When leaders examine team health, they typically track lag indicators, such as engagement scores, attrition, and missed deadlines.
Lead indicators are earlier, more subtle signs that predict whether a team is about to thrive or struggle.
How meetings end, what boundaries team members place on their time, ownership pronouns (we vs. they), and the transactional nature of relationships are common lead indicators leaders rely upon to assess team health.
But of the many signs that offer a lens into the future dynamics of the team, five stand out for their predictive ability.
First on the list is Speed of Response.
How quickly or slowly team members respond to each other and whether status plays a role offers deep insight into the working of a team. A pattern where certain voices are delayed or ignored can portend a breakdown in team health.
Highly cohesive teams respond quickly to each other and do not let the status of leaders or other team members influence this response pattern.
When discussing assignments, debating decisions, and exploring options, fully engaged team members ask more “dumb” questions early on.
The Ratio of Clarifying Questions to other statements in meetings is a strong indicator of team health.
Teams that will struggle to execute now and in the future stop asking clarifying questions before launching an assignment or making a decision. Mistakes are inevitable on a team.
The question is how frequently and openly do team members name small mistakes without being prompted.
Good leaders listen to Mistake Acknowledgment and count on it as an early warning sign of less engagement and commitment.
The best teams and team members are quick to acknowledge mistakes and often flag them to others to begin conversations about improvement. Another indicator important to team health is Credit Distribution.
Everyone notices who gets named when success is discussed. Not surprisingly, strong and healthy teams distribute credit more broadly, and those that struggle have a narrower distribution.
What makes this indicator so elusive is how easy it is for leaders to presume wide distribution when that isn’t the case. Every so often, asking team members about their perception of this indicator is essential to get a good reading.
Team members who offer help or volunteer ideas outside of their formal role demonstrate their engagement and ownership for team success.
Unsolicited contributions appear across the team in healthy groups.
When team members frequently offer ideas and lend a hand without being asked, they reflect that they feel safe and valued.
Team dynamics that are beginning to fray show a steep decline in the willingness of team members to extend themselves in this way.
This indicator declines long before performance metrics do, which is why it is so important to monitor.
Lead indicators reflect the future of a team’s dynamics months before strengths and weaknesses appear.
Leaders who know which indicators to tune into can get a jump on correcting issues before they have a material impact on the team.
Teams headed for trouble don’t have to be.
