YES - THAT IS THE CHESHIRE CAT
This exchange from Lewis Carroll from Alice and Wonderland about sums up my personal point of view of the importance of direction for high performing teams.
“Cat: Where are you going?
Alice: Which way should I go?
Cat: That depends on where you are going.
Alice: I don’t know.
Cat: Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”
Without direction, a team can flounder. It is true that some people can work for periods of time with their heads down and just go. But after a while, they are going to have to make choices on what to work on next. And they are going to look to you - the leader - for that direction.
JUST GOOGLE IT, RIGHT?
Typically the first step for leaders is to search for some examples for mission, vision, purpose, ambition, direction and other words to get examples of what other people do and how the ‘experts’ define the differences. And I am not saying that the differences don’t matter. They do. It’s just a very, very deep rabbit hole. And many leaders end up confused with the details and stop working. And then they feel sad.
However, most of the time as long as the team has a general sense of which direction they are going, that can be enough to start. If you’ve been creating vision and mission statements for years, then keep right on truckin’. If you are leading a team without a clear direction, then this is an important post for you. And I don’t want you to be sad.
WHAT’S THE IMPACT?
Without a clear direction, there are a lot of possible negative impacts the team may encounter.
Waste - the enemy of productivity is waste (our old friend TIMWOOD-P). Unclear direction can lead to 7 of the 8 wastes (if you can find a way that transportation is impacted by lack of direction, comment and you win the big prize). Lack of direction can lead to people doing things that don’t matter - because without direction, no on really knows what matters.
Lack of commitment - it’s hard to buy in deeply to the day to day grind. A clear direction - when articulated with purpose - can bring people together. It brings commitment, not simple compliance.
Misalignment - when people are unclear about where they are going, each member of the team could be moving in different directions working in ways counterproductive to the team.
Unhealthy conflict - when people are misaligned, they tend to wind up either stepping on each other’s toes or working in silos. The lack of alignment creates tension when there are tasks that require cooperation.
Confusion/frustration - the unhealthy conflict can lead to confused and frustrated team members. They might be frustrated with each other, adjacent teams, the organization, or - most likely - you.
Perception of the leader - the team looks to the leader for direction. If they don’t have it, the assumption may be that you are not leading well.
WHAT’S THE FIX?
This is where I have some bad news…as a leader, you’re going to have to get out of the day to day and spend some time setting direction. This doesn’t come easy to everyone, so here are a few prompts to get your brain in gear. I recommend using the people on the team who are asking for the direction as key players in a discussion. Bring the team in - realizing there could be a lot of diverse opinions. And that’s a good thing!
Imagine we’re in a sailboat heading towards an island in the distance - what’s on that island? What would you call it? Who is there with us?
Think about a moment 3-5 years from now, what’s happening with the team? What have we accomplished? How have we changed?
If the team was going to win a major award for the work they just completed 3 years from now, what would the title of the award? What would be in the press release?
What are the current challenges? What does the customer need? How might we handle those long term?
If you were a science fiction writer, what would the utopian world look like far off in the future if the team is successful? What about the dystopian view? Where might we err?
It’s important to have a balanced conversation between details and big picture thinking because not everyone has the same way of thinking about direction. Some need it shorter term and detailed and others like to think broadly and use metaphors.
ENGAGE THE TEAM
The best case is a co-created ambition that everyone is bought into. That takes some time and experience. But the key is to get the discussion started. The dialogue will be healthy - and it’s better to have alignment conversations early so you can avoid the negative impacts on team performance down the road.
I’ve launched a new course to help leaders develop high performing teams. In it, we provide some helpful tips on how to get the direction clear. We'll give you some basic context, a mad lib template (what’s simpler than that?), a meeting agenda for a team discussion, and a check list to guide the output . Check it out!
- Mike Sweeney, www.sabercoaching.com
If you found this post valuable, please share it far and wide so others can benefit. If you want to think about investing in some coaching, shoot me a note @ mikesweeney@sabercoaching.com. Maybe we can co-create some clarity and get you moving closer to the island you want to sail towards!