Team Leadership Learning Activity
Hill's Team Leadership Model
This learning activity is based on Hill's Team Leadership Model. While a team leader may use it as a daily or weekly checklist, it is designed to be given to all team members as a means to monitor and improve team performance. This helps to ensure that actions are taken to grow the team.
Instructions: This learning activity uses a self-reporting survey (questionnaire) for building teams that are more effective.
Give the below survey to each member of your team. After they have completed it, have them complete the Team Action Plan (it is listed after the Team Leadership Survey).
Team Leadership Survey
This survey contains statements about your team. Next to each statement, circle the number that represents how strongly you feel about the statement by using the following scoring system:
- Almost Always True — 5
- Frequently True — 4
- Occasionally True — 3
- Seldom True — 2
- Almost Never True — 1
Be honest about your choices, as it will be used to help grow your team.
| Internal Task Functions | ||||||
| 1. | Our team agrees on the goals and objectives that must be met. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 2. | We are able to achieve results due to planning, proper organization of tasks, and delegation of the tasks to the right team member(s). | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 3. | Decisions are made in a timely manner and are generally the correct ones. When they are incorrect, we are agile enough to rapidly adjust to fit the needs of the situation or environment. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 4. | I have access to the necessary learning and development programs that allow me to stay up-to-date with my current job needs, in addition to learning new things that will provide me opportunities for growth. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 5. | Our standards are high and are applied fairly to all team members. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Internal Relationship Functions | ||||||
| 6. | My team leader coaches me when I have difficulty performing a task. In addition, my team leader helps me to perform my job better on a regular basis. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 7. | We collaborate by sharing ideals to ensure that our department's responsibilities are performed in an effective and efficient manner. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 8. | Conflict and power issues are managed in a manner that keeps them to the bare minimum. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 9. | Our team strives to build commitment and espirit de corps by innovating, socializing, and using rewards. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 10. | Individual needs are met. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 11. | Our team leader is an ideal role model and encourages others to do the same. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| External Environmental Functions | ||||||
| 12. | We are properly networked with the external functions that we give support to and those who support us. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 13. | Our team leader advocates our team to outside functions, such as other departments. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 14. | We receive the required support and resources needed to do our job in a timely and excellent manner. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 15. | We are rarely bothered by outside distractions. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 16. | Surveys (such as this one), evaluations, and other performance indicators are given on a regular basis so that we always know how well we are performing. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 17. | We are kept informed. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Team Action Plan
After all the team members have completed their survey, have them discuss the questions and their answers:
- Starting with question 1:
- Have them read their score and record them on a flip chart (e.g. “Question 1 — 5+4+4+5+3+1”).
- If there is an an extreme deviation from the mean (called an “outlier”) as in the above example (1 is the outlier in the example), discuss it with the team to see if it is valid or if it should be thrown out).
- Average the scores (e.g., 5+4+4+5+3+1 = 22/6=3.6 or if the outlier is thrown out, then 5+4+4+5+3 = 21/5 = 4.2).
- Repeat the above three steps for each question.
- Put a checkmark next to the highest scores. These are the team's strengths. Spend a few minutes discussing them, mostly to determine if you can gain any new learnings from them.
- Put an X next to the lowest scores. These are the team's weaknesses.
- Discuss the weaknesses and what it would take to improve them.
- Have the team decide on a couple of weaknesses to improve for this rating period (normally any survey question that scores 1 to 3, depending on their difficultly and the time lapse between this rating period and the next planned rating activity). These are the action items.
- For each action item, determine:
- What basics steps need to be taken to improve each action item?
- What will be the indicator(s) that show improvement is actually taking place?
- When will the action items be discussed by the team (e.g., during the morning start-up meeting every Tuesday and Friday)?
- Who will be responsible for leading an action item?
Continuous Improvement
Good Team Leadership is normally not implemented in the short term, but rather is a long-term process, thus the survey should be taken on a regular schedule, normally about every 60 to 90 days. This is normally enough time to implement and evaluate an improvement.
After the first implementation of the survey, start the activity by discussing the previous action items:
- Compare the previous action items with their new scores.
- Have they improved?
- If not, why?
- If they have improved, why? You not only want to learn what went wrong, but you also want to learn from the things that go right.
After you have completed the above activity, then continue with the Team Action Plan in order to decide what action items will be worked on next.
Next Step
Return to the Leadership Training and Development Outline
See the chapter on Hill's Team Leadership Model