Coaching Blog – How to Engage and Align Your Team in the New Year
During the kickoff of a new year, leaders are focused on getting back to business, re-energized to get results and increase performance of their teams. So many leaders though, don���t know how to motivate their team members in an authentic, honorable way that produces the results they want. What���s a leader to do?
Engage and Align
In 2024 in the Leading with Honor Blog, we spent several months talking about the Courageous Accountability Model
and some of those ���C steps��� were Clarify, Communicate, and Collaborate. I love visual models because a picture really is ���worth a thousand words,��� and I use them every day with clients to help break barriers in their leadership and team development.
Now, I���m sharing the Engage and Align Model which relies heavily on those three Cs. As you may recognize below, a leader must be both confident and humble to do this process well���confident to manage the discussions and get everyone���s input and humble to listen to the input of others.
Pause for a moment and study the different parts of the Engage and Align Model from left to right:
Understanding your People
As you see on the far right of the model, each team member has unique talents, knowledge, perspectives, and experience that are tremendously valuable. But there are still many leaders that don���t really know how to foundationally use them for team success.
Great leaders have the confidence to engage in discussions and listen to others, but many leaders just aren���t comfortable with the idea. Perhaps their ego gets in the way. They assume that they know everything and don���t want to waste time listening to others; or perhaps they are insecure and will pretend that they know it all; and some just don���t know how to manage discussions.
“Discussions are important for good decisions. To have them, the team leader, manager, or leader must believe in themselves so they can listen to others.” [Tweet This]
This coaching clip expands on this idea. Please watch, and then continue reading the blog below ���
When you listen to all your team members, they feel more valued, and they will perform better and be more loyal to your team. Ensure that everyone has an opportunity to share their perspective.
Mission/Visions/Values/Strategy Filter
Make sure that the focus of the discussion is clearly filtered through your established Mission, Vision, Values, and typically Strategies. This removes much of the potential ambiguity in conversations that could cause you to get off track. See my book, Engage with Honor, on how to create a set of mission, vision, values, and strategy if you don���t have one. You���ll want to remind them of these items regularly in discussions.
Rigorous Yet Healthy Debate
Once you���ve established the previous steps above, this sets the stage for healthy, rigorous debate. Typically, an argument done right needs to be heard from all sides so that the team can see the issues from different perspectives clearly.
Realistically, it���s hard to have healthy team discussions because people are unique. Here are the five types of people on a team:
People who want to talk a lot.People who don���t speak up much.People who think they are always right and don���t listen to others.People who like to argue.People who avoid arguments.
In addition to personally managing your own tendencies, you also have the special responsibility to help others adapt, allowing everyone���s voice to be heard. Some will need to speak up and some will need to listen up. One of my favorite phrases as a team participant is that ���I don���t need to have my way, but I want to have my say.���
“A well-managed, vigorous team debate usually brings the best decision, and the leader is usually responsible for the final decision.” [Tweet This]
You Make the Final Decision
After you���ve made the final decisions, then clarify the execution steps. Delegate and make it clear for all who are responsible for the various steps and actions that come out of the decision.
When you study this model, I think you will see that it���s a wonderful vision of how teams and organizations should Engage and Align to have discussions before they make decisions. But also keep in mind you may be the rare yet honorable leader that embraces rigorous debate. It���s the healthy way to lead a team, and you���ll be giving others the gift of believing in themselves and their role on the team.
LE [Tweet this Article]
Engage and Align Your Team in the New Year
Thousands of leaders and teams are already using Courageous Accountability Model to manage team communication and decisions:
Begin using it immediately in your day-to-day decision-making and witness the results of better team performance and results. We offer three options–choose the one that best fits your objectives and goals:
Personal Study
Read the award-winning book, Engage with Honor: Building a Culture of Courageous Accountability, to learn and apply this model.
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Group Self-Study Program
The Engage with Honor Training Guide provides 10 self-guided lessons that you and your team can study together.
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Purchase the book and training together and save 30%
Group Online Study Course
Many leaders don���t feel qualified to conduct training, and it���s expensive. The Courageous Accountability Development Course, is an online platform using the latest, real-time collaborative learning technology to ensure the best learning environment possible.
Learn More and watch a sample interview
Request a complimentary course demo
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