DIRECTIONAL LEADERSHIP

Leaders should not think they are the only ones worthy of creating and knowing corporate visions. All employees need to know their companies’ visions and how their work contributes to them. When visions are established, leaders need to build consensus. The aim must be for employees to come to work to pursue visions, not just to perform the functions of their jobs. The four challenges applying to Directional Leadership and action items related to the four challenges include:

Challenge One: Recruit support from the top 29 percent.

*Identify the top 29 percent.

*Bring the top 29 percent together as a group.

*Solicit input from the top 29 percent into the vision.

*Ask the top 29 percent to recruit the other 54 percent.

Challenge Two: Prepare the organization for change.

*Agree on unity within the leadership team. For success, all members of the team must be on the same page.

*Give the reason for the change.

*Tell employees how the change will affect them.

*Use data to tell the story — numbers and facts can be very powerful.

*Introduce the change as an improvement.

*Celebrate the past and the future.

Challenge Three: Let them know how they contribute.

*Assess how well expectations have been communicated.

*Let employees create the expectations through goal setting.

*Assess how well consequences have been communicated.

*Determine positive consequences that would drive behavior.

*Ensure the consequences motivate the behavior.

Challenge Four: Constantly communicate progress.

*Create a method to share information regularly.

*Let employees know where they stand.

*Host a quarterly vision review meeting.