Align, Engage, Pivot, Gain Momentum!
Last week I posted 4 Models of Leadership Clarity. All examples were of male leaders. Although I pulled those 4 based on my research of major companies that have orchestrated change, with Clarity being a big part of that, I feel the need to add more. This post includes all female leaders.
Continue reading “4 more Models of Leadership Clarity – Being Clear, for Others.”
With this post I aim to help you be clear for others, with a bit on how to communicate and more about how to be so that your communication has the best chance of landing with another person. I’ll provide insight followed by a video clip of a leader who models this way.
Clarity involves getting clear for yourself and being clear in your communication with others, so that they might also gain clarity.
As leaders, we want to be clear. Breakthrough performance becomes possible with alignment and momentum. Alignment and momentum both hinge on clarity. Ineffective communication results in a disconnection between strategy and execution.
Continue reading “4 Models of Leadership Clarity. Being Clear, for Others.”
As a leader, do you practice leadership?
I use the phrases get clear for you, set the stage, be clear for others, and create a rhythm to describe how leaders continuously orchestrating change for their organizations. Because there will always be change required and it is you, the leader, who ensures that an ability and willingness to always be moving smartly forward is natural in your organization; it’s simply what everyone knows is expected there, and they are committed to do their part.
Choose whichever words or phrases remind you of your practice, and continue support your ability perform and to orchestrate change. Know that holding the position of leader does not mean you are practicing leadership. Consider what your current leadership practice is, and what about your business, role, workplace or life that is not yet aligned with what you really want. Now consider what can be with an effective leadership practice in place.
Your performance requires a personal practice
Whether you think you are over-explaining or you’ve just been told that you do this, you may or may not truly be over-explaining. Consider what you are explaining and why. And then do one more thing… (take a simple one-phrase self-assessment). Continue reading “Are you over-explaining? Assessing your own courage may give you the answer”
In the first post of this series, I shared three proven steps in aligning people with strategy.
During times of significant change, alignment requires more attention from leaders and managers. This is especially the case when what is required to execute a new strategy involves more than small tweaks in people’s daily work.
How do you know when strategy must change?
John Caplan, former CEO of Open Sky, explained this well in a talk recorded on Inc. Only subscribers can view the article so I’ll just share a few notes from his talk. Continue reading “Alignment Series #2: How do you know when strategy must change?”
Strategies change. At least they should – in order to even just keep up with the change around us.
This series addresses Alignment. How can you align your people with strategy? How do you know when strategy must change? (even when it hasn’t been a year)? How do you re-align people when strategy must change in a way that changes their daily work?
Let’s talk about the first step – aligning people with strategy (when the strategy does not require significant change in roles or the work people do). Continue reading “Alignment Series #1: How to align people with strategy”
Recently I shared a “People Measurement’ and leadership conversation with Carlos Santayana, Owner and Principal at Santayana Group, and a prior Training and Leadership VP at Citi Group. I felt power and wisdom in his words and wanted to share them with you. With his approval I am publishing parts of our conversation below.
The selection and promotion of managers who invest in their teams and nurture excellence is a key transformative strategy.
• Leadership can create an atmosphere where subordinates are treated as valued partners and encouraged to think deeply and contribute ideas that increase profit, stakeholder well being and long term sustainability. Continue reading “Leaders nurture and invest”
In this series we are talking about connecting – connecting to people, connecting people to the business results you want, and getting those results.
If you are just starting this series, you can catch up by reviewing the earlier posts. Find a recap at the end of this post. In this post we’re focused on two points:
1. You must measure what you expect to get, in order to get it.
2. Instead of doing things (those things as you’ve always done them) right, you must be doing the right things right to be successful.
And I provide you with action you can take right now – using information you’ve already gathered in Job Descriptions and Performance Reviews – to improve performance now for your company.
In the last step of this Series you collected important materials, many and maybe all of which you are using to plan what you expect and see if you’ve realized that. Some of you may even have information that clearly shows where you were, and were not aligned, leading from your plan to your reality. Most of you won’t have this clear story connecting expectation to reality. You will soon if you are following these steps.
I listed five (5) groups of materials in Step 5. Since you may have recently completed Performance Reviews for last year, I’m going to start with those. If the Review does not specify the most important duties for a role, please also grab the Job Description associated with each Review. There is a huge opportunity waiting for you in this process, which you can start realizing benefits from right away, so bear with me… Continue reading “Leadership Connection- Step 6: How People Fit to your Bottom-Line”
In this series we are talking about connecting – connecting to people, connecting people to the business results you want, and getting those results.
Let me intro this next step before we recap, so that those that have been reading along don’t have to repeat (thanks to those who gave me this good feedback; the recap is at the end of the post)…
In Step 4 you removed roadblocks to aligning people’s actions with Strategy. Woot! Let’s get going!
For Step #5, collect these materials:
1. Your 1-3 Critical Strategic Objectives, which are now mapped to show relationship and the priorities of these Objectives and their Steps
See the Recap below for links to these prior steps. Questions? Click to “Ask Lori”
2. Your Annual Budget
If you do not have access to this, even for your department, you may want to pass this blog and Leadership series on to someone who does. Continue reading “Leadership -Connecting with (your) people to improve results. Step 5: NOW GET GOING”
In this series we are talking about connecting – connecting to people, connecting people to the business results you want, and getting those results.
Recap:
In Step 1 you selected up to three of the most critical strategic themes or objectives. In Step 2 you mapped these themes to your Strategy so that key objectives can be prioritized and contrasted (it is not uncommon to have conflicting objectives that need to be sorted out). And in Step 3 you prioritized so that you’d be sure that what is most important gets done.
Now before we move on, it is critical to have a plan for identifying and removing roadblocks. You will face at least one. I’m going to list a few of the most common ones here, along with answers that have worked for others. I’d love to have comments and additions from readers.
Here are three common roadblocks to getting what you expect: Continue reading “Leadership -Connecting with (your) people to improve results. Step 4: Removing roadblocks”