Team growth expectations

Most companies have year-end performance reviews. This is a time to reflect on how each individual has performed. Managers have a critical responsibility to also look at the team as a whole.

• Is the team growing overall?
• Where is the team this year compared to last year?
• Is the team well prepared for the year to come?

Each team is expected to continuously grow.
Each team may define growth differently, but I like to think of team growth as the collective improvement of skills (both technical and "soft"), processes, and tools. A high-performing team knows they must continuously improve to remain ahead of the competition. This implies constant growth.

New things means new challenges; expect them.
In order for team members to grow, managers must provide the space and a safe environment where trying new things and failure are OK. Managers should expect small bumps in the road ("growing pains") when new things do not work out or take time to learn. As long as they are followed up quickly by learning and more improvement, failures are OK.

Doing the same as last year is unacceptable.

These new improvements will become common knowledge, and collectively the team will grow. This sets a new bar for the team to aspire to. The collective team's growth means every individual is expected to keep pace. Someone performing at the same level the team was collectively at a year or two ago is now significantly behind pace. These individuals must demonstrate an immediate improvement.

I try to illustrate these expectations in a very rough graphical sketch below. The green line represents (at a high level) the overall growth of the team. Highlighted are sharp improvements (perhaps a new process was implemented, for example) followed by small declines, or "growing pains." The team's collective growth sets the bar for the next year, and all the individuals are expected to keep pace.