When Molly came to work with our collective members at The Restoration Project, she had been a business owner for longer than we had. We first brought Molly in to help us with some growth strategies, mostly around marketing, PR and client engagement.
As the Founder, I had typically been the one creating vision and helping us all move toward alignment, so when Molly came to work with us I sketched out what I thought would be a good way for us to gain clarity around our engagement and keep transparency, visibility, and accountability (oh that feared word) high.
This plan involved us all getting together for a 2-4 hour meeting to discuss desired outcomes, measurables, timelines and to dos: overall clarity on the goals and priorities for the year tied to specific metrics. I also suggested a weekly check-in that would create visibility and understanding around what was accomplished the previous week and what the focus areas for the upcoming week would be.
My teammates pushed back. “She’s been a successful business owner.” “I don’t think we need that level of oversight.” “That feels like we are micromanaging her.”
I was surprised at the pushback because this is the level of detail we had been used to operating within. Through additional dialogue we agreed to move forward with what I had sketched out and see how it went. Although it was quite a bit of work upfront, Molly said she was grateful for the clarity and specificity. This showed her how she could “win” with and for us.
As the weeks went on, she even shared appreciation for the discipline the process put around how she spent her time. The best news? She has been very successful in achieving the outcomes and measurables for our team she is responsible for – so much so that she is now the managing director of our practice.
What did I learn here? We assume that because people are “good at their job” or because we think “they get it” or “should know” that we can skip the fundamentals. This is a huge leadership mistake I see play out time and time again, especially on executive teams.
I believe this happens for a few reasons:
- We don’t want to offend the other person – when we are getting to know someone we don’t know what they know and what they don’t, and we don’t want to make them feel stupid or repeat things they already know
- We hire someone for expertise we don’t have and assume they should know how to do it – which they should and likely do, but if they don’t get your vision and expectations, if they don’t have the context for your organization and culture, they will likely let you down out of the gate
- We want to give the new person space and grace – time to settle in and figure things out, leniency to mess things up because that’s how we learn…but experience tells us this is how bad habits are formed and leaning in early and often is more advantageous
- We don’t want the person to feel micromanaged or come off as overbearing
- We are too busy and just want the person to jump in and take things over or off our plate – checking the box and throwing things over the fence vs. strategically and thoroughly delegating
Whether you have a new team member, new goals and priorities, a new strategic objective, or a new project, making time to create a vision and set expectations is critical for reducing noise and frustration, creating commitment, and improving effectiveness and the likelihood of overall success.
Before we talk about practical ways to create clarity around a vision and expectations, there are some truths we need to talk about.
- There is a difference between micromanagement and accountability – this isn’t about telling people what, why, how, and when things will be done but about sharing your vision and expectations and opening up a conversation so we can get to collective commitment
- High performers want to know how to win and appreciate clarity and specificity
- Without specific measurables and timelines the path will be rockier and longer than it has to be
- Investing upfront builds momentum and prevents headaches later – this is what mature, disciplined organizations do because they want to be around for the long haul
If you are still engaged with these ideas, then let’s talk about some practical tips to consider.
Here are some things you will want to make sure you have dialogue and discussion about:
- Your organizational values: What do your values mean? Which behaviors align and which don’t? What do your values played out look and feel like when someone is at their best? It is important that you have a vision for what ideal looks and feels like, and what is not acceptable that is measurable.
- Minimum expectations and nonnegotiables: At a minimum what do we expect from everyone? Yes, these days you have to be clear about naming them…even what it means to show up on time or dress appropriately. You can be frustrated, then get over it and do it because that’s just where we are. I would invite every leader to have a conversation with their direct reports about their nonnegotiables. These are the things that someone does not want compromised. Assumed or left unsaid and this can create problems.
- Where your organization is in its lifecycle and how you operate: This is a big one! When we are small we operate differently than as we grow (more transparency, accountability, and structure is required to scale). When we are in growth mode, some things are more important than others, or we are willing to make different choices and decisions than if we are stable or enjoying a fruitful season. Market changes, profitability targets, competitive pressure, turnover, and many other factors play a role that we rarely discuss and could make us much more successful or the road to achieving our goals a little easier.
- Your vision for what success looks and feels like: This should be articulated for the overall organization, people’s roles, new initiatives or objects, and projects. What can’t change? What needs to change? What is most important/what should be our focus and priorities? What are we trying to accomplish/what are our goals and metrics? How do we want to be in the doing/what cultural components are important to keep top of mind? Take these all the way down to what is to be done, by whom, by when so you have line of sight to key milestones to track and celebrate progress.
- Your leadership philosophy and management practices: What is the meeting structure? How often do we do 1-on-1s? What are the expected frameworks and outcomes of meetings and 1-on-1s? How do we ideate, solve problems, and deal with conflict? What is our strategy for managing people’s work? What is our strategy for developing people and their skills? What does good leadership look and feel like?
This may seem like a lot. Sometimes my clients are resistant that we need to put this much energy and effort into clarifying the vision. Admittedly, sometimes I ask myself, “Are we going over the top on this?” Then I get a reminder like the one in my inbox this week.
This is from a client moving through a huge organizational restructure and reset. Months of dedicated work to communicating the new vision, clarifying meaning, coaching to alignment, and all this time wondering if it is working. Then she received this note from one of her leaders (some language changed and things redacted to preserve anonymity):
I have been employed here for five years. In those first couple of years, I was consumed with learning and chasing my goals, so that was what led me. Then my role changed, and during that time and since, I felt rudderless with no direction.
While you mentioned that some people now are pushing back, saying that our leadership methods are getting “too corporate”, I longed for direction, order, and moving together in mission. In recent months I have expressed my frustration and suggested that we needed someone to more specifically direct our work.
I could never have imagined that things would turn around so quickly, just at the time when it was do-or-die for some of our newest and largest initiatives. We couldn’t do what we need to do without your strong, compassionate, calm leadership.
I admire what you do, and you are helping me become a better leader!
Leaders, we need you to invest in a creating, clarifying, and coaching to a vision that we can understand and has meaning behind it. We are craving it.
Get clear and specific enough that we know what to come back to when the world gets noisy, chaotic, or overwhelming. You are not micromanaging, you are directing. You are creating efficiency and effectiveness and driving alignment. These days, that is part of our most important work.
If you need support in doing this, it’s one of my favorite things to help executives do: Email me at dreambuilder@the-restorationproject.com or check out our work at https://www.the-restorationproject.com.
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Grit, Gratitude, and Grace 