Capability refers to the individual and collective competencies that a team possesses. This includes the knowledge, skills, abilities, personality, and other personal attributes needed to complete assignments, overcome challenges, work well with others, and adapt as needed to sustain performance.
Table A.1 provides a list of several capabilities that have been shown to influence team effectiveness. You can use this as a starting point to establish team member selection criteria (i.e., the characteristics you want to look for and avoid when you seek to hire new employees) and to target training and development efforts.
Table A.1. Categories and Examples of Team Competencies
| Category | Includes | Considerations |
| Fundamental skills | Giving/receiving feedback, communicating, conflict resolution, leadership, and interpersonal skills | These are transportable competencies that can be used in any team. You can look for these in potential team members and, because they can be developed, they are a logical target for training and coaching solutions. |
| Teamwork savvy | Understanding team dynamics and how to be a good teammate | This is transportable knowledge that can be assessed during hiring and can also be developed through training and coaching. |
| Personal attributes | Cognitive ability (adequate), collective orientation (enough), adaptability (particularly in dynamic settings), conscientiousness (but not everyone must be high) | These are relatively stable attributes that are difficult to change (particularly cognitive ability and conscientiousness). You can look for these during hiring. You can try to coach people to think “team,” and to be more adaptable, but it isn’t easy to move the needle on them. |
| Toxic traits to avoid | Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, and very low levels of agreeableness | These are very stable attributes and extremely difficult to change. You should try to avoid hiring people with these traits and take action if they surface in current team members. |
| Team- and task-specific competencies | Unique to the particular situation | These are unique for different teams. Try to specify which task specific competencies can be developed after joining the team and which are required at the time of hire. Team-specific competencies (e.g., knowing your colleagues’ strengths) can only be developed posthire. |
• Communication skills—to provide clear messages, ask effective questions, listen actively, and convey understanding.
• Feedback skills—to observe and monitor performance, provide constructive feedback to others, encourage feedback from others, and interpret feedback received.
• Conflict skills—to disagree productively, use constructive conflict styles, diagnose the cause of conflict situations, defuse and work through conflicts and help others do so.
• Interpersonal skills—to infer intent/emotions, convey empathy when appropriate, interpret non-verbal cues, regulate one’s own emotions, and influence/persuade others.
• Leadership skills—to constructively hold others accountable, motivate and encourage teammates, share expertise/teach others, and clarify expectations and priorities.
• Cognitive ability refers to the capacity to perform higher mental processes of reasoning, recalling, understanding, and problem-solving. It doesn’t refer to what someone knows. Team members need adequate cognitive ability to perform their tasks but also to acquire new knowledge and skills, to communicate effectively, and to contribute to effective team decision making.
• Collective orientation is an underlying belief about working in teams. Individuals who are high in collective orientation typically prefer working in teams and think “team first.” They are generally predisposed to promote their team’s interests. In laymen’s terms, we might refer to them as “team players.”
• Adaptability is the willingness and ability to adjust to fit changed circumstances; being flexible rather than rigid.
• Conscientiousness is a tendency to be dependable, organized, and dutiful. People with this trait typically prefer planned rather than spontaneous actions.
• Agreeableness is the tendency to be trusting, helpful, and cooperative rather than highly competitive and suspicious of others.
• Someone with a Machiavellian personality believes manipulation is effective and acceptable, has a cynical view of human nature, and possesses a moral outlook that places expediency above principle.
• Narcissism is typified by an overinflated sense of self-worth, inaccurate beliefs about control and success, and a strong desire to have their self-love shared and reinforced by others. They typically see themselves as superior, even when others do not.
• Characteristics associated with psychopathy are a lack of concern for others, high impulsivity, and a lack of remorse after harming others. They are often great “impression managers” and can be charismatic.
In addition to transportable teamwork-related capabilities that apply to almost any team there are some capabilities that are only apply when working with particular team members, when working on specific tasks, or both. A few of these are highlighted next.
Task-specific competencies include the skills and knowledge needed to perform certain tasks, regardless of who else is on the team. These can often be acquired through individual training and development activities and as a result of experience. Examples of these include
• Knowledge and skills needed to do one’s own job effectively.
• Accurate “if–then” mental models, for example, the appropriate response to certain situations and problems (“If X happens, I am supposed to do Y”).
• Knowledge of other people’s roles as they relate to this task—sometimes referred to as interpositional knowledge, or IPK.
• Knowledge and skills needed to be able to fill in for, back up, or help others, as needed, related to a specific task.
• Awareness of specific coordination and communication protocols, including standard and emergency operating procedures.
Team-specific competencies include general knowledge about teammates and the team itself, not associated with any particular task. These are often acquired through team development and planning activities and through interactions with team members over time.
• Knowledge about teammates such as their general expertise, preferences, motivations, strengths, and limitations
• Knowledge about the bigger picture for the team including its mission, vision, and general priorities
Situation-specific competencies include shared understanding and common expectations for a set of people performing a particular task. These can be developed through team training activities with intact teams or over time through shared experiences.
• Shared task and role expectations—how this team, with its unique mix of team member capabilities and preferences, is expected to perform a particular task (e.g., a team-specific if–then model—who should do what when X occurs)
• Awareness of the task-specific expertise of team members
• Knowledge of who to contact when a particular task-related problem emerges