The illustration for this posting was kindly provided by Brian Quentin Webb from Taiwan. Brian posts as bQw on Deviant art and you can see this image on his site.
Here is a company purpose statement
“Our purpose is to create value from producing quality products that meet the needs of customers, allowing us to prosper and produce fair returns for shareholders.”
This is an accurate description of what this business is about. But then, it is probably close to what you are about in your organisation. It is very generic. And bland! Copywriters talk about a “sausage headline”, one that is so generic it could apply to anything, even sausage. Well this is a sausage purpose. Statements such as this, often crafted in consensus are usually the product polite compromise. They lack the fire of passion, opinion and conflict. These statements are usually ignored by the people they are supposed to enthuse.
Setting direction is a significant undertaking. I have written on the topic before and will do so again. This note is drawn from the work of J Richard Hackman. As you set direction for your team you will be required to make three trade-offs.
Make the direction clear…but incomplete
Abstract or unclear direction is going to waste the time of your team-members as they try to figure out what you mean and what they should do to achieve your objectives.
Whishy-washy direction may also be the product of laid-back thinking. Perhaps a corporate process required a statement of purpose and a group (or worse, a sub-committee) was tasked with creating something eloquent yet palatable. The purpose of your organisation is a crucial decision for you to make. Setting direction for any team, at any level within your organisation is as important. Your statement of direction needs clarity, bite and enough specificity for your team to recognise their responsibility in the statement.
Leave enough loose ends to attract members of your team
Teams have well understood needs as they take on new work. When teams take up a new task, members require a space in which to wrestle with the context of the work, contribute their interpretation and state their intent. In this way they make the work their work. When instructions are too detailed, it will remain your work. The team can feel hemmed-in. Micro-managed teams may begin to entertain mutiny. And anyway, teams operating close to your customers have the best information and therefore are best able to decide how best to spend their time.
JRH uses the example of teams at Xerox who were required to be on a customer site within four hours of a service call. Services calls were more effective in this process but only at the cost of the flexibility in teams to address other, possibly more urgent customer calls. Nonessential customer calls were taking priority over customer crises.
Great leaders build some ambiguity into specific instructions. A good way to do this in practice is to specify the overall objective and then discuss the second-level objectives, highlighting where they conflict with each other.
Make the direction modest… But challenging
There is a narrow motivating area between boredom and frazzled. Way back in the 60’s Atkinson and Litwin carried out research that showed with hoops and pegs to shows that we are most motivated by a task when we know we have a 50% chance of success. Your team target must not be so high as to be out of reach or so low as to be uninteresting.
How well do you know your staff? To achieve this balance you must know the capabilities of the members of your team. You must also know what they can achieve together as a team. And you cannot get this level of understanding from an ivory tower. Leaders who acheive the equilibrium between ‘doable’ and ‘stretch’ are usually those who have spent the time and energy to get to know their teams well.
Set your team direction … but in congruence with the direction of your organisation
As a team leader you are both follower and leader. Teams that covertly ignore the purpose and strategy of the organisation can be successful as a team and yet not contribute to the success of an organisation. In the same manner, teams that slavishly adhere to directives from above without question or creativity, though obedient, still do not provide the benefit of their local knowledge and may complete their tasks while still missing the point.
This is another tight-rope. How you play your role as leader is important. First you should seek clarity, with great energy if necessary. It is worth building good working relationships with those to whom you report. This would be a good time to read the posting on building relationship. You as leader can then provide your team with direction that is aligned with the organisation and filled with the energy of contribution, understanding and responsibility.
Everyone else’s role is also important. In effective teams, everyone is a leader and everyone is simultaneously a follower. Through conversation the directions set in the organisation are brought into being by decisions and actions made by members of the team. Authority is exercised and energy is released. And this is a risky business. Setting direction carries personal and organisational consequences. Wise leaders engage in this activity deliberately, thoughtfully and with great care. And when they are ready they present their approach with courage.
