Each week, I read articles and listen to podcasts from various resources on how to build a functional, collaborative, and aligned team. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comment about each article.

Is Your Company as Strategically Aligned as You Think It Is? by Harvard Business Review 

Article’s Summary: Building strategic alignment across an organization is always challenging, but a large gap between actual and perceived alignment makes it that much harder to get on the same page and implement a strategy effectively. In this piece, the authors share insights from a recent analysis of more than 500 employees, which found that actual strategic alignment among employees, managers, and executives was two to three times lower than perceived alignment. In other words, in many organizations, people think that everyone is aligned on what the strategy is, but in reality, different people have widely different understandings. To bridge this gap and foster true strategic alignment, the authors suggest that leaders must focus their strategies on driving customer value; weave those strategies into everyone’s daily work; and develop strategic priorities not in a vacuum, but through collaborative dialogue with senior executives, middle managers, and frontline employees.

My Comments: This is an excellent article highlighting a key problem across organizations: leaders think the organization is aligned but most are not. This is also why I do what I do. 🙂

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The people closest to the work know the most about it by Joe Scarlett

Article’s Summary: Those of us in leadership roles often think that we have the answers to so many of the problems our organizations face. Yet, in my experience, most solutions come from those actually doing the work.

My Comments: Anything from Joe Scarlett is going to be great. And the title speaks for itself.

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Honoring the “I” in Team: The Paradoxical Key to Strong Organizations by Amir Ghannad

Article’s Summary: “I believe the role of a leader is to create an environment in which each member of the team—each “I” that the team actually comprises—is inspired to collaborate toward achieving the team’s objectives.”

My Comments: This is a really good perspective on the importance of remembering that teams are made up of individual people.

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10 Important Conversations to Have When Building a High-Performing Team by Lolly Daskal

Article’s Summary: “It’s important for leaders to communicate with their teams in order to build and develop high-performing teams. By regularly having open and honest communication with team members, leaders can better understand their needs, provide support, and address any issues or challenges that may arise.”

My Comments: Conversations are the key to improving the team experience and the team’s effectiveness. This article provides some good questions to invoke good conversation with your team.

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Don’t Let Distractions Derail Your Company’s Strategy by Harvard Business Review

Article’s Summary: An openness to experimenting, learning, and adapting is an essential characteristic of an effective strategy process. However, it’s easy to get distracted by both external and internal developments and opportunities. Leaders should avoid the temptation to micromanage and assert control to mitigate this risk. Instead, they should strengthen their strategic intent, improve individuals’ connections with the strategy, and encourage better discipline, channeling energies into more productive innovation activities.

My Comments: Distractions are momentum and engagement killers. Often times, they are indicative of a leadership team that has not decided on what is actually important and how the organization will succeed. Not decided means either they haven’t taken the time to decide or they haven’t actually committed to what they said they decided.

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Each week, I read articles and listen to podcasts from various resources on how to build a functional, collaborative, and aligned team. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comment about each article.

How to Excel at Both Strategy and Execution by Harvard Business Review

Article’s Summary: Research has shown that only about 8% of company leaders excel at both strategy and execution. But more and more, we need leaders who can do both. Leaders who master both strategy and execution start by building a bold but executable strategy, addressing the questions “What are we great at?” and “What are we able to achieve?” rather than coming up with lofty plans and asking functional and business-unit teams to do their best to execute. Next, leaders must ensure that the company is investing behind the change, which means linking the budget closely to the strategy. Finally, leaders need to make sure the entire organization is motivated to go the journey. Great leaders know that success stems from specific skills that come together in unique ways to do the challenging tasks in executing the strategy.

My Comments: I included this article because of this paragraph: “Leaders who master both strategy and execution start by building a bold but executable strategy. Next, they ensure that the company is investing behind the change. And last, they make sure the entire organization is motivated to go the journey.” Too often strategy is not bold and is not actually used as a lever to take the organization on a journey.

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Why is Collaboration Difficult For Some Leaders and How to Make it Easier by Lolly Daskal

Article’s Summary: Effective collaboration is essential for leaders in today’s fast-paced, competitive business environment. When leaders work together with their team, they can achieve greater productivity, creativity, and teamwork. However, some leaders still find it difficult to collaborate effectively.

My Comments: I had to include this article because I wrote a book about collaborating across functions. Lolly draws out how what are focusing on determines our ability to collaborate with others.

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10 Ways Managers Maintain Credibility When Higher-ups Reverse Decisions by Leadership Freak 

Article’s Summary: Promised promotions aren’t happening. Instead of increasing headcount you’re laying off. How can you maintain credibility with your team when upper-management changes decisions?

