Instructions
Read each statement below, and, using the following scale, decide how accurately it describes your team:
Strongly disagree: 0 points
Disagree: 1 point
Agree: 2 points
Strongly agree: 3 points
Place the point value of your answer choice on the blank line at the beginning of each statement below:
____ 1. Team members and the team leader keep their promises and commitments to each other.
____ 2. When issues and concerns arise, team members speak to one another and not about one another.
____ 3. Team members can be counted on to have one another’s back.
____ 4. Team members feel safe offering their honest opinions to one another and the team leader.
____ 5. The team leader demonstrates confidence in team members’ skills and abilities.
____ Total score
Interpreting Your Scores
0 to 5. Watch your words and your back. If you have one or two people on your team in whom you can trust and confide, consider yourself lucky. Gossip is rampant and toxic. Team members are suspicious of one another’s motives, and in such an environment there is little communication or collaboration. Yours is a “gotcha” culture where the game is about catching others screwing up and pointing the finger at them. The best strategy—other than moving to another team—would be to keep your head down and mouth shut.
6 to 10. There are likely cliques in which people trust one another inside but not outside their group. There are probably a few people who do a lot of gossiping and in the process reinforce distrust, which distracts people from doing their work. Gossip is a real productivity killer. Team members do not feel that they can be entirely open with one another, and communication is limited. People are naturally concerned more with their own success than that of others. If possible, we suggest trying to stay outside of any subgroup by showing respect to everyone and allegiance to the mission of the team rather than to individuals.
11 to 15. With trust comes great freedom—freedom in that team members don’t have to worry about gossip or being thrown under a bus by another team member. Team members assume the best intentions from their colleagues. They actively collaborate and communicate without fear that they will somehow be taken advantage of. High levels of trust among team members and with the team leader is absolutely critical in order to be a SuperTeam.
