Leaders eliminate distractions and keep the team focused
Leaders MUST ensure the organizational structure is aligned to emphasize and support connected leadership. The organizational structure must facilitate the coordination and integration of all business functions to maximize their network in a way to leverage resources through focused efforts. Key to this structure is the removal of functional barriers by creating an organization with no boundaries:
- Ensuring common understanding and urgency of priorities
- Clarifying responsibilities among managers and organizational units
- Empowering and fostering authority lower in the organization
- Addressing problems and sharing knowledge
- Gaining personal commitment to a shared vision
It's not enough to just tell the team to execute the transformation, leaders make the linkage from transformation plan down to actual activities that are broken down into actionable daily behaviors. Ensuring alignment of member behaviors back to the overall transformation gives their work meaning with consistent progress. Yet, in a fast-paced world, there is no shortage of distractions. Side projects, interesting new ideas, and the crisis of the day can divert resources from key activities. In isolation, pursuing these small ideas might make sense, but when put in the broader context of the entire organization’s transformation plan, leaders get to see exactly how non-essential these distractions are. Leaders have to remind people of their priorities while eliminating these resource-draining distractions. Chasing these ideas prevents the transformation as designed from being executed.
Put those ideas on the prioritization list and see where they stack up versus other initiatives. For any new idea, analyze the cost and benefits of starting this project and look at what it's going to cost to stop another one. Resources are limited too, so if looking to start something new, leadership has to determine what to stop doing. As a leader your ability to eliminate distractions and keep the team focused on the highest priority initiatives is critical. Mintzberg spoke of these distractions or add on items as an emergent strategy.
Leaders must slow down and respect the change process, recognize that people need time to understand new ideas. Fundamentally, people want to succeed at work, yet they cannot do well in their roles if constant change creates frustration because it's impossible to complete something before the next change begins. It's not about stopping change, it's about creating space to be successful at change. Be aware, help the team understand what's going on. Make them aware of how uncertainty can impair their thinking. Just knowing they're experiencing fear, uncertainty and disorder can help the team cope with it.
It’s not about having all the answers it is about helping the team see a way forward and providing increased clarity about the impact of the change. Leaders do this by setting clear expectations about the vision for the future, what could happen, and the benefits of a positive outcome. Break the complex change down into smaller steps to create certainty about what's happening next. The more they can manage the fear, uncertainty, and disorder the more productive they will be through the change.
