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Transcript

6 Actions To Create Clear Direction To Consistently Beat Team Targets · Enhance.training

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Top managers create clear direction in their teams to be able to consistently beat team targets.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: There is a lot of research and studies showing ClearDirection increases team performance by 20% plus.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: In my experience, ClearDirection creates a much bigger increase in performance.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Just think about it.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: If you have several team members going in one way and then several going in a different direction, the lack of coordination drags both groups back.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Neither gets as far, plus they waste resources competing against each other.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Get everyone going in the same direction, all combined efforts complement and reinforce each other.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: The team produces a lot more with the same resources as much less is wasted.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Creating really clear direction needs a lot more than just putting financial targets on a wall each day.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: In my career, I've had over 50 or so bosses that I've had to support, and from personal experience, only two or three really stood out in terms of creating really clear direction, and I've worked in many top companies.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, these individuals are now very senior in big organizations.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: I coach a lot of leaders, and a seemingly small percentage can clearly and simply define their team's direction as we start working together.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: To give you practical and implementable actions to create really clear direction for your team, we are going through.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, top managers define a small number of proprietors to create clear team direction.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, top managers create clear direction by translating strategy into everyday language.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Third, to create clear direction, great managers keep repeating the same message.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, top managers foster engagement and buy-in from the team.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth, great managers make progress visible to maintain clear direction.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, the best managers reinforce clear direction with systems.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: I have worked in many top companies and how top managers create clear direction nearly always includes each of these actions.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: When instilling team direction, too many managers make the mistake of not communicating the direction often enough.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not communicating clear team direction at least weekly, you need to do more to increase the results your team produces.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: So firstly we're going to cover top managers define a small number of priorities to set clear team direction.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: There are going to be a ton of things that you and your team are responsible for delivering.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: You probably have lots of metrics you could look at and many different ways that you could define the direction of your team.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: The other day I asked a finance director I was coaching how he defined his team's direction and thus measured progress.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: He started listing a ton of different KPIs that he actually looked at.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: I stopped him as he got somewhere near the 10 point.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Ideally, you only need one way to clearly define direction for your team.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I joined the board of a company that was about to fail, and the only measure I kept communicating to the team for months was cash generation.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Every time a team member came to me for a decision, I would ask them how each option they presented affected cash.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: I talked about cash in team meetings, in one-on-one meetings, etc.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Everything could be tied back to cash generation.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: A very simple direction consistently communicated.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Do not focus on more than five metrics.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you do, you may as well not focus on anything in the eyes of your team.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Less is more.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Choose one or a very small number of messages or metrics for giving direction to teams.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Jess Coles.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you're new to this podcast, enhance.training provides resources, courses, and coaching for you to build management expertise and confidence to lead any team to their best performance.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Do visit us at enhance.training and take a look at the courses and resources to help managers increase team performance and speed up career progress by years.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, top managers create clear direction by translating strategy into everyday language.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Team members do not follow what they don't understand.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Clear direction is simple.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: It has to be so everyone understands it.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Top managers work hard to align the activities of their team members directly and clearly to company strategy.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, to ensure the direction they choose for the team is long term and will survive more than a few months.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Third, to socialise and get agreement from bosses for the direction of the team that they have chosen.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Another way of doing this is to work with bosses and their team members in creating clear team direction.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: These steps require careful thought, planning, building a strong business case, and then persuading bosses to support the direction for the team.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't do all of these steps, you run the risk of your team direction being changed frequently by bosses, which in my experience is often pretty disastrous to being able to hit team targets.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Big changes of direction usually mean a lot of work gets wasted.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: When you have set clear team directions with bosses, you can then work at filtering this down in clear language to each individual staff member.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Don't use jargon or corporate phrases and carefully explain the why behind the direction.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Back to the cash generation example I mentioned earlier.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: The main goal I gave the credit control team was to collect more money than last month's sales.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Simple, clear, and using everyday language.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: For a B2B salesperson, I might set the goal of winning five clients from their list each month.