My Comments: This is a reality at some point for every leader that is not the top CEO of the organization. This article provides a nice, concise list of actions to take with your team.

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Into all problem-solving, a little dissent must fall by Ben Fletcher | McKinsey & Company 

Article’s Summary: In today’s interconnected business environment, companies won’t be able to solve problems effectively without encouraging “contributory dissent”—a healthy approach to gathering diverse perspectives that should be taught to team members, modeled by leaders, and supported by culture.

My Comments: This article will cause you to ask “am I seeking out contributory dissent or just hearing what I want to hear?” It is not possible to arrive at the best decision without hearing dissenting viewpoints. Of course, it is your job as the leader to create the environment or culture where dissenting view is expressed.

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Make Sure to End Every Meeting with These 3 Things by Lolly Daskal

Article’s Summary: When you ask someone what they do for a living, it’s not likely that they’ll answer with “Well, I sit in meetings all day.” But when you look at the average businessperson’s schedule, it’s clear that meetings make up a substantial part of many jobs—especially for those in leadership. Meetings are often dismissed as a waste of time, but meetings that have a clear purpose and are well run can actually make things go more smoothly and save time. And what happens after those meetings is just as important.

My Comments: Another article from Lolly, this one on how to end your meeting. One thing missing: what do we need to communicate and to whom, then set a 24 hour time limit to verbally communicate to those individuals (or 24 hours to communicate verbally to direct reports who then have 24 hours to communicate to their direct reports, and so on.)

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Each week, I read articles and listen to podcasts from various resources on how to build a functional, collaborative, and aligned team. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comment about each article.

If You Want to Get Better at Something, Ask Yourself These Two Questions by Harvard Business Review

Summary: No matter how you want to improve, you need to ask yourself two questions first: 1) Do you really want to do better? 2) Are you willing to feel the discomfort of trying new things that won’t work right away? You need to honestly answer “yes” to both of these questions in order to grow. Learning anything new is, by its nature, uncomfortable. So be prepared to try things that won’t work the first time, and to feel awkward and novice and messy. If you remain committed through all of that, you’ll get better.

My Comments: the number one indicator of whether a team is going to take the next step to become more functional, more collaborative, and more aligned, is the willingness of the leader. It is hard to build teams but that is the very role of a leader. This article articulates two great questions to self-evaluate whether or not you are ready to do what is needed to build a functional, collaborative, aligned team.

 

10 Important Conversations to Have When Building a High-Performing Team by Lolly Daskal

Summary: It’s important for leaders to communicate with their teams in order to build and develop high-performing teams. By regularly having open and honest communication with team members, leaders can better understand their needs, provide support, and address any issues or challenges that may arise.

My Comments: the magic with teams occurs in the conversations they have together. A team cannot become functional, collaborative, and aligned without great conversations. Conversations require intentionality. This articles gives some good questions to initiate healthy conversations within the team. 

 

The Never Ending Meeting by The Table Group (podcast episode)

Summary: Despite how a ‘never-ending meeting’ might sound, progressive meetings are our favorite. This week, the team discusses the efficacy of progressive meetings, and why bringing new people into the room is one of the best ways to refine any idea or project.

My Comments: making your meetings great is critical to building a functional, collaborative, and aligned team. I advocate for four types of meetings and the technique described in this episode is a wonderful way to incorporate multiple meetings into one progressive meeting, with clarity and purpose, to make a decision or create a plan quickly.

 

8 Strategies To Maximize Team Trust In Your Business by Martin Zwilling

Summary: Team trust in each other, as well as management, is critical to the long-term success of every venture. It is key to employee engagement, a positive culture, and the productivity necessary to survive and thrive in this rapidly changing worldwide economy which challenges every business today.

My Comments: trust is foundational for every team and I’m always looking for ways that leaders can build trust. This article provides some good suggestions that I hope will provoke thought into ways you might not have considered.

 

Don’t Create a Laundry List. Create a Strategic Plan by Liz Weber

Summary: It happens frequently. It happens with C-Suite executives as well as with mid-level managers. It happens when the excitement of DOING things to transform the organization takes hold. ‘It’ is when the strategic planning team focuses more on what they’re going to DO instead of what they want to ACHIEVE. It is when they stop thinking strategically. It causes teams to create laundry lists instead of strategic plans. …when the strategic planning team focuses more on what they’re going to DO instead.

My Comments: interesting perspective to shift your strategic planning process by focusing on outcomes instead of an action items list (called “strategic objectives”). It’s important to have three strategic anchors that guide the current outcomes (this is not represented in the article), but set that aside as you read the article and use it to reset your thinking to outcomes instead of just “doing.”