One of the things we chat about quite regularly as a team, and a business, is alignment – where alignment is an agreement on the goals of our organization and on the process of achieving these goals.
Are all the members of our team aligned? Is our energy directed towards a common goal? Is there a deliberate focus of collective energy?
Of course even to answer these questions is sometimes a challenge. The simplest way perhaps being to ask your entire staff what the single most important goal of the company is, what your company’s top challenge is or what your company’s strategic vision consists of.
In a perfectly aligned team, everyone’s answers will be the same, and if this is so, you’re doing a great job at team alignment. More often than not however, companies find they have surprisingly diverse answers to these questions.
How then to get a team focussed on the same goal and spending their energy in the most productive, unified way? We’ve found these tools quite helpful:
Communication: Clearly and continuously communicate your goals and objectives throughout your team, from the top, to each and every member. Continual communication helps individuals understand where they fit in the big picture, and helps them prioritize tasks to line up with the company’s greater mission. Communication is also essential to deliver encouragement, positive reinforcement and coaching.
Listen: Be open to hearing other opinions and considering other goals. For a group to reach its full potential, members must also be able to say what they think, ask for help, share new or unpopular ideas, and risk making mistakes. This can only happen in an atmosphere where team members show concern, trust one another, and focus on solutions as opposed to problems.
Share responsibilities: People often confuse titles with leadership, but the qualities of true leadership can be found throughout an organization. Take stock of your employees, spot the leaders among them, and help these players to take initiative, inspire and encourage others, and positively impact productivity and morale.
Take stock of what you have: Find what each individual is good at and help them channel their unique talents and strengths to help your organisation reach its common goal. Remember also when hiring that you can teach skills but you cannot teach smart.
Build cohesion: To enhance balanced participation in a team, individuals need to feel like part of the team. They do this most readily when they are included and informed. Encourage this by soliciting each team member’s input, if they are not offering suggestions at meetings, invite them to do so. If team members miss meetings, let them know they were missed. Show appreciation for ideas that are offered – even wild ideas.
Manage conflict: It is inevitable that there will be conflict in any team from time to time. The problem is not that differences exist, but in how they are managed. If people believe that conflict never occurs in successful teams, think again. Working through hardships and looking for positive solutions together builds stronger teams.
Make connections: A cohesive team can only add value if it pays attention to the ongoing development of three important connections: to the larger work organization, to team members, and to other work teams. Performance needs to be continually assessed in relationship to corporate priorities, customer feedback, quality measures and individual abilities.