The key to creating team alignment

Having alignment within a team means everyone being on the same page, understanding the vision, the purpose of the team, the values, the goals and the behaviours, and knowing how these all connect from a team level to an organisation level. This alignment helps to create unity across the team.  

While everyone in the team performs a different role and has different tasks and strengths, alignment means they have a common vision, purpose, value, goals and behaviours to come together as one and achieve the desired outcome.

If there is misalignment in any of these areas, the team’s performance and success will become questionable.

It is the leader’s responsibility to communicate and build this alignment within the team, helping each team member to own the role they play in the big picture and be committed to making the desired outcome happen. This should be done by ensuring that every team member has a detailed understanding of the organisation’s strategy and what it stands for.

Business strategy 

It astounds me how many organisations don’t have a business strategy or a ‘Strategy on a Page’ (SoaP). A SoaP is a simplified overview of the business strategy that fits on one page. It includes the purpose, vision and strategic/key areas of focus and values/behaviours.

A business strategy document can be many pages long, also detailing the data behind the SoaP, the initiatives and actions that will deliver the business goals.

The team should be able to see the direction of the business by reading the SoaP and everything else in the business should have alignment to the SoaP. Any initiative, idea or allocation of budget should be communicated with the business strategy in mind showing how doing ‘this’ will lead to achieving ‘this’ in the strategy.

Sometimes we will come up with great ideas and initiatives, but if there isn’t a clear alignment to the business strategy, then maybe now is not the time for it to be done.

The business strategy provides a scope of works that the business will be focused on achieving during a specified span of time. This is the priority for the business and should represent every part of the business.

Without clear direction, expectations and identity, the business risks misalignment and poor relationships between organisation layers, departments, stakeholders and people.

Being a balanced leader 

To be a great leader and create alignment, the leader needs to have balance across their leadership role and tasks.

Being a leader is about so much more than getting the job done. Quite often, when someone becomes a leader through promotion, they continue to get ‘stuck in the weeds’; that is, the day-to-day work. They remain quite hands-on with respect to their previous job tasks and are reactive to situations and people rather than creating a strong foundation for the team as a balanced leader through direction, expectations and identity.

This is common where a leader starts in a technical role and is promoted to a leadership role — for example, a highly trained medical professional who then becomes a leader of people. It can be difficult to step back from doing the ‘hands-on’ technical aspect of what they have been extensively trained for to be a balanced leader.

A balanced leader is one who understands that they need to allocate time to each of the three main aspects of leadership:

• strategic leadership
• operational leadership
• people leadership

I don’t mean reactive time; I mean planned, proactive work as a leader.

How balanced is your leadership? 

Based on how you currently lead, ask yourself, ‘What would the percentage split be across all three aspects?’

There is no right answer here… although if any of the areas are below 10 per cent, there are gaps in your leadership that will be impacting your team and their performance. The percentage split will vary depending on your leadership role, the size of the team, the industry you work in and your job description.

However, to be any kind of leader, you should be aiming for a minimum of 10 per cent of your time being spent on each of the three aspects of leadership. Where the rest of the split lies is completely up to you and depends on your goals.

High-performing teams have leaders that are balanced and aligned across all areas of leadership. They don’t excel in just one area but in all three of the strategic direction and vision of the organisation’s goals; the support, planning and management of daily operations; and the people leadership management and structures to have a culture with strong relationships and clear expectations.

Written by Amy Jacobson.
Have you read?
The World’s Best Medical Schools.
The World’s Best Universities.
The World’s Best International High Schools.
The World’s Best Business Schools.
The World’s Best Fashion Schools.
The World’s Best Hospitality And Hotel Management Schools.