Jump-Starting the Team

You will know you have been successful in building your team when you reach the breakeven point ”when the energy the team creates is greater than the energy you need to put into it. It will take a while before that happens; you have to charge the battery before you can start the engine.

ACCELERATION CHECKLIST

1. What are your criteria for assessing the performance of members of your team? How do the people you inherited stack up against these criteria?

2. What personnel changes do you need to make? Which changes are urgent and which can wait? How will you create backups and options?

3. What process will you put in place to make the high-priority changes? What can you do to preserve the dignity of the people affected?

4. What help will you need with the restructuring process, and where are you going to find it?

5. Do you need to amend existing incentives and measures? Do people in your unit have incentives to cooperate and compete in productive ways?

6. How do you want your new team to operate ? What roles do you want people to play? Do you need to shrink the core team or expand it?

7. How do you plan to manage decision making? Will you start off emphasizing a consult -and-decide or a build-consensus approach?