Karen Natzel, BridgeTower Media Newswires
Organizations flourish when their leadership teams are aligned. This collection of professionals is tasked with making key decisions that impact the organization. They set direction, define priorities, and allocate resources. When team members are aligned, they can have momentum-building impact. If they are out of alignment, their organization can suffer from inefficiencies and ineffectiveness. If the misalignment is severe, it can harm credibility.
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Warning signs
A divided leadership team can wreak havoc on performance. I have witnessed the chaos that ensues from misalignment. At a basic level, it creates confusion and poor resource management. Left unattended, rifts and power struggles emerge.
Different answers come from different leaders. If employees’ experiences are that they will get a different answer depending on whom they ask, there is a risk of selective engagement, hidden agendas, and manipulation.
Different leaders have different standards. In this case the culture can foster a lack of fairness, inconsistency in work deliverables, and deterioration of relationships.
Initiatives have stalled. An initiative that has the backing of only some of the leaders sends mixed messages, diminishing both its capacity to impact and the credibility of leadership. People may go through the motions with a meager investment of time and energy.
Fewer people are taking initiative. Lack of leadership alignment can create fits of starts and stops. Employees who experience this will often take a “wait and see” approach, thereby minimizing the team’s willingness to step up.
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What does alignment look like?
This is not just about creating a harmonious work environment. This is about creating a framework for diverse perspectives to contribute to a common goal and a shared code of conduct.
Alignment works best when it is not fabricated. When leadership teams pretend to be aligned, or the alignment is superficial, it becomes apparent and rapidly breaks down when it comes up against real-world challenges.
I encourage leadership teams to authentically engage in a dialogue that goes deep. To effectively lead an ever-evolving organization, people need to critically examine potential impacts of decisions, respectfully challenge thinking, and flesh out risks. It is each leader’s responsibility to candidly and constructively voice hopes and fears with their peers AND craft agreements of how they will move forward together for the good of the organization.
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3 critical areas of alignment
Recently I was presenting at the Business Diversity Institute’s conference on “The Art of Building a Thriving Culture.” We explored several key performance indicators of organizational health, including what contributes to effective leadership and three critical areas of alignment: vision, values, and priorities.
• Vision. A compelling vision provides clear purpose and direction. It is a powerful alignment tool. My vision, “to cultivate authentic, inspired, and thriving cultures,” helps me identify the kind of work and clients that are a good fit. It guides how I shape my training and coaching programs. It is aligned with my passion and talents.
• Values. It’s not enough to create a list of values that hang on your wall or occupy space on a webpage. We must be diligent about living them. When we do, we have more cohesiveness and integrity.
• Priorities. For many of us, it appears to be in our nature to overcommit. Do you find yourself overwhelmed by all the great things you want to accomplish only to be left spinning your wheels and advancing burnout for employees who have little bandwidth left to do substantive work? If so, you may be a victim of initiative fatigue. Prioritization is hard, but it brings focus, and with focus, traction.
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How do you know it’s working?
Do you know the “proof points” of what it looks like to be aligned as a high-functioning team? Get clear on what you want to see more (or less) of; and when you do, do not hesitate to acknowledge and celebrate! When you do, you affirm expectations. People feel inspired when they see their connection to the whole.
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Take the K Challenge
Change how you conduct leadership meetings. Create space for the kind of conversations that engage diverse opinions and land on collective agreements to move the organization decisively forward.
Conduct a value integrity scan. This can be a personal reflection as well as an annual organization-wide assessment.
Create a “values challenge” that catches and rewards people for walking the talk of the organization’s values.
Ask questions through the lens of a core value (e.g., If you value accountability, you could ask, “What’s the accountable thing for us to do here?”)
Define priorities. Consider annual, quarterly, and monthly priorities that flow into achievable department and individual game plans. Connecting priorities in this way will help you gain clarity and alignment on what’s most important and a way in which to achieve it.
Make weekly callouts. Take a few minutes at a meeting for a round robin of what went well in the last week (encourage people to be specific; consider monthly themes connected to your vision, values, or priorities).
Invite people to contribute. Not only will you increase buy-in, but you will give people a seat at the culture-defining table, creating a space where people have increased sense of ownership. It requires engaging with people where they are – to hear their voices, to get their insights, to identify issues, and to create agreements.
Each of us has our unique way of sharing our strengths, passions, and skills. The human condition is quirky – find ways to leverage and respect the diversity, while managing for the results you’ve defined in your vision, values, and priorities.
When we are in alignment, we harness energy and enthusiasm. We operate as a streamlined, trusted, and credible team. Things work better. Relationships are stronger.
Where might your organization benefit from an adjustment?
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Karen Natzel is a business therapist who helps leaders create healthy, vibrant and high-performing organizations. Contact her at 503-806-4361 or karen@natzel. net.
