We’re working with the leadership team of a multi-billion dollar project that’s critical to the future of the company. Through a series of offsite retreats with dozens of the top managers and key professionals we’ve developed strong alignment on core Strategic Imperatives for the next year. We’re now forming SI Teams and solid implementation plans to move each Strategic Imperative forward.
There’s one major obstacle on the horizon: the senior leadership is frantically caught up in daily urgencies that are distorting its priorities. The team is feeling intense pressure to address every crisis, micromanage a long list of problems, and do way too much. They’re like a tin can surrounded by dozens of powerful magnets. They’re spinning faster and faster as competing magnets pull them in all directions.
What’s needed is a periodic stepping back to look at whether it’s the magnets or the team that’s controlling their time and priorities. Click on “Working ON the Team versus Working IN the Team” for a less than two minute video clip where I outline this way too common problem and a few simple approaches to address it.
As our organizations spin faster and faster many leadership teams allow their priorities to be badly distorted. Things that matter most — team dynamics, touchy moose-on-the-table issues, key priorities — are often crowded out by things that matter least — crisis du jour or technical problems better solved by those closest to the action — and the team spins round and round.
Further Reading and Resources:
- “A Fourteen-Point Team Check Up“
- “Leveraging Strengths and Building Team Spirit“
- “Culture Change Starts with the Management Team“
- “Team Building Lessons from the Wisdom of the Hive“
- “Thoughts That Make You Go Hmmm on…Team Building“
- “Nine Reasons Many Groups Aren’t Teams“
- Building Team Spirit – for a broad selection of articles and blog posts
- “Use This 10 Point Checklist for a Leadership Check Up“
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