Ways to be an integrative leader as you craft a roadmap – and
set goals – for the work ahead.
A logistics company that I know had leaders who seldom talked with individual workers. Their strategic plan, or their vision, for the company, was done out of their corner office. It wasn’t highly effectively.
These leaders have now changed the way they lead. They have become Integrative Leaders.
They now see their company as a team. They now integrate focused on helping their direct reports participate in the planning process – and setting goals. They model how their managers can be integrative leaders and set goals as well.
As integrative Leaders they are now engaging, or integrating, their team members into crafting a roadmap for the work ahead. They are asking their team to be their operational advisor. They are letting team members know that the company’s new way of planning is to gather the team’s insight, contribution, and buy – in. The Leaders new role is more coordinating, integrating, and communicating the needs and the solutions developed by their team. They are focusing more on outputs of the process not just the inputs.
The senior leader kept walking their walk by asking the right questions:
Are these goals easy to recognize?
The leaders started a dialog with workers about why company goals were important. They stressed why they would impact their customers, the company, and fellow workers. They listened to the feedback. They adjusted the goals and their language based on what they heard.
Is it easy to measure progress toward the goals?
They talked with managers and workers about what progress, or their deliverables, would look like at each stage of the process. Then, they came to agreement on clear measure for those deliverables.
Do we know what “success” means for each goal?
They discussed this point at length with their team. They made sure that everyone:
- knew what the company’s standards for success were going to be,
- understood the clear time frames established,
- had a clear idea of what specific teams needed to carry out, and
- understood their individual responsibilities.
Question
How might you develop goals that better connect the dots between what line workers do and the impact they ensure for your
customers?
Chuck Scharenberg is the Founder of More Profit More Freedom, a consultancy that supports the acceleration and execution of large-scale growth for small businesses. His practice has successfully grown businesses based on the philosophy that asking the right questions results in challenging leaders to clarity their vision and a path forward.
Challenging Leaders to solve the Right problems by asking the Right questions