Leadership Team Health Monitor — Atlassian's 8 Attributes

Atlassian's health check for leadership teams — the eight attributes that mark a leadership group that actually functions as a team: trust, difference, shared direction, and how they work together.

Run in TeamRetro

Is your leadership team actually a team?

The Leadership Team Health Monitor is Atlassian's variant for leadership groups — where the failure mode isn't shipping work, it's trust, candour and pulling in the same direction. It swaps the project-delivery attributes for ones that matter at the top: cohesion, encouraging difference, ways of working, and continuous improvement. Vote each red/amber/green together and let the reds drive the conversation.

Dimensions

Eight attributes

The eight attributes that distinguish a high-performing leadership team, from cohesion and candour through to continuous improvement.

  • Team cohesion

    We have the trust, respect and connection to work as one leadership team, not a group of individuals.

    • We operate as individuals with little trust
    • Some trust, but not yet one team
    • We work as one cohesive leadership team

  • Balanced team

    We have the right people, skills and clearly defined roles around this table.

    • Wrong mix and unclear roles
    • Some gaps in people or roles
    • Right people, skills and clear roles

  • Encouraging difference

    We actively seek different viewpoints and work through disagreements with respect.

    • Difference is avoided or shut down
    • We tolerate difference inconsistently
    • We seek difference and debate with respect

  • Shared understanding

    We're aligned on our mission, priorities and the milestones that matter.

    • We're pulling in different directions
    • Partial alignment on priorities
    • Fully aligned on mission and milestones

  • Value and metrics

    We're clear on the value we're accountable for and use metrics to make decisions.

    • Unclear value, decisions by gut
    • Some clarity, metrics used unevenly
    • Clear value and metrics drive decisions

  • Suitable ways of working

    Our meetings, decisions and tools help us lead well rather than get in the way.

    • Ways of working get in the way
    • Some good habits, some friction
    • Our ways of working help us lead

  • Engagement and support

    We're engaged and present, and we back each other and our teams.

    • Disengaged and unsupportive
    • Engagement and support are uneven
    • Fully engaged and backing each other

  • Continuous improvement

    We regularly step back to reflect on and improve how we lead together.

    • We rarely reflect or improve
    • We reflect occasionally
    • We routinely reflect and improve

When to use this health check

  • A new or reshaped leadership team finding its feet
  • A quarterly leadership offsite or strategy day
  • When the executive team feels like silos rather than a single team

Tips & tricks

  • Leadership teams fail on candour first — a low "encouraging difference" or "team cohesion" score is the one to face head-on.
  • Leaders should model the vulnerability they want to see, going first on the tough topics.
  • Vote red/amber/green together and let the reds drive the conversation, not the greens.
  • Run it periodically so you can track whether cohesion and candour are genuinely improving.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Leadership Team Health Monitor?
It is Atlassian's health check designed specifically for leadership and executive teams. Rather than assessing project delivery, it measures the eight attributes that mark a leadership group that truly functions as a team — from trust and cohesion to encouraging difference and continuous improvement — using a simple red/amber/green vote.
How is it different from the project version?
The project Health Monitor focuses on shipping work — things like a full-time owner, balanced skills and dependable delivery. The leadership variant swaps those for the attributes that matter at the top of an organisation, where the failure mode is trust, candour and alignment rather than execution.
Who should be in the room?
The intact leadership team that owns a shared mandate — typically an executive or senior leadership group and anyone accountable for pulling in the same direction. Keep it to the people who genuinely need to function as one team.