You know where you want the organization to go. You’ve talked about the priorities, explained what needs to happen, and probably repeated yourself more than once. So why isn’t everyone moving in the same direction?
Sometimes the problem isn’t communication. It’s ownership. Team alignment gets stronger when your people aren’t simply told the direction, but understand it well enough to make good decisions when you’re not in the room.
Can Your Team Answer These Four Questions?
You don’t need another lengthy planning meeting. Try putting these four questions on the table at your next leadership or team meeting — and then listen carefully to the answers.
What are the three most important things we need to accomplish right now? If you get six different answers, you’ve learned something. Priorities aren’t really priorities until people share them.
What are we doing that no longer deserves our time? Growth has a funny way of adding work without removing any. What are you still doing simply because you’ve always done it?
Where are we waiting for someone else? Listen for unclear authority, bottlenecks and decisions that continually travel uphill. What could your people own that they don’t own today?
What could get in our way? Your employees often see turbulence before you do. Give them permission to identify it — and to help determine how you’ll navigate through it.
The value isn’t having everyone give identical answers. It’s discovering where the answers differ.
That’s where the conversation begins.
Strong team alignment develops when people understand not only what you’re trying to accomplish, but why it matters and what they can do to help make it happen. Your job as a leader isn’t to have every answer. Sometimes it’s to ask the question that gets everyone looking toward the same horizon.
What would you hear if you asked your team these four questions tomorrow?
And if the answers reveal more disconnect than you expected, an experienced outside perspective can help you turn that conversation into action. You haven’t peaked yet!