Here's how you can evaluate your team members' skills before assigning tasks.

To evaluate your team members' skills before assigning tasks, conduct a skills assessment by reviewing their past performance, providing a situational judgment test, or using a skills matrix. This will help identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas for development. You can also observe team members during training exercises, ask for self-assessments, and solicit feedback from peers and supervisors. Additionally, consider providing a variety of training opportunities to help fill skill gaps and ensure that team members are equipped to handle the tasks assigned to them.

Una herramienta muy poderosa para lograr los objetivos de nuestros equipos, justamente es conocerlos de manera detallada, distinguiendo sus habilidades en lo individual para poder asignar las tareas de forma correcta, pero también para detectar aquellas habilidades que represaran áreas de mejora. Funciona como en lo personal, entre más nos conocemos, podemos trabajar de forma continua en nuestra mejor versión. Es un proceso que requiere de interés genuino de conocer a nuestros equipos para ayudarlos a crecer y a alcanzar juntos las metas que nos propongamos.

While skill audits are often applied, they can often underemphasize the relations of different skills. Consider implementing what has been referred to as a ‘skill ecosystem,’ where the dynamics and how competencies on your team relate to one another are tracked. It can also bring focus on specific skills that can inspire others and reveal relational emergent features. It also stems the exploration of what can be termed as “latent skills”. These are talents that team members possess but cannot apply to the organization in the area of operations they are assigned to. Such dormant capacities can be quite useful for the next activities or moments when the company is still transforming.

Peer review can be beneficial in assessing skills, but it may not consider social factors. A "rotation of attitude approach" could be beneficial, where employees perform unrelated tasks for a limited time to gain a new perspective on their counterpart's competency. This approach can identify potential threats and opportunities within a rigid organizational structure. Skill contagion theory suggests that skills are transferred through interaction rather than technical training. Implementing peer reviews where the respondent's identity is hidden can reduce social desirability bias and provide a clear perception from the respondents' side.

What is often not well managed is the assessment of the effectiveness of the transfer of training that has been implemented in the workplace. Altenatively, get an application efficacy scale that captures how appropriately the team members are applying the newly acquired concepts in different settings. It is appropriately called ‘cross-pollination’ because it depicts how useful the skills acquired in one area can be when applied in a different area. Further, expand the application of ‘micro-assessments’ into the learning process, which gives more detailed information about individual skills and their improvements in real-time.

Evaluating team members' skills before assigning tasks involves several key steps: Skill Assessment: Conduct formal assessments through tests, simulations, or certifications to gauge specific skills. Performance Reviews: Review past performance evaluations to identify strengths and areas for improvement. One-on-One Meetings: Hold individual meetings to discuss their self-assessed skills, experiences, and comfort levels with different tasks. Peer Feedback: Gather feedback from colleagues and supervisors who have worked closely with them. Task Trials: Assign smaller, trial tasks to observe their abilities and performance in real-time. Skill Matrix: Develop a skill matrix to visually map out team members' competencies and identify gaps.

To improve team performance, it is suggested that cognitive diversity should be evaluated, which relates to the processes of how the team members think. These include orientations such as, flexibility with regards to ambiguity, separation for thinking in a straight line or thinking through options, and analytical or explorative thinking regarding problems. Moreover, it would also be useful to look into skill complementarity, whereby different skills are accumulated with an aim of getting higher results. Last, define what concerns can be linked to ‘futurization’ of skills and describe how some skills can immunity alteration in technology and industries.