building teams

How to Align and Coordinate Your Team

June 1, 2022 By Patti Cotton Leave a Comment

Many a leader has overseen sound strategic planning, only to come to a grinding halt in just a few months.

“I find we get quickly into the weeds,” said Michael. “I really like how you and I just worked on focusing on what matters, and the plan is great (see the previous article on how Michael and I refocused to help him rise above the weeds.) But we’ve planned many times. I share the vision and set the goals, and we hit the ground running. But then, somehow, the team starts bumping heads on projects…Pretty soon, it’s back to business as we’ve always done it – good, but not great. How do I bring my team along in the process?”

“That’s our next step, Michael,” I responded. “And you are spot on. Unless you can align and coordinate your team in actionable and measurable ways, you won’t get far. Let’s roll up our sleeves.”

Michael and I met with his executive team the next week. During this time, he unveiled his business imperative – the top goals and priorities, as well as the quantifiable impact as shared in my last article.

“Team, it’s time we tighten up and get more focused,” he said. “And I admit, I am a chief culprit in keeping us from having done so until this point.”

I chimed in. “What we want to do today is to review Michael’s business imperative for the company for the next 12 months.”

“No offense,” said Candace, the CFO. “But we’ve done this a few times before. And we don’t seem to get anywhere.”

“I understand,” I responded. “Strategic plans and business imperatives usually sound great, but few get far. One important reason is because the executive team isn’t invited to align and coordinate to support the plan.”

“Go on,” said Candace. “I’m listening.”

“Michael will share the business imperative for the company. This imperative identifies the key priorities for the next 12 months, supporting the company’s strategic plan. This imperative is measurable and actionable.”

“From here, however, each of you needs to ask yourself what this means for your own areas of responsibility – and develop your own business imperative. This should support Michael’s imperative. Your imperative should have the measurables and actions to support Michael’s. Make sense?”

“It does,” said Max, COO. “We’ve often listed out who owns what when it comes to the strategic plan, but we haven’t made it as actionable as you are talking about.”

“I can see a more workable plan in the making,” said Sandra, the Marketing Vice President.

“I’m glad you do,” I answered. “It does work.”

“Just a minute,” Max hesitated. “If we are all going to do this, what about all those other initiatives we are working on? What if they don’t fit into the plan?”

“Exactly, Max,” I answered. “Once you develop your business imperative, you will need to ask yourself what to do in order to remain focused. But that’s for our next step. For now, let’s have a good discussion on what Michael’s imperative means for you. And when we reconvene next week, bring your draft business imperatives and we will have some critical conversations. We will not only be talking about what to do with initiatives that don’t support the focus; we will also be talking about what shifts in culture and leadership behaviors you may need to make in order to succeed.”

“Culture shifts? Leadership behaviors?” asked Michael.

“Yes, Michael. You and your executive team are a system – all parts of a system need to work together in the same way. If not, you won’t get any traction.”

Next time, I’ll share details of the next meeting and the tough conversations Michael and his team had to have in order to break through chronic underperformance – and finally become a high-performing, aligned, and coordinated team.

© Patti Cotton and patticotton.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express written permission from the author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that attribution is made to Patti Cotton and patticotton.com, with links thereto.

Patti Cotton

Patti Cotton reenergizes talented leaders and their teams to achieve fulfillment and extraordinary results. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.

Leading the Executive Team Post-Crisis

August 12, 2020 By Patti Cotton Leave a Comment

The immediate crisis is over. And although you are still rapidly recovering revenue and rebuilding operations, you now need to bring greater stability to the organization.

Your team’s quick response to meet the crisis is to be celebrated. But the approach will not work well in this next stage of change.

This means your team needs to change the way they operate. And given the different business landscape, the way we used to operate will no longer work.

It’s a different world – and we must work differently together.

So, if you are expecting your team will simply “fall back into place and get back to work,” think again. A lack of intentional rebuilding on your part will result in confusion, misalignment, conflict and a great potential to lose top talent.

Your team must reinvent itself at this point in order to perform effectively.

Where do you begin?

1. Look back to move forward.

Bring closure to this period by celebrating the successes of the team in having moved through the immediate crisis. Set some thoughtful time aside for this and make sure you invite the team to give their input. Talk about what the experience was like for them, what they needed to shift or change in order to get the work done. What did they learn?

2. Chart a purposeful path forward.

Recognize that as a team and organization, you cannot pull back. Much change occurred during the immediate crisis. People were asked to stretch, do differently, products and services were delivered in different ways, much more. As you chart a purposeful path forward, what needs to be examined? Incorporated? Altered?

