Achieving Ultimate Commitment with Your Leadership Team (Part 2)

March 16, 2017
 

In this two-part topic, we are taking an in-depth look at how we can achieve “ultimate commitment” with our leadership teams.  True commitment is not possible if employees do not understand our company’s purpose, vision, and goals. Continuing our February discussion on the 5 Questions that Change Everything, this month we are looking at the gaps in our services and developing a strategic plan to grow and create ultimate commitment.

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5 Questions That Change Everything

  1. If we (as a business/organization) no longer existed, what difference would it make?
  2. What are we called to do
    • What is the purpose of our company?
    • What is our vision & mission?
  3. What are our core competencies?
    • What are we the best at?
    • Are the thing we are best at in line with our vision and mission?
  4. Where are the gaps?
    • Where are the gaps of people that aren’t being reached that need our services?
  5. So now what do we do?
    • What is our strategic plan to get there?
    • How can we get there without changing the foundation of our organization?

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What are our Core Competencies?

  • The way we treat our customers w/ respect & dignity
  • We can be a lot of “jack of all trades and masters of none”
  • Are we stretching ourselves & our people too much at times by trying to do work/job outside of our core competencies?
  • What services do we offer vs. what are our “core services”?
  • Competency = knowledge / experience & confidence
  • Engagement
  • Know who (who’s) you are
  • Have a clear vision
  • Know what you do best so you can do your best
  •  Examples of Competencies:
    • Interpersonal Skills
    • Develop self/others
    • Drive
    • Critical Thinking Skills
    • Influencing Skills
    • Implementing Skills
    • Recruiting
  •  What are our competencies as an organization?
    • Relationships / being relational to everyone
    • Lead with guidance from the Holy Spirit – how do you do that?
    • Empower people to move forward
    • Everyone must know their role & understand who they are, what they are, what they do best & what we do best as a company

Where are the gaps? Where are the gaps of people that aren’t being reached that need our services?

  • In our team?
  • With our customers?
  • In our services?
  • If you don’t have goals & objectives, you won’t have any gaps
  • Engagement/empowerment gap
  • Communication/marketing gap
  • We pursue what we are good at vs. mission and vision.       Not looking past what we do.
  • Not being within Market value when bidding jobs
  • Not having completed Market research
  • Not being Competitive
  • Figuring out the perception of the customer. Knowing what other services we could provide.
  • Entrepreneur aptitude – not creative problem solvers
  • Not being innovative
  • Failure to appreciate the cost – value
  • Unknowns – don’t venture out beyond the known
  • Lack of understanding the business

What do we do now? What are our strategic plan to get there? How can we get there without changing the foundation of our organization?

  • We need to get to our know ourselves
  • Fill our gaps
  • Have a clear values sheet to know exactly who we are
  • What is our mission, vision & passion
  • Passion attracts others & brings engagement
  • You need to know yourself (without comparing yourself to others) before anyone else can understand you
  • You can’t know your gaps until you know who you are
  • Have, know and execute a strategic plan
  • Adjust as you go – it is an ongoing awareness and process.
  • Be thinking about what is next as the bar is always rising.
  • Get a day in and day out strategy to execute.
  • Have a level of excellence
  • Accountability
  • Ownership
  • Have a visionary leader and outstanding managers
  • Understanding the business
  • Evaluate and sometimes change the Foundation/Core Values
  • Having the right Leadership

What challenges do we face when considering these questions?

  • Not 100% committed
  • Feeling disconnected
  • No commonality
  • Not working together as a team for the common goal
  • Unhealthy competition
  • Not leading by example
  • Absence of humility
  • Copied emails to inappropriate recipients
  • Lack of maturity

What are potential solutions to these challenges?

  • Life balance
  • Genuine connections
  • Education in delivery – how a message is delivered matters
  • Connection – Encouraging team to connect (one example:  prayer group within the company)
    • “If you have people working together on a common goal, you can’t help but become friends.”
    • “Alone, we can do so little; together we can do so much.”  Helen Keller
    • “None of us is as smart as all of us.” Ken Blanchard
  • Evaluate whether or not we have the right people on the team
  • Establish orders
  • Education
  • Listen
  • Capitalize on moments for the Kingdom – it may mean diverting from our agenda
  • Keep our goals in front of the team
  • Deal with sin and love the sinner

Take Away

  • Keep connecting people to the foundation of organization
  • Execution of the plan would be as important as the end result of the execution plan
  • Stay focused on core principles
  • We have met the enemy – us. Realize that we are not perfect, connect with that which is.
  • Wisdom is not a commodity – it is rarely achieved.

Learn More

There is still time to register your leadership team for our 1/2 day Leadership Summit this Friday, March 17th. Topic: “Vision, Mission, & Calling: 5 Questions That Change Everything”. Register here!

Join the Conversation

What is the biggest challenge you face when it comes to commitment from your employees?