Aligning Teams with Organizational Goals

Written by Kevin Eikenberry


Teams don’t have to be aligned withrepparttar goals ofrepparttar 136909 organization. Teams can work on what they believe to berepparttar 136910 right things. They can work diligently on creatingrepparttar 136911 results they think matter. They can be completely committed to success from their perspective.

A non-aligned team could enjoy each other and their work. They could accomplish much, and all of that could be completely counter to whatrepparttar 136912 organization needs. Can you see this happening?

It isn’t just a fantasy, I’ve seen it, and I’ll bet you have too. Maybe you’ve even experienced it.

Teams can’t succeed in a vacuum, but far too often that is what organizations expect them to do, and it can lead torepparttar 136913 scenarios I’ve just described.

Sometimes this vacuum is created by omission – leaders just aren’t thinking about it or are “too busy” to set context for team success. Other timesrepparttar 136914 reason is optimism – leaders believe in their team members and their skills. After all they hired bright people – and bright people will figure it all out.

And sometimesrepparttar 136915 vacuum is caused by a far more pervasive problem - no clear organizational goals, objectives or strategies exist to align to. Leaders must create clear strategies and they must create a clear line of sight throughoutrepparttar 136916 organization, so people and teams can connect their work torepparttar 136917 important strategies ofrepparttar 136918 organization.

It takes effort to get a team in alignment withrepparttar 136919 organization’s goals and strategies. And it is impossible when those goals and strategies don’t exist.

Yes, strategies and goals may exist. And yes, they may have been communicated. This is a good start, but isn’t enough. Teams can’t gainrepparttar 136920 clear direction they need without conversation. It isrepparttar 136921 responsibility of leadership to provide that opportunity for conversation. This conversation providesrepparttar 136922 understanding which providesrepparttar 136923 teamrepparttar 136924 context they need to clarify their goals and makerepparttar 136925 decisions that come along during their work.

If you want to build stronger alignment betweenrepparttar 136926 team’s work andrepparttar 136927 organization’s goals, considerrepparttar 136928 following:

Start atrepparttar 136929 beginning. Make surerepparttar 136930 organization’s goals and strategies are set. If not, there isn’t much chance ofrepparttar 136931 team being highly successful. At a minimumrepparttar 136932 team needs to understand, fromrepparttar 136933 start, why their work product matters inrepparttar 136934 bigger picture and how they can make a positive impact.

Credibility - A Golden Key to Becoming More Influential

Written by Kevin Eikenberry


You have been named a new leader in your organization, or you are a long time leader with some new people in your organization. Or maybe you aren’t a formal leader but are working on an important new project. Or perhaps you are staff person with expertise that can benefitrepparttar business… but only if you can get others to see your perspective.

These are just four situations where havingrepparttar 136908 ability to be more influential could make a big difference in our effectiveness.

Regardless of our role, rank or seniority; no matter what our job, we can all benefit from being more influential. After all we are all trying to influence others all day long.

One key to achieving that greater influence is credibility.

Credibility

Enhancing your credibility with others is one ofrepparttar 136909 best ways to become more influential. People want to followrepparttar 136910 advice and counsel of those with expertise, and you want to be one of those people!

It is not enough to be an expert on a subject matter or a situation though. You must also be perceived as an expert. That perception comes from how you carry yourself and interact with others on this subject AND in every other way as well. You see, credibility is more than just expertise. Credibility is a combination of expertise and trustworthiness.

Kevin Hogan, in The Science of Influence states it as a formula:

Credibility = Expertise + Trustworthiness.

Very few people can maintain great influence without both parts of this equation. There are certainly situations whererepparttar 136911 expertise is so profound that idiosyncrasies and even rudeness will be tolerated becauserepparttar 136912 person is so knowledgeable. This is likely notrepparttar 136913 case for all of us.

Onrepparttar 136914 other hand, there are situations where you have likely trusted someone so much that they were credible on subjects they might not have been so expert about. They were still influential with you because of that extremely high trust level. After all, you reason, they care enough about me that they wouldn’t steer me wrong with their advice or suggestions. These cases too, are isolated.

So we need to work on both parts of this combination in order to become more influential.

Expertise

Expertise is certainly a good place to start. If you are an IT professional you better know a router from a right click. If you are in finance, you better know a payment from a promissory note. That is basic expertise, and only a starting point. To greatly increase your influence through your credibility, you must develop your knowledge and expertise consistently and continuously far beyond those basics.

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