3. Set the operational pace.

Restate the organizational vision to shift the team lens to the long-term. Then, roll back to the short term, asking what this means – what the focus should be – for the next 3-6-12 months, How can the learnings you discussed be incorporated?

4. Charter how you will operate together from this point.

Articulate who you are as a team. What do you know about your abilities and potential? How can you put this to use, and how will you align and coordinate your decision-making as you set out onto the new landscape together? How will you measure success? Handle critical communications? Accountability?

5. Lead with resolve.

Because uncertainty is now part of the norm, keep your eyes on vision, knowing that strategies and initiatives may change in order to reach it. Consider how you as a team will adopt an explorer’s mindset as part of your culture. Remember how, together, you weathered the last storm and weave this into your group narrative. Use this as a tether in future tough times as a reminder that as a team, you faced the seeming insurmountable and rose victorious.

If you are intentional with these steps as part of your organizational transition, you will reap the benefit of stronger commitment and engagement on the part of your team. Once you do this, encourage each of the team members to replicate this process through the organization with their own teams.

To your success!

The Clockwork of Excellent Leadership: 3 Essential Gears

What makes up excellent leadership? The essential components that go into leadership must all work together, or they begin to wear on one another and bring things to a stop. Learn how to keep them running like clockwork. Sign up to receive the complimentary infographic.

Patti Cotton

Patti Cotton reenergizes talented leaders and their teams to achieve fulfillment and extraordinary results. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.

Why You Need to Get Personal with Your Team

February 27, 2019 By Patti Cotton Leave a Comment

Many years ago, I oversaw the development for five hospitals. It was a great joy to develop the team for some near-impossible goals that my area had been given, and to reach these successfully.

I loved my team and would have done just about anything for them. But sadly, they didn’t know that. In fact, quite the contrary.

Sharon sat down one afternoon and closed the door.

“You don’t even know us,” she said. “I bet you don’t even know that Alex has gotten engaged. Do you even care about us?”

Are you connected with your own team?

How do you know?

You can imagine that I was crushed. My introvertish nature coupled with a high drive for results had been seen as aloof and uncaring – far from the truth.

The effects of not being personally connected with your team can be devastating – a low level of trust resulting in poor performance and a host of other undesirable behaviors. The symptoms are such that you may blame these on the larger culture of the organization or on other external factors.

Yet, the culprit may simply be that your team doesn’t feel connected with you.

Leaders struggle with this, and we play a lot of head games.

We may want to appear in control to assure the team all is well. We may ask ourselves if being seen as vulnerable is risky to our position of being “in charge.” And some of us question the relevancy of connecting beyond the professional framework.

Yet, without humanizing ourselves, we can appear cold, uncaring, wooden, untouchable…the list goes on. Somewhere along the way, someone has taught us to appear as though we have it all together in order to reflect confidence in leadership.

Not true.

Becoming human allows others to do so – to identify with you and connect.

Human beings need to feel a sense of connectedness. This comes from knowing others on the team and feeling known and accepted as a member.

In order to have this happen, we must become real.

Highest-performing teams know this – and work on it regularly.

Here are three things you can do right away to “get personal” with your team so that you can engage with each other on a greater level:

Take your teams members to lunch.

During your time together, tell them you don’t want to talk about work, but just want to get to know each other better. Have some questions ready – why did they pick France as a vacation last year? Where did they grow up – and how did this affect the way they see things today?

Develop an understanding about each other’s gifts and talents.

There are some great assessments out there for this: StrengthsFinder, Enneagram, and others. Have each team member take the assessment, bring their results, and talk about how these show up in their work and life.

Take some time to learn each other’s lives.

What does this mean? Who are you outside of work? What is your favorite movie? How do you handle surprises? Make up a list of questions and share the answers as part of your team-building. Do this over time – knowing each other personally should be intentional and consistent in order to create bonds and connectedness.

Have fun with this. It has become a joy for me personally to connect with others in this way and to develop deep relationships.

As a bonus, when people feel you care about them, they also care about you. When the going gets tough, the team will pull together in a new and more concerted way to succeed.

HOW MUCH

DO OTHERS REALLY TRUST YOU?

Learn the two vital parts to trust and how they can help you become a more highly effective leader.

GET THE INFOGRAPHIC

Patti Cotton

Patti Cotton reenergizes talented leaders and their teams to achieve fulfillment and extraordinary results. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.

Seven Steps to Providing Supportive Feedback

January 3, 2018 By Patti Cotton Leave a Comment

Have you ever had an employee ask for feedback?

In theory, this is a good thing. After all, who doesn’t want to lend a hand when a colleague or report asks for help – especially when it pertains to their effectiveness on the job?

Or perhaps you see the need to give an employee feedback, even when they haven’t asked for it.

