Create followship with your Leadership-team.
Are you frustrated with slow execution in your organization?
People busy doing the wrong things?
Is your organization not agile?
Perhaps you should take a hard look at your Leadership-team, and help it develop a solid common grounding.
The Leadership-team is often overlooked when organizations go through major changes – we assume that because they are at the top, they are automatically engaged and dedicated. They often are – but mostly dedicated to their own function, and their personal careers.
Major change starts at the top, and a strongly united Leadership-team can be the catalyst for creating effective followship among your People. If the Leadership-team works well together, spends time together, support each other publicly, engages in each others function and deals effectively with conflict, then it becomes much easier to promote the changing course that you want to engage all your People in.
A good way to start, is to involve the Leadership-team in a Strategy building for the Company. A good Strategy establishes a common Purpose and ambitious medium to long term Goals. It is not rocket science – but you need to do it!
The father of all strategic thinking, Carl von Clausewitz advocated that a good Strategy provides a framework and a direction that sets People and Leaders free to act. When you do work on Strategy, beware the misconception that you should also plan execution and details. Set the Direction, provide high level Goals, and then let your People get on with it.
By involving the Leadership-team intensely in the Strategy building, they get to own it; and they will support it strongly together. You will benefit immensely from being good role models, and your People will study your behaviors closely. They will look for disagreements, cracks and loopholes – but when they find support and trust. they will start believing you. That is how you create followship!
