In the world today there are a multitude of ways to assess your team’s performance, however there is one method that we recommend as the most useful because of its simplicity.
This method is called The Assessment Grid. The grid allows you to measure a person’s overall performance across two dimensions:
- Performance Outcomes
- Attitude/Cultural Fit
Performance Outcomes
This is self-explanatory: it is quantitative and measurable. This means the sales team hitting or exceeding their targets and developers delivering high-quality code whilst hitting project timelines. This of course assumes you have in place a culture where objectives are set and measured in a transparent and clear way.
Attitude/Cultural Fit
This is more subjective but can be assessed through a more quantitative approach. We think about “attitude” as the way the person’s behaviour impacts on the company culture, the espoused values and their colleagues. Is it clear what counts as acceptable and unacceptable behaviour in the business? If not, you need to define boundaries that are aligned to your values. Bring them to life in a meaningful way, not just posters on the wall. Make sure they are well understood and demonstrated by everyone including the Founder/CEO and the Executive Team. Build them into your onboarding processes so everyone has the chance to understand them and then make sure everyone is held to account.
The Assessment Grid Toolkit
The attached toolkit includes The Assessment Grid – you can use this to determine in which of four groups each of your team members falls depending on their delivery of results and attitude.
The 4 groups are:
- Talent
- Development Needed
- Culture Blockers
- Success Blockers
The toolkit also includes some guidance on how to manage the people in each of the four groups. At the end of the toolkit is an editable template where you can enter each of your team members, which group they fall into, and space to write in what actions you need to take to increase or maintain their performance level.
Leaders can use this method themselves across the entire team when the company is small. However, as the company grows they need to delegate it to managers to perform on their respective teams. Make sure they have the skills and capabilities to carry out this process.
