How do you determine if your team is successful?

What You Need to Know
Entry Level Example
Answer Example
Experienced Example
Community Answers

The interviewer would like to know how you determine whether your team is operating successfully or not. Discuss the methods that you use to gauge if your leadership style is working or not working. Be sure to mention the action you take, should you notice that your team is not operating as successfully as you would like.

There are a variety of ways to measure success as a manager:

- Employee engagement levels
- The resignation rate of your highest performers
- The number of promotions you or your team receive
- Overall client feedback
- Trends in bonus' or commission

"I believe the best indicator of team success would be the overall engagement level of the team members. If a significant number of team members are disinterested or have not bought into the overall team goal, they may not see enough reward or wins to keep them happy. How do you measure team success in your company?"

"I determine the success of my team primarily from our direct client feedback, and by looking at our KPI's and delivery deadlines. If we meet and exceed client expectations and deliver projects on time, I know that team engagement is high. If this is not the case, I will meet with my team to immediately find out the core issue. If we ever receive less than favorable feedback from a client, we all meet to discuss what we could have done differently and then put those ideas into action immediately."

"In my management experience, I believe that the greatest measurement of my sales teams' success are the numbers when it comes to bonus and commission payouts. I like to compare our numbers month over month and then through a broader lens, looking at quarterly and annual trends. By keeping an eye on these numbers, I can quickly adjust when we are trending towards a low month."

Anonymous Answer

"Besides the apparent success of meeting sales goals, I believe a successful team is one that is cohesive and isn't afraid to take risks, and most learn from mistakes. When I get positive feedback from customers about my sales reps, I believe that is one of the most important indications of success."

Rachelle's Feedback

These examples are very good measurements of success. Nice response.

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Anonymous Answer

"How well the team members work together in producing great results following the project schedule and meeting customer expectations."

Marcie's Feedback

Nice! That sounds like a good start. Also consider discussing how you might establish a baseline for projects, identify and quantify what success looks like for your team, and pinpoint metrics that can be used to measure success. If you've been in a position before when you decided how successful a team was, talk about this as well to show how capable you are. Good job!

Anonymous Answer

"I can measure my team’s success by the way my team works together. For example, when one of the leads went out on FMLA, the analyst stepped up to do the Min/Max for that location and placed orders that are near minimum quantities. By her stepping up and doing that portion of the job, it helps that location to make sure that products are being ordered. With the long lead times, this is especially critical that supplies are ordered when amounts are hitting minimum quantities."