Buisiness Management Tips: Team Evaluation - Criteria and Rewards

With the ever increase amount of businesses leaning towards a more team-work structured organization it is becoming extremely important to properly evaluate the members as a whole and individual. There are a multitude of interpersonal skills a person may have that can aid them in a group; most of these skills are intertwined with each other. However I believe there are five core elements that a person should have to be successful in any group they are in; listening, presenting, problem solving, trouble shooting, and last but not least self-discipline. Self-discipline being the heart all other skills branch from and form continuity.

This information in the five main elements with reasons why I choose them was presented to a small group of HR managers. There was a difference of opinion with some of the elements and one unprofessional and belittling response. I found within this group a general lack of excitement or desire to complete the project efficiently. It seems, some of the elements they chose, they did not choose to follow themselves. This seems to be a major issue with distance groups, the members mostly want to complete the least amount of work in the shortest amount of time; which is exactly how the system is designed. However, with these issues, there was a serious lack of discussion to properly evaluate if there was any change in communications. Members stood their ground with their picks, made their minimal two replies and disappeared; all within the last couple days before dead-line.

I see distance groups as a negative force within this schools system; there is a general lack of self-discipline among the students. This lack of discipline does not aid to the growth of the students, and just allows them to slink through the wired of completion even if it was not successful. I feel distance groups in business is the same way, the lack of personable contact takes a tremendous amount of feeling away from the group. There was no clear leader of this group; members seeming to just want to do their own thing without having to take the responsibility of taking change. This lack of leadership is my fault as well as others; I could have taken over leadership, being more than capable of it, and having successfully demonstrated my abilities as leader in the past. However, I know I can be a leader, and within my extended educational experiences I have often been told to stand down and let others take the lead so they can learn. It is an incredible amount of self-discipline to do this, while watching the group fall apart and not come together.

The question now lies as, how do we evaluate a group like this? In my personal experience, using a peer evaluation form with a five-point rating system is very successful as well as leaving room for extra comments. Each peer of the group will evaluate the others, by rating a series of questions designed to find the skill levels of the five major elements from above. Next, each member will evaluate the group as a whole using the same five-point scale. These evaluations will be completed on paper and submitted in envelopes to insure anonymity for more honest answers. Lastly the group will be taken together to discuss with an mediator/evaluator the different aspects of the group and if there had been any issues and what was done to solve them. If deficiencies are found within these five elements, than education will need to take place to emphasize how important these elements are, and how critical it is to be competent and try to excel in these areas.

I believe the major deficiencies with groups are language barriers and cultural differences. It is extremely important for there to be a central language as designated by the business. It will take strong presentation and listening skills to aid with this deficiency. Cultural differences takes a strong self-discipline to look past the differences and see the person for a peer and no different. In-person meetings will become invaluable for aiding the learning curve to these two deficiencies; allowing the members to meet each other face to face and begin to grow a professional relationship. With the small group of HR mangers, there was no chance to face to face interaction, and that creates a do as you wish attitude. You can only send so many emails to team members asking them to participate before the dead-line comes and goes. Meeting face to face will create a strong sense of worth between members, and a respect to do their job quickly and efficiently as to not let their group-member down.

In a personal communication with Rocque Bowen, International Director of Nutronix International, I asked how she dealt with international members of the group and how does she deal with the members who do not participate. Rocque stated, "First off we communicate with email regularly and hold virtual conferences twice a week. During the conferences members can hear my voice answering their questions and explaining new products and procedures. They type their questions or replies into the conference room where everyone can reply. A single language is used within the conference room which also helps for everyone to understand what is going on. It creates a more personable relationship; we often talk about personal items as well." She continued to talk about members who did not participate, "There is advanced notice about the virtual conferences, as well as email reminders. Being the type of company we are, members are not required to attend; but it is extremely beneficial to those that do. When members become aggressive or create problems, we can block them from the conferences and phone them to discuss the issues. If that does not work, we let them go." (Bowen, 2007) Sometimes there are people that can not be changed to work with a group and sometimes those people need to be let go for the benefit of all parties involved.

Group actives may deserve a reward; two types of possible rewards are intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. If a group is successful when working together, and the members learn something personally from the group they may have earned an intrinsic reward. The feeling of pride, of accomplishment, a personal respect are all intrinsic rewards. There is no nominal value to this type of reward, but in my opinion and experience it is often the most desired. Personal recognition for a job well done is what every employee desires the simple act of being noticed and appreciated for their contributions is an unspoken need. Extrinsic rewards can have a monetary value attached to them. These rewards can be a trip, paid days off, a bonus on their next check, or even material items such as gold watches and cars. These are the types of rewards people want. Society forces material positions to be a status symbol and so employees will force themselves to work better in hopes of raising their social status.

A group is a number of individuals acting as one; they are all equally responsible for the task at hand, win, lose, or draw. If a group is just doing their job, there is no real reason to reward them with an extrinsic reward. If a group or even an individual does a successful job they should always be told so. Intrinsic rewards are inexpensive, free mind you, and will boost the moral of your employees. Now, if the group does an exceptional job, something above and beyond the call of duty than there should be a type of reward system in place to compensate them for well preformed task. Most common is a bonus; the amount depends on several other factors in the business which can be discussed at a later time. Material positions can be handed out to the group; one such group I worked with received free ski equipment for their highly successful efforts. If the group itself desires to recognize the efforts of a single individual that should always be left up to the group to decide. The group may also suggest rewards for the individual, which HR will approve before awarding. Great work should be acknowledge and rewarded.