Great leaders are going someplace extraordinary and lots of people want follow them! Leaders in most organizations know where they want to go. Keeping followers aligned and in sync to get there, however, can be frustrating. Here are seven areas to turn that frustration into excitement. All of the questions are born from the two primary aspects of leadership: They have some place to go, and they have people following them!
Some Place to Go
1. Is where you are going extraordinary, exciting, or pedestrian? If you were a follower which would turn you on? How have you kept yourself from committing to go somewhere exciting and extraordinary?
2. Do your followers understand where you want to go? Do you discuss it with them at least quarterly? Conversations about where you are going is the only way to know if they really understand. Don’t assume. Your speeches, proclamations, and emails tell them about you, but don’t tell you much about them. Do you need to listen more and talk less?
3. Do your followers know how excited and passionate you are about your goal or vision? Have you been holding back? Cut it loose!
People Willing to Follow
1. Have you asked your followers to figure out with you a strategic plan that will get you there? Meaningful inclusion in decisions is crucial to create the buy-in needed for implementation!
2. Have you worked with your followers to establish the level of performance needed to achieve the vision? Do you reward them for meeting them? Do you let them slide too often?
3. Do your followers work well together? Do you reward them for good teamwork? How well they work together is key to get to where you want to go.
4. Do you give them space to be creative about ways to improve anything and everything? Including you? They know best what needs to improve, and they know how to do it!
When you can answer these questions in the positive, you’ll be well on the way to someplace extraordinary with lots of people following you!
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There is always more to learn about creating great teams and organizations. One way to significantly deepen your understanding and skills for working with organizations and teams is to sign-up for the powerful online program “Creating Great teams and Organizations Intensive” A group of executive directors has proven it’s success during it’s pilot run. It’s based on the highly successful Triple Impact Intensive that Edie Seashore and I developed at Johns Hopkins University and ran independently for 16 years. Click to check it out at chumans.com/intensive or email me at michael@chumans.com.
Dr. Michael Broom is an organizational psychologist with 40 years of experience with all kinds of people and organizations. He is the author of The Infinite Organization, and Power, The Infinite Game (with Donald Klein). Formerly of Johns Hopkins University, he founded the Center for Human Systems and is a Lifetime Achievement Award honoree of the OD Network.
Contact Dr. Broom for coaching and consulting for yourself or your organization!
Michael F. Broom, Ph.D., CEO, Center for Human Systems
CHumanS.com ~~~ michael@chumans.com ~~~ 410.960.3485
There is nothing of any significance that you can accomplish without the support of others!