ASSESSING TEAM SKILLS

BY LOU ADLER
SK Giridhar
Organisational Expert
Motivational Speaker & Trainer
• Here are some ideas on ways to assess and rank team
skills using a performance-based interview process.

• For most of us, cooperating with people, discussing

ideas, collaborating on projects, influencing others and
working on cross-functional teams typically represents
50 percent to 75 percent of most workdays.

• Team skills are critical and those who do it well are

rewarded in terms of influence, support, promotions
and bigger reviews. Those without it are avoided,
shunned or assigned to the proverbial closet.

• Working with people without decent team skills

literally sucks the energy out of the rest of team,
bringing everyone down.
• The importance of team skills cannot be
understated, yet most recruiters and managers are
not very effective in assessing this vital skill
during the interview. Many people substitute
friendliness, warmth and extroversion as signs of
good team skills. For some, a smile, a firm
handshake, a reasonable degree of self-
confidence and direct eye contact is all it takes to
earn a positive grade for team skills.

• Nothing could be further from the truth.

• Let's set the record straight by better
understanding what team skills are and what
they are not. With this understanding, we'll
move on to describing how to use the two-
question performance-based interview to
accurately measure real team skills.

• In his book, Emotional Intelligence, Daniel

Goleman offers this useful definition of team
skills: the ability to inspire, influence and
develop others while managing conflict.
• You might want to add these additional ideas: the
ability to be coached and to coach; to cooperate with
others without urging; to deal with people in a
professional and open manner, even those you don't
particularly like; to negotiate or discuss important
issues in an open and fair manner; to openly change
your position on an important issue when the facts
are, or are not, against you when it's for the good of
the team; to deal with differences in a constructive
manner; being sensitive to the needs of others; the
ability to influence people in an organization who are
superior and to be influenced by those who are
subordinate; and to be aware of each individual's
personal needs in group situations and act with
respect to accommodate them.
• A particular one-question performance-based
interview is an effective tool for assessing team
skills. It involves asking candidates to describe
major accomplishments related to some real job
need (e.g., working with others designing a
product under tight restraints or building a team to
handle a major project).

• Fact-finding, digging deep, getting lots of specific

examples and peeling the onion are the keys to the
effectiveness of this interviewing technique.
• Done properly, this type of questioning can take
15 minutes for each accomplishment to fully
understand its depth and scope. By repeating the
question for different accomplishments,
consistency and growth can be observed in
comparison to real job needs.

• For team-based accomplishments, it's important

for the candidate to describe all members of the
team, with specific names and titles. As part of
this the candidate needs to describe his or her
actual role on the team, the team objectives, how
plans were put together and the overall team
results, with specific details.
• Much of the subsequent fact-finding involves
understanding how the candidate influenced, or was
influenced by, those on the team. Getting specific facts,
examples, and details is essential to this type of
questioning.

• Look for areas of disagreement and conflict and find out

exactly how these issues were resolved and the specific
role the candidate had in these areas.

• Asking about different team projects over extended

periods of time provides an opportunity to see growth in a
number of important areas, such as the size and make-up
of the team; types of people on the team, including their
levels and functions; and involvement with people outside
the department, function and company, including vendors,
consultants, and customers.
• People with strong team skills clearly show growth on
multiple levels when their team accomplishments are
viewed this way. For example, a technical person who is
only involved with other peer technical folks is likely to be
less effective on team skills than a comparable technical
person who has been dealing with senior-level people in
other functions and with customers.

• To improve the accuracy of your assessment during the

interview, look for social awareness, sensitivity to the
needs of others, the ability to interact comfortably in social
settings, self-confidence in expressing a contrary
viewpoint, examples of working with peers and superiors
in other departments, the ability to give constructive
criticism and the ability to take criticism (even from a
subordinate).
Here are some ways to rank a candidate's team skills:
Assessing and Ranking Team Skills

• Level 1 - Weak:
Uncooperative, bad attitude, negative. Hides problems. Too
much of a loner. Causes conflict, doesn't resolve it.
Antagonistic. Has not worked in multi-functional teams.
No team growth observed whatsoever.

• Level 2 - Adequate:
Few or no substantive examples of initiating work requiring
the cooperation of others. Seems to only cooperate when
urged by supervisor. Could not cite examples of handling
differences of opinion or dealing with team problems.
Examples of dealing with conflict were superficial. Passive
with respect to coaching others. Could not find examples of
taking coaching or being influenced by others.
• Level 3 - Very Good:
Has worked on multi-functional teams and the person's role was
substantive. Provided specific and multiple answers of fully
cooperating and influencing others without urging. Had examples
of openly addressing team problems including dealing with
conflict and resolving significant differences of opinion. Provided
relevant and specific examples of changing the opinion of others
and changing his/her own opinion. Examples indicated the person
is not afraid to push viewpoint and gain acceptance with peers,
subordinates, supervisors and more senior managers.

• Level 4 - Outstanding:
Had multiple examples of taking the initiative to help and coach
others, especially peers. Provided examples of anticipating and
resolving team problems before they become critical. Is often
chosen to handle difficult team projects, in fact, volunteers for
difficult team projects. Has examples of persuading and
motivating others to act, beyond what would be expected for the
level of the person. Presented examples of resolving conflict on
issues typically beyond the scope of the position.
• Level 5 - Exceptional:
Everything in Level 4, plus has a track record of successfully
handling multi-functional teams comprising people of
various levels beyond the typical scope of the position.
Has been asked to lead teams beyond the typical scope of
the position. Has received significant recognition for team
skills including promotions, bonuses, raises, and special
awards for successfully handling critical team issues and
projects.

• Accurately assessing team skills requires facts, examples

and details. Do not rely on feelings, intuition or emotions.
To objectively assess team skills, it's best to conduct the
final evaluation in a group setting, sharing specific
evidence among all of the interviewers.
• Interviewers who have specific facts are able to use this
information to defend the candidate from weaker interviews
who are using incorrect or superficial techniques to measure
team skills. For example, if someone on the hiring team says
the candidate just "wouldn't fit with the culture," it's
important to start probing and find out the cause.

• Most likely it will involve something the candidate said, did

or didn't do, what the candidate wore, how prepared the
candidate was, the questions asked or something to do with
the candidate's personality.

• Whatever it is, stronger interviewers can counter a negative

or superficial assessment of weak team skills with solid
proof, not by being more emotional. The fact that the
candidate led a successful cross-functional project team
comprised of similar people the person would be working
with in your company, might do the trick.
• Make sure you provide the title of each person on the
team, the project, some examples of persuading people to
do things they otherwise wouldn't have, and the
recognition the person received. If you can show Level 3
or 4 performance for a few comparable team projects, you
should be able to overcome most incorrect assessments of
team skills.

• As a caveat, it's important to remain objective and

unemotional based on your own initial assessment of team
skills. If you don't, you won't be willing to get past first
impressions and your own biases to obtain the evidence
needed to find the truth.

• Quiet people can possess extraordinary team skills and

outgoing people can be weak team members.
• Strong team skills are essential for effective
management and for those hoping to move
up in an organization. They are a core
component of leadership. The ability to
influence others, manage conflict and keep
people motivated is a rare skill. Don't let
yourself or others be swayed by emotions,
personality or superficial information to
assess this critical area.