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every organization, if it wants to create a sense of alignment and focus, must have a single top priority within a given period of time.
that finds itself temporarily in the midst of one, is a rallying cry, a single area of focus around which there is no confusion or disagreement.
take off their departmental hats and put on generic corporate ones.
On a cohesive team, leaders are not there simply to represent the departments that they lead and manage but rather to solve problems that stand in the way of achieving success for the whole organization.
it is the lack of a defined, compelling rallying cry or thematic goal that allows most bad staff meetings to happen, which enables poor decision making.
The One-Page Model Different kinds of organizations have different thematic goals, defining objectives, and standard operating objectives for a variety of reasons. However, what they all have in common is that their goals fit on a single sheet of paper.
Remember, the purpose of having a thematic goal is not to restrict the organization’s flexibility but rather to rally its leaders around what they decide they want to achieve.
Once a leadership team has identified its thematic goal, defining objectives, and standard operating objectives, it has one last question to answer, and it’s probably the easiest of them all. QUESTION 6: WHO MUST DO WHAT?
Depending on the industry, most have some combination of many of the following roles: head of sales, marketing, finance, operations, human resources, engineering, IT, customer service, and legal. And while those functional descriptions are pretty good indicators of the general responsibilities of members of the leadership team, I’m always a little surprised when I ask them all to quietly write down their descriptions in some level of detail. Often members of the team will be surprised at what they learn from their colleagues during this short exercise. Sometimes two people claim to be
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It’s tempting for leaders, especially those at the top of organizations, to temporarily step into roles where they are talented or comfortable. What they often don’t realize, however, is that others in the organization, even on their team, aren’t as clear as they are about where lines of responsibility ultimately lie.
the most effective tool for keeping key decisions alive is the creation of something we refer to as a playbook: a simple document summarizing the answers to the six critical questions.
Playbook Example Lighthouse Consulting Why do we exist? We exist because we believe the world needs more great leaders. How do we behave? We behave with passion, humility, and emotional intelligence. What do we do? We provide services and resources for leaders who want to make their organizations more effective. How will we succeed? We will differentiate ourselves by providing extremely high-touch service, staying relatively small and protecting our unique culture, and leveraging the ideas of world-class subject matter experts. What is most important, right now? Who must do what? Name Title
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Dick Consulting Ops Consultant and project management, content development Amy CFO Finances, IT, legal, general administration Matt Sales Standard sales, partnerships Tom Marketing Standard marketing, customer education, events Christa HR Training, benefits, compensation Team profile Name Type Areas for Improvement Michael ENTJ Interrupt less; follow through on commitments Dick INTP Engage more with peers; respond more quickly to inquiries/e-mails Amy ISTJ Explain things more thoroughly; speak up during meetings Matt ENFP Stay focused and on-topic during meetings; follow through Tom INFJ Don’t
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Seven times. I’ve heard claims that employees won’t believe what leaders are communicating to them until they’ve heard it seven times. Whether the real number is five, seven, or seventy-seven, the point is that people are skeptical about what they’re being told unless they hear it consistently over time.
The problem is that leaders confuse the mere transfer of information to an audience with the audience’s ability to understand, internalize, and embrace the message that is being communicated.
Their top two priorities are to set the direction of the organization and then to ensure that people are reminded of it on a regular basis.
they fear that repeating a message might be insulting to their audience. They assume that employees don’t need to be told something more than once and that they’ll feel patronized if they are.
The point of leadership is not to keep the leader entertained, but to mobilize people around what is most important.
Most leadership teams are more than adept at sending out e-mail messages and giving presentations, and yet they still struggle with effective communication because employees wonder about the authenticity of what they are reading and hearing.
three keys to cascading communication: message consistency from one leader to another, timeliness of delivery, and live, real-time communication.
“Hey, what are we going to go back and tell our people?”
As important as alignment is, what teams shouldn’t do is wordsmith those messages to death and make themselves sound like robotic leaders going out to read from the same exact script. Instead, they need to get clear on the main points to communicate and then go to their teams
That’s not to say that it has to happen in the same moment. However, a twenty-four-hour period following a meeting is not a bad standard.
The key is that the discussion is live and interactive.
I’m all too aware that the advice I’m giving might sound extremely basic. But then again, most organizations are unhealthy precisely because they aren’t doing the basic things, which require discipline, persistence, and follow-through more than sophistication or intelligence.
first and most important is to incorporate the answers to the six critical questions in any situation that calls for leaders to be communicating with employees—everything from recruiting, interviewing, orienting, managing, rewarding, training, to even dismissing people from the organization.
What they don’t get is consistent, authentic, and relevant communication.
it’s worth repeating that the success of top-down communication starts with Discipline 1 (build a cohesive leadership team) and Discipline 2 (create clarity). Without these, no
getting more input from employees often only exacerbates frustration in an organization when that input cannot be digested and used.
What is key to making these effective is that leaders not give the impression that they are abdicating responsibility for decision making by giving employees a vote. Great organizations, unlike countries, are never run like a democracy. It’s also critical
It shouldn’t be used to overcome the shortcomings of leaders who are out of touch with their people.
The team leaves meetings with clear and specific agreements about what to communicate to their employees, and they cascade those messages quickly after meetings.
Employees are able to accurately articulate the organization’s reason for existence, values, strategic anchors, and goals.
“An organization has to institutionalize its culture without bureaucratizing
HR folks can’t be expected to fill the role that their leaders must perform in these areas.
Their primary purpose is not to avoid lawsuits or emulate what other companies are doing but rather to keep managers and employees focused on what the organization believes is important.
National Institute for Human Transformation and Bureaucracy (there is no such thing).
at least not yet...
buy into the notion that you can teach skill but not attitude.
the insistence on too much process overshadows the real goal of any effective hiring program: finding people who fit the culture and have the best chance at success.
The best approach to hiring is to put just enough structure in place to ensure a measure of consistency and adherence to core values—and no more.
the only way to make all this work is for evaluators to get together after interviewing candidates to hash out what they observed and what collective conclusions they’ve come to.
When employees get the opportunity to hear their leaders talk about why the organization they joined exists, what behavioral values were used to select them during the hiring process, how the organization plans to succeed, what its top priority is, and who does what at the executive level, they can immediately see how they will contribute to the greater good of that organization. This often sets the tone for their behavior and attitude during their entire tenure with the company and sends them home from work boasting about the professionalism and promise of the company they’re now a part of.
while that may help the new employee understand how to fill out insurance paperwork and use the new e-mail system (both of which are surely helpful), it tends to be a disappointment to anyone who joins an organization because they’re excited about having the opportunity to make a real difference in some way.
the value of bringing in new employees with clarity, enthusiasm, and a sense of their importance.
key is that it is built around the six questions and that leaders take an active role in its design and delivery.
that the best way to allow them to do that is to give them clear direction, regular information about how they’re doing, and access to the coaching they need.
it is critical that organizations separate corrective action processes from the regular performance management system, because the last thing an organization wants is for its good employees to feel as if they’re being interrogated and prepared for dismissal.
many leaders are a little embarrassed by giving praise and are afraid that employees will discount it as a cheap replacement for financial rewards.
