Working With Others
Leadership and Team Skills
HOW GOOD AM I AT BUILDING AND LEADING A TEAM?
Use the following rating scale to respond to the 18 questions on building and leading an effective team:

1 = Strongly disagree
2 = Disagree
3 = Slightly disagree
4 = Slightly agree
5 = Agree
6 = Strongly agree

  1. I am knowledgeable about the different stages of development that teams can go through in their life cycles.

  2. When a team forms, I make certain that all team members are introduced to one another at the outset.
  3. When the team first comes together, I provide directions, answer team members' questions, and clarify goals, expectations, and procedures.
  4. I help team members establish a foundation of trust among one another and between themselves and me.
  5. I ensure that standards of excellence, not mediocrity or mere acceptability, characterize the team's work.
  6. I provide a great deal of feedback to team members regarding their performance.
  7. I encourage team members to balance individual autonomy with interdependence among other team members.
  8. I help team members become at least as committed to the success of the team as to their own personal success.
  9. I help members learn to play roles that assist the team in accomplishing its tasks as well as building strong interpersonal relationships.
  10. I articulate a clear, exciting, passionate vision of what the team can achieve.
  11. I help team members become committed to the team vision.
  12. I encourage a win/win philosophy in the team; that is, when one member wins, every member wins.
  13. I help the team avoid "groupthink" or making the group's survival more important than accomplishing its goal.
  14. I use formal process management procedures to help the group become faster, more efficient, and more productive, and to prevent errors.
  15. I encourage team members to represent the team's vision, goals, and accomplishments to outsiders.
  16. I diagnose and capitalize on the team's core competence.
  17. I encourage the team to achieve dramatic breakthrough innovations as well as small continuous improvements.
  18. I help the team work toward preventing mistakes, not just correcting them after the fact.


©2002 Prentice-Hall, Inc.
A division of Pearson Education
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458
Legal Statement
Source: Adapted from D.A. Whetten and K.S. Cameron, DEVELOPING MANAGEMENT SKILLS, 3rd ed. (New York: HarperCollins, 1995), pp. 534-35.