When you begin to assess each team member using the criteria you have developed, the first test is whether any of them fail to meet your threshold requirements. If so, begin planning to replace them. But merely surviving the basic hurdle does not mean they are keepers. Go on to the next step: Evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, factoring in the relative value you assign to each criterion. Now who makes the grade and who does not?
Meet one-on-one with each member of your new team as soon as possible. Depending on your style, these early meetings might take the form of informal discussions, formal reviews, or a combination, but your own preparation and focus should be standardized:
Prepare for each meeting. Review available personnel history, performance data, and other appraisals. Familiarize yourself with each person’s technical or professional skills so you can assess how he or she functions on the team.
Ask probing questions. As we saw in Accelerate Your Learning on learning, ask each person the same set of questions, for example:
- What do you think of our existing strategy?
- What are the biggest challenges and opportunities facing us in the short term? In the long term?
- What resources could we leverage more effectively?
- How could we improve the way the team works together?
- If you were in my position, what would you most want to pay attention to?
Look for verbal and nonverbal clues. Note choices of words, body language, and hot buttons.
- Notice what the individual does not say. Does the person volunteer information or do you have to extract it? Does the person take responsibility for problems in his or her area? Make excuses? Blame others?
- How consistent are the individual’s facial expressions and body language with his or her words?
- What topics elicit strong emotional responses? These hot buttons provide clues to what motivates the individual and what kinds of changes he or she would by energized by.
- Outside of these one-on-one meetings, notice how the individual relates to other team members. Do relations with other team members appear cordial and productive? Tense and competitive? Judgmental or reserved?