How to Inspire and Align a Leadership Team for Maximum Business Success
To achieve lasting success in your business, you must learn how to inspire and align the leadership teams.
But, when team members are uninspired by their work or role in the business, there's little point in focusing on alignment. It will be tough to generate enthusiasm without a coherent and compelling vision, clear direction common goals.
With this in mind, we’ve put together a quick guide that will help you to create motivation and alignment within your senior team so that the people who care most about your business can work together with enthusiasm and clarity to achieve your company’s brightest aims.
Inspiration/Motivation Tips
ONE - The most obvious way to inspire your senior team members is to infect them with enthusiasm.
If you’ve forgotten what it is about the business that once inspired you, this could be challenging.
The world moves so fast it’s highly likely that the vision needs to be revised and refreshed. For inspiration to happen, the teams must agree that it is fit for purpose and meaning - to them, to the customer base, and in terms of how it helps to secure their future career.
Establishing an inspiring vision has to be done alongside developing the business's goals and intentions, the operation's capability to deliver and a clear strategy. Communicate throughout.
TWO - Create a collaborative and non-competitive environment where your team members can thrive as they contribute to the greater good.
Encourage your staff to work collaboratively, consulting with and supporting each other as they take ownership of making the required changes, delivering the new goals and vision and keeping the business running smoothly.
THREE - Empower your team members and trust them to do the job
Once you have created a culture that encourages your teams to feel truly invested in the future of the business, this won’t be difficult. Most team members who work in a healthy, harmonious atmosphere will want to do a great job.
In our experience, beware - empowerment doesn’t always mean empowerment. The delegation with empowerment often stops short of actual power to make decisions.
FOUR - Get to know your employees properly and give them work they enjoy rather than work you think they will enjoy.
This means listening closely to the nuances of their skills and passions and where they feel they can be most effective, productive and fulfilled at work.
If they’re already happy, try not to reinvent the wheel. Give your employees enough positive feedback to feel valued. Treat them with humanity, and you will bring out the best in them, regardless of the tasks.
Tips for Creating Alignment
ONE - To create alignment, you and your senior team must be clear about the "why" behind the organisation.
The WHY must emerge through creating a valid strategy - A winning strategy provides a diagnosis of the situation, a guiding policy for facing it, and a set of coherent actions.
The culture of your business must integrate well with the ‘why’ - the guiding policy that supports the strategy that will deliver the vision.
For example, if your ‘why’ is to create opportunities for vulnerable or disenfranchised people, your organisation should be run in a way that makes everyone’s contribution feel valued.
TWO - Try to inspire team members with your ‘why’ and ensure that each member clearly understands their role in achieving the company’s overall vision.
The team must also be clear about what success means for the business and what a big win would look like.
THREE - Everyone’s roles and functions must be clearly defined.
Communication is vital, and remaining vigilant is essential. If you have lost touch with who’s doing what and where to pinpoint any areas of potential disconnection, you may be heading for catastrophe when faced with challenges or economic instability.
Want to know how to develop x-ray vision in your business? Get in touch with the team at Group Partners and discover how to create optimal alignment and unprecedented motivation among your senior team.