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Use everyday language to communicate a clear direction at team and individual level.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Third, to create clear team direction, great managers keep repeating the same message.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: I have not worked for many managers that remind you of team direction on a weekly basis.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: The ones that do usually lead high-performing teams that are ahead of their targets.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Many years ago I went to a talk by John Roberts, the founder of AO, which now sells over a billion pounds worth each year of electrical goods online across Europe.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: He described his job as speaking to as many employees as possible, as often as possible, and repeating the business's direction.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: He would keep repeating direction until his staff made jokes about him and could repeat it back word for word.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: This shows how important direction was to John and the lengths he would go to to instill it in staff.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: The direction and the priorities in setting team direction should be communicated in meetings, in one-on-ones, in written updates, in KPIs, put on the wall, through decisions, in projects, etc.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: There are so many opportunities.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Plan at least four different ways that you're going to communicate clear team direction each week and take action.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Show direction is front of mind for you, to your staff, and they will keep it at the front of their minds too.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Use the same language so the message sticks.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Treat communicating direction as a process, not a one-off announcement.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Clarity comes from repetition.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Keep communicating the same message again and again.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, top managers foster engagement and buy-in from the team.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: The more your team is involved in planning how to implement business strategy in their team, the easier the plan will be to implement.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: By engaging the team and getting their input, the final plan is their plan as much as yours.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: We all work harder to ensure our plan succeeds.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have the same ownership and investment when the plan belongs to somebody else.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: So involve your team in breaking down business level strategy and creating team level goals that clearly align to the business strategy.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Then ask the team members to break it down further into sub-team or individual level.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Get them planning the activities and projects needed to deliver the team goals.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Get them problem solving, collaborating and working together.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: A series of workshops are great for this.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: A collaborative approach takes longer to formulate the goals, but you save a lot more time during the implementation phases, usually making it a lot better off as a result.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth, great managers make progress visible to maintain clear direction.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: I love creating visibility and I love sharing that visibility with the team.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Being able to show progress each week against targets is another great way to remind staff about direction and what is important.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Tracking progress gives everyone in the team the same picture, the same information and the same reality check.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: They can make better, more informed decisions as a result.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: We as a team can celebrate wins, course correct as early as practical and replan to ensure we all know what is happening next to meet and beat targets.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Visibility helps create ownership and drives responsibility.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: No one likes letting other team members down.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Invest in tracking progress towards goals and literally spend at least 10 minutes each week reviewing progress as a team.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And sixth, finally, the best managers reinforce clear direction with systems.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: The more long-term your direction and goals, the more it makes sense to create systems that reinforce and embed that direction and the goals in everyday work life.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Systems automatically reinforce the direction.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: This reduces some of the pressure and workload on you to keep repeating and reminding the team of direction.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: So step one, create visibility.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: Step two, create a team habit of reviewing progress.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Then you can think about aligning praise, recognition, bonus payments, and other rewards to progress against specific targets and activities which generate the results that you need.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Then you can work on aligning operating practices or how the team works.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: If, for example, you might ask the team to look at every decision through the lens of how it affects cash in the business, or the profits, or the customer experience, etc.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Other areas to consider you aligning IT systems and the type and motivations of the staff that you hire and how you produce goods and services.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself what do you need to do to fully align team members behind the direction of travel for the team?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Create as much alignment as practical when you are sure your direction is long-term and supports the success of the business.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, in summary, creating clear direction takes a lot of work from the leader or manager of the team.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think that creating clear direction is one of the most important jobs if you want your team to consistently beat targets.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: How top managers create clear direction to consistently beat team targets include these six steps.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Top managers define a small number of priorities to set clear direction.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, the top managers create clear direction by translating strategy into everyday language.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Third, to create clear direction, great managers keep repeating the same message.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, top managers foster engagement and buy-in from the team.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth, great managers make progress visible to maintain clear direction.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: And sixth, finally, the best managers reinforce clear direction with systems.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions on how top managers create clear direction to consistently beat targets, please email me at support at enhance.