Kashbox Coach Note: Leadership Development
Leaders are continually challenged to assess their organizations for changes needed to improve function and long-term outlook. They examine many aspects of the operation, studying information from various viewpoints and departments. Leaders are also tasked with leadership development to ensure that all policies, procedures, and processes align with the mission and vision statements.
A unified workforce is key to success for leaders prioritizing Leadership Development
Mission statements declare an organization’s purpose, what they do, and why. Vision statements are (as the name suggests) a vision of where the organization will go and the results of all efforts.
Both statements are intended to unify and focus people with a common purpose and goal. Leaders should understand that ultimate success is possible only when everyone is on the same page at the outset, supporting each other, and believing in the mission and the vision. The days are gone when mandated edicts are willingly adopted.
Many leaders struggle to overcome the initial requirement of unity and engagement. Without buy-in from their people, all the magnificent statement wording, splendid planning, and budgeting are for naught. Ideas fail before they can be implemented.
What Prevents Plan Adoption
Companies are handicapped when employees are not engaged in the basic mission. Gallup reports that almost three out of five employees don’t know what principles or purpose their company upholds. This lack of assurance leads to another Gallup survey finding that four out of five employees strongly disbelieve their leaders have set a clear direction for their organization’s future.
Why do leaders and their people disconnect regarding their company’s direction? Two possible causes emerge:
- Leaders may not communicate what their people need to know or communicate it effectively.
- The employees may be disinterested or unwilling to understand what they’ve heard.
Most employees say they and their coworkers care about their future and company. They‘d state that they also try to understand the information their leaders pass on to them about their company’s current state and where they may be heading. They have a vested interest.
The likely cause for the disconnect employees feel about their employer is that they are not sufficiently informed by their leaders. Herein lies the essential issue behind the need for leaders to get employee buy-in when future plans are announced. It comes down to sufficient communication. When all is considered, communication is an essential element in the management of an organization.
People want the assurance that their future is stable, that it’s in good hands, and that their careers are safe. When plans or a vision are announced, employees want to feel they’re a part of it all. They must sense that the plans were fashioned for their benefit, not someone else’s. Leaders need to understand these crucial needs to get buy-in from their people.
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How Communicating Plans Can Go Wrong
The most successful leaders know that communication is two-directional, not one. Developing future plans or visions is a monumental task. They affect everyone but don’t necessarily involve everyone in each development step.
To get broad adoption from your people, they need to have a stake in the plans and see a benefit. Employees who see more pain than gain have no reason to approve your plans. They must be informed to have a way to judge.
Effective communication in big and small settings is the only way to ensure this. For every effective way to get buy-in from employees, there are ten ways to fail at it.
The procedural top-down approach to communication doesn’t work in today’s environment. When managers decide to pass along only the information they believe their people “need to know,” barriers are erected. Filtered information always creates contradictions and errors. Depending on the audience, the narrative is often spun to soften its effect, which erodes trust.
Without trust, people tune out, grumble, and become less engaged. At the far end of the spectrum, they stop caring. No leader can gain employee acceptance to any initiative under these circumstances. The same holds true for plans mandated from the top office down the line of command as if they were strict orders to be followed. Employees feel trapped and controlled when they hear about directives they never saw coming or announced after the fact.
Gallup’s Vibhas Ratanjee notes that if leaders present the need for change under a negative, fix-it mindset, employees focus on what’s wrong with the company rather than what’s right. Employees formulate a negative impression of their workplace and leadership if the leadership approach is from a crisis-management perspective. This not only stifles buy-in but may advance desertion.
Another way communication can go wrong is when leaders only inform select people as if they are more privileged than others. This is done assuming the word will get out well enough. Instead of an equal opportunity for involvement, the “privileged” continue the selection process as they see fit. The disconnection, distortion, and discord resulting from this give rise to resistance to the plans a leader wishes to implement.
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Getting Buy-in With a Great Approach
Great leaders have received acceptance for their plans or visions by involving everyone in their organization from the beginning. People know they are valued and respected when their leader informs them throughout implementation and includes them in its origination.
The beginning steps are key. As Ratanjee explains, visions that include people, with their ideas and feedback, also get their support. Buy-in is at its highest when collaboration is at its greatest. When people see that their needs are being addressed, they commit to seeing the plans put in place. They see a benefit not only for the company but also for themselves. This is a double incentive.
Working through the development process—explaining it, talking it out, and deciding on directions together—gives people a sense of empowerment and freedom. Few things engage people more than that. Encouraging, challenging, and expressing gratitude for all contributions make the buy-in peak. Everyone will want to see the vision succeed.
Leaders who support people to a higher level of excellence conduct the entire development process from a positive perspective, not looking at how to fix what’s broken but building on what already works. People want to identify with success. Draw them into a vision that paints that picture.
People need regular communication and update sessions to remain engaged and supportive. Gathering people face-to-face is the most engaging way to involve them. Encourage dialogue and provide opportunities to interact as their ideas, concerns, and questions are considered. Great leaders appoint a team to facilitate meetings, minutes, and follow-up.
Andre Lavoie, CEO and co-founder of Clear Company, stresses the importance of communicating clearly and specifically. When employees grasp your compelling vision and hear a plan entailing concise, logical steps requiring their help, they’ll commit their best efforts. Design plans that create tasks your people can take on will enhance their personal goals and address their long-term needs.
If the entire management staff participates in communication and workshop activities, the sense of unity that results will pave the way for maximum employee buy-in and the most rewarding results.
Creator of the KASHBOX: Knowledge, Attitude, Skills, Habits
Helping You Realize Your Potential
I help people discover their potential, expand and develop the skills and attitudes necessary to achieve a higher degree of personal and professional success and create a plan that enables them to balance the profit motives of their business with the personal motives of their lives.