How to assess a new team quickly

Misalignment can be quiet but costly. One tech executive we worked with noticed a team member constantly questioning her strategy in meetings. Eventually, she had a candid conversation—and made the call to part ways. The rest of the team felt relieved as the lack of alignment had been slowing everyone down.

Ask yourself:

• Do they support the strategy—or challenge it without solutions?
• Do they identify their mutual dependencies?
• Are their actions reinforcing the company’s direction?

As a new leader, the ability to detect early misalignment and address it decisively is critical. If ignored, it can sabotage your goals.

2. Sound Judgment

Can they make good decisions with limited information or time pressure? 

You can’t make every decision yourself. That’s why judgment matters. One CEO that Melissa coached asked her sales lead to evaluate a complex strategic shift. His response wasn’t just a yes or no—it was a thoughtful breakdown of risks, trade-offs, and stakeholder implications. She knew immediately she could trust him with big decisions.

Similarly, a leader Frans worked with asked his new team to identify their number-one issue to be solved within their circle of influence. The leader organized a session with a clear goal—for the team to develop two alternative solutions to the issue. The discussion that ensued exposed, very clearly and quickly, who was able to provide a sharp assessment of and solutions to the problem.

Ask your team members:

• Describe a situation where they had to make a decision with incomplete and/or ambiguous information
• How did they manage the uncertainty?
• What did they consider most difficult—and why?
• Watch how they weigh risks, not just outcomes

In these times of exponential change and uncertainty, leaders must make decisions with limited information and under pressure, making sound judgment crucial. 

3. Adaptability

How resilient are they in terms of recovering from pivots and stress? Do they adjust fast—or resist when things shift?

Change isn’t the exception anymore—it’s the norm.

Asking about how team members have handled past challenges is telling. One leader Melissa worked with joined a company right after a failed reorganization. During one-on-ones, he asked team members how they’d handled past disruptions. Some responded with solutions; others stayed stuck in old complaints. That distinction helped him begin to identify who could thrive in the new culture.

In addition to asking about how team members have navigated past obstacles, observing and assessing how team members navigate real work challenges is also critical.

A newly appointed leader that Frans worked with oversaw a five-person leadership team where each leader managed an independent production facility. Due to a ban on a country involved in a war, one facility lost over half of its demand. The team’s initial response was to lay off a large portion of the workforce, creating negative sentiment. When the team realized that another facility was severely understaffed due to strong growth, an aging workforce, and high turnover, they decided to transfer staff from the struggling plant to the growing one, with plans to reverse the transfer once the ban was lifted.

Observing how team members navigated this scenario gave Frans’s client invaluable information about their levels of adaptability. In fact, assessing team members by watching them tackle real or simulated challenges is often more reliable than relying on spreadsheets, quotas, or even a predecessor’s notes, as it reveals their actual behavior and true capabilities in context.

Ask yourself:

• How do they respond to sudden pivots?
• Do they stay focused—or get flustered?
• Are they looking for what’s next—or longing for what was?

Adaptability is a skill that grows through recovery, not resistance.  And, in uncertain times, the best strategy is adaptability.

4. Tech Fluency

Do they lean into digital tools—or avoid what they don’t understand?

Being tech-savvy isn’t about coding. It’s about confidence with data, digital tools, and AI-enabled processes. One of Melissa’s clients, an operations leader, asked her team, “What tools did you use to make this decision?” Some had solid answers; others didn’t know. That helped her see who needed coaching—and who was ready for more responsibility.

Watch for:

• Comfort using key platforms or dashboards
• Proactive use of AI or automation tools
• Curiosity about how tech improves outcomes

Tech fluency and digital intelligence are no longer nice-to-haves.  They are becoming the baseline for modern leadership.

5. Growth Mindset & Risk Tolerance

Are they playing to win—or playing it safe?

One team leader started asking a new weekly question: “What’s something you tried that didn’t work?” “And what did you learn from it?” It became a signal of who was learning—and who was hiding. The people willing to share, reflect, and adjust were the ones he tapped for bigger opportunities.

Look for:

• Openness to feedback and experimentation
• Energy around learning and developing—not fear of failure
• Willingness to take smart, calculated risks

Leaders must have a growth mindset and actively practice strategies to build a bold, learning-oriented culture in order to get their teams to take more risks.

Clarity now beats cleanup later and there’s no “grace period” for leaders anymore. Your first three months set the tone. By assessing these five traits early—alignment, judgment, adaptability, tech fluency, and growth mindset—you can lead with clarity, set expectations, and make confident decisions about the team around you.

In a world of constant change, speed matters. But the real advantage? Knowing who’s ready to change with you. And how well the five essential traits are distributed among your team.

And, when all else fails, try Frans’s go-to question when he was CEO: “Would I rehire this individual if building this team from scratch today?”