start by recording your own observations over a period of several weeks. One day of extremely poor communication doesn’t necessarily indicate that communication is an ongoing and deep-seated team weakness. Look for patterns and repetition.

Next, invite your team members to share their perspectives on team weaknesses. It might help to do this via one-on-one meetings or in an anonymous survey. Try to receive the feedback with an open mind. Make it clear that you’re not committing to fixing every issue that’s brought up; explain you’re collecting data to identify themes that will be assessed and addressed.

Assess

Now that you’ve pinpointed some areas of concern, it’s time to look for root causes. Every team is made up of individuals. Before you start implementing solutions, you need to break it down further and assess each individual for personal strengths and constraints, including yourself. Although your team may have shared their perceived team limitations with you already, when it’s time to look at individual behaviors, many people will not be honest for fear of retaliation. This phase is best done with the help of a neutral third party.

Consider bringing in an outside firm to assist with individual assessments, and be sure to emphasize to the team your own participation as well. When selecting a program, you want to make sure it has the following aspects:

• 360-degree feedback: self-assessment plus feedback from team members
• Scientific basis: analytics or questionnaires that have been studied or validated
• Interactive user interface: as opposed to a single PDF or printed results that you can’t return to or share with others
• Human touch: a coach or dedicated professional who will help you interpret the results and make an action plan

Address

Many leaders stop there. After identifying concerns and bringing in a third party to further pinpoint issues, they send their team a one-time readout of the results and expect things to change. But at that point, all you’ve done is stir up discontentment without providing a path forward to a solution.

If you want to see real results, you need to lead by example and start the charge for change from the top. Trust is crucial for change to occur. Be as transparent as possible with your team about what you need to work on as a leader and about what led you to initiate this process. When you roll out action steps that aim to change team behavior, be sure to also schedule check-ins for accountability and to make your team members feel heard.

Don’t go it alone: lean on the expertise of the third party assessment firm you hired if possible. Here at Teamalytics, this type of work is our specialty. We take a three-pronged approach to helping leaders build A-teams: Awareness, Accountability, and Acceleration. For more than three decades, we’ve helped leaders move from the popular Awareness stage to the next-level Accountability and Acceleration phases. These steps involve crafting personalized action plans for each team member and scheduling feedback from coaches and colleagues.

To learn more about our proven three-step methodology and how to unlock your team’s potential, take our short A-team scorecard quiz today.