Elevating Your Leadership Team in Five Simple Steps
As company goals and strategic plans are being set for next year, there is a question I commonly hear whispered by CEOs and organization leaders.
How do I elevate my team so we can take the company/organization to the next level?
Great question.
The key to answering this question is to know the core reason your leadership team performs and behaves the way it does.
You.
Look in the mirror.
Or to say it another way, a CEO is the organization’s keystone. A keystone is the central stone placed at the top of an arch to keep the arch and the building standing solid and strong. The other arch stones have no choice but to conform to the shape of the keystone.
So long as the keystone remains the same, so must the rest of the arch. If the other blocks change to the detriment of the keystone, the building gets weaker. But when the keystone changes, the rest of the arch must adapt to keep the structure strong.
If you want your team to elevate (and change and grow), the first thing that needs to change is… You.
So here’s how to elevate your team in a few simple (but certainly not easy) steps.
- Write YOUR job description. This is the role, with specific responsibilities, that you individually need to do to achieve the company goal. If your job description doesn’t change, neither can those of your leadership team.
- Perform a gap analysis to identify the responsibilities, capabilities, or talents that are unproven or missing from your current leadership team. This starts with YOU.
- Write an updated job description for each member of your leadership team that (1) complements your new job description, and (2) completely fills the gaps identified by the analysis. Share it with your leadership team.
- Working with your leadership team, jointly create a development plan for YOU, and each member of the team that will permit each member to develop or obtain the skills or abilities in fulfilling the new job descriptions.
- Start acting like your job descriptions. And hold each other accountable!
I’m not pretending this is easy. But it does work. I’ve been through it multiple times.
Contact me if I can help.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Keith
“Leaders must be close enough to relate to others,
but far enough ahead to motivate them.”
John C. Maxwell