The challenge
Managers don’t have the right support
Team effectiveness is more than just skills - it requires leaders to manage the behavioral dynamics of the group. Too often, managers are consumed by day-to-day requests and problems and end up focusing on tasks more than people.
Managers aren’t given the resources and information they need to help them strategically manage their team’s unique behavioral profile.
The solution
The Team Dynamics Report will make you a more emotionally intelligent manager
Using your team’s responses on the Core Drivers Diagnostic, the Team Dynamics Report describes their collective strengths and blindspots, how you can align your leadership style to the group profile, and coaching suggestions to maximize the team’s effectiveness.
The report feedback can be used to inform your own development as a leader, alongside facilitating meaningful conversations with your team to build trust and cohesion.
The report contains practical tips and advice that if practiced, will improve how your team makes decisions, communicates, and works together.
Follow these steps to debrief your team on their Core Drivers and level up their effectiveness:
Step 1: Prepare
When setting up the team meeting, communicate the purpose and plan to limit any worry or confusion. Ask them to review their individual reports ahead of the session.
Spend time reviewing the team profile and think about how their top Core Drivers impact their collaboration, communication, decision-making and execution. What do their Drivers tell you about the team culture? How do their Drivers relate to their current goals?
Use this resource if you need some additional support interpreting the Core Driver scales.
Watch an example of interpreting team results ahead of a feedback session:
Think about how they can leverage their strengths and mitigate their risks to be more successful as a team. What can you do to support them? Identify insights you want to share and questions you want to ask.
Step 2: Share and discuss the Team Profile
You want the team to feel comfortable, relaxed, and open during the session, not judged, skeptical, or disengaged. Express the importance of approaching this conversation with curiosity. Together, you are exploring the results, deepening awareness, and using this information to help the team be at their best and achieve their goals.
Consider asking everyone to guess the team’s top 3 Core Drivers before revealing the results. Then present the team profile, which you can download within the Team Dynamics Report:
Ask them for their initial impression of their results. Then use these questions to facilitate a meaningful group discussion:
What do these results say about our team culture? How do we fit into the larger culture?
How do our Drivers help us be successful as a team and achieve our goals?
How might our Drivers or Risks get in our way and potentially interfere with our relationships and goals?
What do our Drivers tell us about how we communicate? Collaborate? Make decisions?
What do our Drivers say about how we are perceived as a team?
Who would be a good or bad fit for this team?
How are your personal Core Drivers similar or different from the team’s average? What does that mean to you?
What can we do more of or less of as a team to be more effective?
Step 3: Help the team move from awareness to action
Create team commitments. Generate a list of 2-5 rules, guidelines, or actions every person on the team can commit to doing to improve the way they work together.
Create individual commitments. Ask each person to think of 1-3 actions they will commit to personally to help the team perform at its best.
Share how you, as their manager, will help them meet these commitments and hold them accountable. You can share your learnings from the "Core Coaching Tips", "Aim for Perfection", and "Make it Happen" sections in the Team Dynamics Report.
After the session, follow up with the team results, key discussion points and takeaways, and the new list of team commitments. Ask them to share any feedback, thoughts or questions related to the session.
Final thoughts
Find ways to keep this team effectiveness plan top of mind. Review team commitments at the start or end of meetings, add them to your strategic plan, and refer to them during performance conversations.
Periodically seek feedback from team members about how they think the team is doing. Check in to ensure the plan is moving forward and if any changes need to be made.