Either way, you may not feel safe or comfortable as you think about what might happen as a result. Your intention to help may be met by the employee becoming defensive, hurt, or angry.

What then?

How do you handle this? How do you provide information that is candid and in their best interest, and do so in a way that doesn’t backfire?

Seven Steps to Providing Supportive Feedback

1. Be thoughtful and specific about what you both want to accomplish.

Whether your employee has initiated the conversation by asking for feedback, or you have recognized that feedback is needed and have asked them to talk to you, you will want to identify why the feedback is needed and how this will help them, their team, and the company going forward. This will help you frame the conversation supportively, and help them to understand impact.

2. Set up an appropriate setting for your conversation together.

Make sure you and the employee have some dedicated time and are in a place that is quiet and confidential. Feedback provided in passing or in a public place is neither respectful nor beneficial.

3. Emphasize to the employee your desire to be helpful by providing feedback.

If they have initiated this conversation, thank them for placing confidence in you as part of their growth trajectory. If, on the other hand, you have initiated the conversation, you can share that part of your role is to help them grow into more of their potential, and that you take this seriously. In either case, you will want to convey that you come with best intentions and the desire to support them.

4. Affirm them first for the value they bring to the team and the company, noting some of the key strengths you appreciate in them, and how these strengths benefit the company.

Be specific. Use illustrations. For example, saying that someone brings a lot of strengths to the table is too vague and may sound dismissive. On the other hand, identifying that someone exhibits a lot of integrity in the way they deliver results on time or include others, for example, during the last major project…well, you can see the difference. Follow the latter illustration as you recognize their value.

5. Pay attention to your language as you point out growth opportunities.

Let’s say that your employee has a habit of over-promising and under-delivering. Rather than say, “You are untrustworthy,” or “I can’t count on you,” use an illustration to show how their behavior impacts the situation. You might say, “You and I agreed on a deadline for your piece of the XYZ Project. When you were unable to meet this, it meant the team was delayed two weeks in completing their portion so that we could deliver to the customer on time.”

6. Tell them what you need and offer your help by coaching them on this going forward.

Following our illustration, ask them, “Can you shed light on this? Is there something I am missing?” Pause and allow them to respond. If they do not realize this problem is isolated, you may want to give a second situation where it occurred. Either way, you can then ask, “How can I help you so that this one area doesn’t hold you back?” Asking, rather than telling, will allow them a growth moment, allowing them to develop awareness about the problem, and to identify any possible solutions.

7. Offer a go-forward plan.

You can share any insights you have, once you have allowed them to respond. And be intentional about checking in on a regular basis to share how you feel it is going. Catch them doing right when they are on time, and let them know you appreciate it. Give them feedback, as well, if it occurs again, and ask them to help you identify how you can work together to avoid it in future. Hold shared accountability in this.

I’d like to hear of your experience in giving feedback. What has worked – or not worked – for you? How do you use this knowledge as you provide feedback going forward?

Patti Cotton

Patti Cotton reenergizes talented leaders and their teams to achieve fulfillment and extraordinary results. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.

building teams

“That’s our next step, Michael,” I responded. “And you are spot on. Unless you can align and coordinate your team in actionable and measurable ways, you won’t get far. Let’s roll up our sleeves.”

“Go on,” said Candace. “I’m listening.”

“I’m glad you do,” I answered. “It does work.”

“Culture shifts? Leadership behaviors?” asked Michael.

It’s a different world – and we must work differently together.

Your team must reinvent itself at this point in order to perform effectively.

Where do you begin?

1. Look back to move forward.

2. Chart a purposeful path forward.

3. Set the operational pace.

4. Charter how you will operate together from this point.

5. Lead with resolve.

The Clockwork of Excellent Leadership: 3 Essential Gears

Are you connected with your own team?

How do you know?

Becoming human allows others to do so – to identify with you and connect.

Here are three things you can do right away to “get personal” with your team so that you can engage with each other on a greater level:

Take your teams members to lunch.

Develop an understanding about each other’s gifts and talents.

Take some time to learn each other’s lives.

Seven Steps to Providing Supportive Feedback

1. Be thoughtful and specific about what you both want to accomplish.

2. Set up an appropriate setting for your conversation together.

3. Emphasize to the employee your desire to be helpful by providing feedback.

4. Affirm them first for the value they bring to the team and the company, noting some of the key strengths you appreciate in them, and how these strengths benefit the company.

5. Pay attention to your language as you point out growth opportunities.

6. Tell them what you need and offer your help by coaching them on this going forward.

7. Offer a go-forward plan.

I’d like to hear of your experience in giving feedback. What has worked – or not worked – for you? How do you use this knowledge as you provide feedback going forward?