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In this As One podcast series, we talk about why organizational alignment matters.
If the organization or team that you lead is out of alignment around certain critical issues, your experience is going to be a rough ride.
In this episode, we highlight the need for your leadership team to find agreement around the most important issue that your organization is facing in any given season. What is the one shared goal?
What’s Most Important Now
Most organizations suffer from initiative overload. When your team has so many competing focal points, nothing is accomplished well. You’ll have a flurry of activity but mediocre results.
Your team will function with much more integrity when they agree and are aligned around one shared goal. Every department has an idea of what they need, but the critical question is: What is currently most important for us as an organization?
Singular Focus
Revenue, expenses, business development, employee engagement, and client satisfaction will always demand the attention of your team. There are seasons when one of those, or even something completely different, needs an elevated level of attention from the team.
Breaking Silos
Without clarity and alignment around a singular focal point, you’ll see silos emerge within your team—it’s the inevitable result. The fruit of silos: Leaders and departments will focus on activities that are in their best interests and projects that will propel their performance and advancement, not necessarily what is best for the organization.
When the leadership team instead agrees on the current, most important initiative for the organization, leaders are more willing to sacrifice time and resources to achieve the common goal.
Humility and Exposure
Gaining commitment to a short-term goal will free your leaders to demonstrate humility—the mark of a great team—and will also expose any team members who are more interested in serving their ego and personal agenda than the greater good.
Agreement on the One Goal Takes Time
Give this process time. It requires an intentional conversation with the full team. Don’t make the mistake of gathering opinions or extrapolating your challenge from moments around the coffee pot. You will need someone to draw out opinions from those who tend to withhold their thoughts in crucial conversations.
Key Questions
A couple of helpful thoughts to stimulate the conversation are:
- If we don’t address _____ in the next six months, we are going to be in trouble.
- If we only accomplish one thing in the next six months, what does it need to be?
Get Buy-in
If you are the senior leader, you may already know the answer to the question. Giving your team the opportunity to speak into the process affords you the buy-in and commitment that you likely wouldn’t gain if you presented your thoughts as a directive.
Context for Decisions
You don’t have to publish this goal throughout the organization. It is sufficient as a backdrop for leadership team decisions and as a context for determinations regarding sacrifices of resources and time.
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Until next time, lead well!
Bill