The Four Aspects of Good Leadership: Giving Clear Direction
Today, we're at the third in a series of four posts on the fundamentals of great leadership in your business. This third aspect is all about giving clear direction to your team.
Clarify Your Vision
The first step to providing a clear vision for your team is to ensure that we have clearly identified what our vision is. Our vision is defined as where we're going with our business. We need to have a clear picture of where we're going be one year from now in order to get to where we want to be in three years, and so on. This is so important because most employees in most companies have no idea where that company is going, what their plans for the future are, and what they're going look like as they go down the road.You need to communicate and clarify your vision to your team in order for them to fully be engaged. You want them to share that vision so that you're all rowing in the same direction. It is hugely important that you have your vision clarified and that it is written down. When I do workshops and seminars, we use a little tool called the Clarity Canvas. Two of the things that are on that Clarity Canvas are the three-year picture and the one year plan for how to get there.Also note that if someone doesn't share this vision, they don't belong on your team. You want to make sure you have a team of people that are all working toward the same thing.
Protect Your Culture
The second step to providing clear direction is to protect your culture. We've talked about our culture being our values, our attitudes, and the character that we want around us. Your culture defines the right people for your business. We need to know what that is, we need to write it down as well, and we need to be communicating that culture to our people every day. We need to build and protect that culture at all costs, because the right people are going to help us to achieve that vision mentioned above.
Identify The Right Seats
The third step to providing clear direction is a tool for identifying the right seats. We've got the right people, but we have to get them doing the right things within the organization. We use something called an accountability chart to identify all of the proper roles within the business, and each of those roles has a series of outcomes that we need them to achieve in order to be successful. We not only tell our team members what the expected outcomes are, but we also show them the processes by which we get it done. We must also be clear as to how we're going to measure success, because if we're not measuring it, it doesn't matter. We use a tool called Key Predictive Indicators (or KPIs) to measure whether or not those outcomes are being achieved using the processes that we've put in place. Now we understand what our vision is, who the right people are, and what the right seats are. When we marry those three things together, we can give clear direction, and make real progress and breakthrough in our business. Thanks so much for visiting. Please feel free to check out my other videos for more ideas on how to break through and reach the next level in your business. Stayed tuned as we continue our discussion of the four aspects of good leadership. And, if you like this video, please subscribe!