Good leadership teams often follow this approach before communicating the brief to their people. They start by clarifying the goals to achieve – the picture of success.
Such leadership teams then stress test the brief. Bearing in mind what they can control in the situation and the resources available, they often focus on the following themes.
Possible To Achieve
Good leadership teams clarify the things that they believe it is possible for their team or organisation to achieve. When doing this they recognise that it will be important to have the following things in place.
Strategies
They recognise it will be important to follow the right strategies that will give their team or organisation the greatest chance of success.
Staff
They recognise it will be important to have the right people in the right places in order to increase the chances of achieving success.
Support
They recognise it will be important to give their people the right kinds of support to enable them to do superb work and achieve success.
Good leadership teams aim to make sure these things are in place. Providing this is the case, they then do the following exercise.
Maybe Possible To Achieve
Good leadership teams clarify the things that they believe their team or organisation may be able to achieve. This is assuming they are following the right strategy with the right people and giving them the right support.
They recognise that there may be consequences – such as both pluses and minuses – involved in encouraging their people to focus on such aims.
The Potential Pluses – These may include people being able to achieve extra targets, improve profits or performance, add to the core offering and help the team or organisation to build an even better reputation.
The Potential Minuses – These may include people sometimes failing to focus on the core business, being stretched too far and not having the skills to deliver these things for the team or organisation.
Good leadership teams may therefore do the following exercise before deciding if they want their people to focus on these aims.
Probably Not Possible To Achieve
Good leadership teams clarify the things that, at this point, they believe are probably not possible for their team or organisation to achieve. They do this for several reasons.
They recognise that their team or organisation does not necessarily have the strengths or resources needed to achieve such goals.
They recognise that they do not want their people to channel their energy into working towards goals that are not achievable or desirable at the moment.
They recognise that some seemingly impossible looking goals may be possible to achieve in certain situations – such as a crisis – but now is not the time to encourage their people to strive to achieve such goals.
Good leadership teams may therefore do the following exercise in order to encourage their people to focus on the core business.
Good leadership teams do their due diligence before communicating the brief – the goals to achieve – to their people. They do this by stress testing what they believe it is possible for their team or organisation to achieve.
They make sure: a) they are following the right strategy – the strategy most likely to achieve success; b) they have the right staff – the right people in the right places; c) they are giving people the right support.
Some leadership teams do not go through these steps. They communicate the targets without testing or improving the possibilities of their people being able to deliver the goods. This can have a debilitating effect.
Looking ahead, can you think of a situation where you may want to follow elements of the clarifying and testing the brief approach? How can you do this in your own way? What may be the benefits of taking this approach?
If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to complete the following sentences.
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