Guiding Your Team toward Your Vision

Once you have a vision for where your team is going, how do you turn this vision picture into a concrete plan?

There are some simple steps to make this happen. Determine tangible, clear measures for success. Focus on the critical few. Make those tough strategic decisions—not only what you will do, but just as importantly what you won’t do. Engage your critical stakeholders. Monitor and course correct. Celebrate your successes.

What would it take to make this the best team yet?

Ask people to share their prior team experiences, and use these inspirational stories as the foundation for designing the four to six guiding principles for how this team will work together. After you create them, live up to them and expect everyone else on the team to do the same.

Is your team meeting the most exciting part of the week?

If the answer's no, then what would it take to make it so? Don’t give into the common thinking that all meetings are bad and ineffective, because that doesn’t have to be the case if you commit to doing the hard work that will make it better. Find out what people expect and want from these meetings, and then redesign the agenda to deliver those expectations. Create an environment for fully engaged participation by all team members, and permit nothing less. Don’t allow a select few to dominate (especially the team leader). Spice up your meetings with variety- in the location, the topics, the process and, at the very least, in the seating! Start using a timer to help everyone stay on track. You may laugh, but it works! Does your team have really productive discussions that end with clear decisions, actions, and accountabilities? Start today by figuring out which items on the meeting agenda require a decision to be made, construct a clear and explicit decision-making process, and understand the rationale for the path chosen.

Other effective practices?

• Create conflict norms that will ensure that all voices are effectively heard.
• Send information out in advance to promote informed participation.
• Balance inquiry and advocacy.
• Keep a curious mind-set.
• Ask who needs to know what you all just decided and figure out how to communicate with them effectively.

Is the team leader keeping too tight a lid on the jar?

If you are this team leader, then you can directly impact this if you think making a change is important enough and you commit to doing what it takes. Beware any dominating behavior in team meetings. Share your opinion last. Let small, breakout groups discuss controversial or sensitive topics before a large group debrief. Learn how to manage yourself and lead the team effectively through high-conflict situations and bring a discussion to closure, with full commitment from all team members to fully implement the final decision.

Do your team members hold themselves accountable for living up to their commitments?

If you don’t have a common picture of what great personal accountability looks like, then start there and create one as a team. Make sure that you delegate and follow up effectively. Celebrate the right behaviors in the right way for each person on the team. Use team meetings as a showcase for members to uphold their commitments to each other and to you. Conduct an accountability assessment as a team, pick a few areas to improve upon, and then do it. Remember: “We give ourselves credit for our intentions; but hold others accountable for their results.” Learn, then coach.

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