How To Align Your Leadership Team To Drive Transformation

Ep9_The New Way_HowToAlignLeadershipTeam

Don’t you hate it when everyone around the table agrees in the room, there’s lots of smiling and nodding but after the meeting wraps… there’s just no follow through?  Well, at least not in the way you’d hoped.  So frustrating! But the truth is that a lack of dissent is not the same thing as genuine alignment and team buy-in.

Look, alignment is hard.  Experience has taught me that it rarely happens organically.  An aligned team takes intention and consistent effort, but we all know it’s worth it.

That’s why, in this week’s episode of The New Way, I’m breaking down my take on what it takes to align the leadership team to help drive transformation.

I share:

  • The key topics to cover when building shared consensus;

  • The main difference between practical and emotional trust, and how to build both with the team; and

  • How to develop the right team business rhythm.

This episode will be especially useful if your team has recently formed or been restructured, or if you’re new to the senior leadership role.

If you’re eager to create a focused, collaborative, innovative, productive and genuinely invested team, any effort you invest in aligning your team will pay dividends across the entire organisation.

Take a listen. I hope you really enjoy tuning in!

TOPICS DISCUSSED AND WHERE TO FIND THEM:

[3:00]: This episode is especially relevant if your team has recently formed or restructured

[3:45]: In an organisational setting, alignment is about working in sync together to achieve a common purpose or goal

[4:00]: An unaligned team will cause a lot of problems across the organisation

[5:30]: Your leadership team can be misaligned even if everything seems okay on the surface

[6:00]: It is important to understand that a lack of dissent does not mean alignment - they’re not the same thing

[6:20]: There is an easy way to find out whether there is alignment within the organisation

[7:15]: Don’t despair if your organisation isn’t in alignment as research has shown that it isn’t something that necessarily happens on its own. It takes effort!

[7:30]: There are three pillars in getting your leadership aligned

1 - Shared consensus

2 - Trusting relationships

3 - Consistent business rhythm

[8:00]:  A shared consensus requires making time for regular strategic business planning sessions and workshops with your leadership team.

[9:00]: Having everyone in the team on a level playing field in a workshop is great for building consensus

[10:50]: Trusting relationships 

  • We want the leadership team to trust the senior leader

  • Trust each other as a peer group

  • Practical trust to exist in the group where they can rely on each other to get things done

  • Emotional trust 

[11:50]:  When emotional trust is present, the leadership team is more likely to be collaborative, innovative, productive and genuinely invested

[12:50]: Trust is built from the top down

[13:00]: Trust is the pillar that takes the longest to build

[13:50]: Consistent business rhythm is our final pillar - putting processes in place

  • A series of regular meetings in everyone’s calendar

  • Check ins

  • Monthly or quarterly lunches together or other activities

  • Updating performance agreements

  • Each member of the leadership team working backwards with their own team to trickle down their responsibilities

  • Clever templates, systems and processes

  • Whatever is needed to consistently deliver

[15:30]: Remember, this isn’t a once and done type of thing. It takes consistent effort and shift

[16:00]: You can never repeat your message enough

[16:30]: Recap on the three pillars and what it takes to achieve alignment

Website: https://www.everchange.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drkatebyrne/


Kate Byrne