How do you define your team strategy? As a manager, you can create shared alignment and impact for team members to thrive by empowering team members to drive cohesive action that achieves business outcomes. They can also drive a more customer-centric mindset and belief.
Ask the right strategic questions to your team.
Ask the right strategic questions to elevate the team. The more you ask the right questions, the less downstream friction the team will have. As they say, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole, so focus on the bigger picture.
As a leader, it’s essential to:
- Organize and orchestrate people with the skills to drive growth strategies and initiatives across different levels (even when those people don’t report to you)
- Have a shared purpose and clear vision of how to attain it.
- Set priorities at all levels so teams can translate a strategic vision into doing exemplary work at the right moment.
Unfortunately, 60% of projects fail because of a communication breakdown. Strategic and long-term goals can easily be forgotten with too many reactive or short-term projects and conflicting priorities. Pay attention to the following critical concepts to avoid this in your team. Innovation and optimization go together and clarify your team strategy so you can execute it.
Innovation and optimization go together.
Some leaders think innovation is primarily for top-level executives, while others focus more on optimization. Ultimately, most leaders agree it’s a blend of both. For example, process-focused, innovation-oriented, orchestration, and technical specialists are critical in high-growth environments. So, how can you blend all four across your direct team and the broader extended (network) team?
Optimizing and innovating are crucial for a manager—you likely have to do both. If you’re only optimizing, you won’t have time to be creative, and if you’re only innovating, you won’t get quick wins. Remember, optimization alone won’t drive a strategy forward. In other words, execution requires an activated team.
The gap you feel regarding information, people, processes, or technology is driven mainly by not publishing the team’s “why.” However, you can fill the gap through the right strategy and tactics. For example, you can communicate where people in your team can direct their attention (instead of trying to change or control the overall direction of the entire company).
Clarify your team strategy so you can execute
Deep dive into what you need to execute and what you need from others to accelerate execution throughout the session. We examine why teams are critical to success and what team members need to know and understand to help you get there. Finally, we introduced the 12 strategic questions to drive clarity within your direct influence teams.
It’s tough to execute in a high-growth environment due to not having all the correct information or not helping others lean into their strengths. So, who is responsible for making the necessary adjustments? You are!
As a manager, you have a critical role — On one hand, you can give feedback to the executive team and discuss their strategies with leaders in different departments. Conversely, you can address tactical gaps and identify barriers that get in the way.
Unfortunately, in both areas (strategy and tactics), it can be hard to figure out what to do, primarily when the team strategy isn’t defined.
What you can do
It’s essential to document your team strategy, which you could call a team charter or functional charter. This is done partly by honing your answers to the questions outlined above.
Then, use your team charter with your leadership team. This ensures that everybody knows what other groups and functions are doing organization-wide. All teams need authority to work cross-functionally, which comes from structure and communication. Work with the enablement team to help them create a vision and mission for your team.
What it means to you
As a manager, you must constantly consider driving cohesion and execution. You’ll need to connect tasks to goals, align with value, improve performance, and create ongoing impact. So, think through your team strategy and tactics to discuss first in your head and later with your team. You can also practice with each other!
