As we were talking, she clearly understood the importance of strategic partnerships with leaders from other companies who use her services or vice versa. But she was struck that she had never considered strategic partnerships within the units of her business and began to consider what it might be like to sit down and develop joint goals whereby both units would be able to accomplish what they had not been able to do on their own. What if there were larger goals that they had never even thought of before that could increase the success of the whole business?

It was a great question, so today I thought I would focus on setting up those joint efforts within your organization to enlarge the scope of the business.

As a leader in your organization one important aspect of leadership behavior is the ability to influence others.

Do you sometimes hold back in your conversation because you are unsure of how to express your thoughts or ideas?

Do you sometimes not contribute to meeting discussions because you have heard what you have to say expressed by someone else; telling yourself and others that you have nothing to add?

If you answered yes to either or both than you are not using your influence as effectively as you can.

As you are prioritizing connection and partnership it is important to remember that others want to know what you think even if someone else has already expressed it. The willingness to share your thoughts and opinions is a cornerstone to partnership and collaboration.

A former client of mine, who is the leader of the IT function in his organization, was well thought of but a mystery to his co-workers. Not being aware of his mystery status, he felt isolated and as a result did not contribute to discussion in leadership meetings unless he had something new or earth shattering to say.

As he opened to contribution, just to let people know how he felt, his co-workers felt more comfortable with him, and began to seek him out since he was knowledgeable and could assist them in their endeavors. In addition, the whole corporate services leadership team came together and was able to assist each other with the strategic questions that each of them was having within their own unit. He became a much more engaged member of the team, and was able to further develop the team that he led, creating more influence in other areas of the business as he fostered more connections.

Influence is an essential function of connection and partnership. Next week might be a good time to consider setting up some connecting appointments with key members of your organization with an eye to how partnerships can help reach and expand company goals.

Do you have a question, challenge, or success you would like to share? Please be sure to leave a comment. I would enjoy hearing from you! – Patricia

The concept of the We-Pod is important because it’s created by individuals who have been spending a large percentage of time in an I-Pod. When they come together, learn more about each other, and agree to share accountability, each person improves as a communicator and problem solver. The We-Pod gives rise to greater creativity, high performance, and innovation. In the current climate, the success of a team is more important than ever.

When strategic planning is narrowly confined to profit, revenue and targets, it is difficult, at times, to get full engagement and ownership of goals. The important thing is to start at a high level, with an overview that includes visioning of both the results, as well as the teams’ participation in those results. This also includes a clear vision and mission that inspires the work, resources and time spent fulfilling goals. Inspiration is much easier to create in the We-Pod as collaborative leaders.

Use this high-level strategic process to jump-start your next planning process. The four engagement questions below require a high-level of engagement from all team members. More specific strategic goals can be created that include implementation steps once the answers to these questions are on the table.

1. Creating the Future—What Behaviors Do We Want to Bring Forward?

 This question begins the process of greater engagement and allows for a focus on behavior in the leadership group, as well as staff who interact with internal and external customers. Often our behavior is not a part of planning and yet it is the very core of getting the necessary strategic results, but is overlooked as a “no brainer.”

In an offsite with a global client, during the discussion of this question, she brought up not only their leadership behaviors, but also the behaviors of team members, one or two levels down, who would be creating the results; their interactive style, time spent in connection, and their overall engagement in the vision of the new environment when results were accomplished.

2. Expanding the Brand—Who Are We and Where Are We Going?

Create a vision for the future; for instance, what will your team look like by the end of the year, at the end of next year and possibly up to 3 years in the future.  Organizations are changing so fast today to adapt to the current business environment that going any further is not effective.

Take a look at look at business results, processes and communication locally, regionally and across the organization. Promote consistency of goals and the discussion of each person’s interpretation of these goals. Communication of this vision will override assumptions and create engagement that leads to results.

3. Investing in People—What Are the Important Values and Are They Aligned?

Identify, establish and communicate core values by which business will be done: communicate to your team how these values are to be shown and communicated to your customers and internal colleagues; encourage open discussion to maximize team alignment and buy-in.

4. The Essential Elements for Growing the Business – What Values are Important to Our Customer?

This is so important; often, over time, organizational goals are not in alignment with their customer; to their changing values, nor sensitive to the human interaction necessary to create the level of satisfaction that brings success. Make sure you are listening to what your customers are saying and asking of you.

This is on aspect of the Collaborative Leadership Process that creates the We-Pod value. Stay tuned for more information on implementation and team steps for moving forward.

* Thanks to Judith Glaser – Creating We for the original questions that inspired this writing.

• Proactive vs. Reactive
• Focus vs. Interruptions and Distractions
• Alignment and Collaboration vs. Competition
• Implementing Strategic Goals

In my experience as an Executive Coach and Collaborative Leadership Coach, I am often told by leaders that although strategic meetings take place, the execution aspect is not successful. Through the cultures of interruption and distraction created in recent times there is a loss of focus. The simple act of coming to work, turning on the computer and going directly into e-mail can create a reactive rather than proactive day.

Following through on strategic goals necessarily requires proactive leaders and managers. These skills can be taught to emerging leaders and individual contributors as part of the mentoring process. One aspect of aligned teaming is focus; opportunities for real communication, and delegation processes with accountability.

Often the culture dictates immediate responses as indicated above. This has led to constant email checking and drop-ins with a neglect of regular meetings, which has created a culture of interruptions and distractions leading to difficulty with focus. To-do lists are made daily without the overall structure of strategic goals and project organization that leads to successful completion.

With the behavior focus and changes described above, the result is that the top leaders are aware of the strategy plan on a daily basis and can plan work that will implement those both individually and as a team.

Reminders for keeping the momentum going:

• Create regular leadership team meetings at least bi-weekly for 1 ½ hours and put in the
  calendar on a recurring basis
• Coordinate Tasks with Calendar
• Create task categories to match
  • Yearly goals
  • Projects
  • 1:1 Meetings
  •  Actions
• Calendar actions
• Set aside work time on the calendar

The four cultural behavior changes, if approached with intention, can be the foundation for creating change that will bring in proactive thinking, alignment, focus, and accountability into your organization.

If you have questions or would like to contribute to the discussion, I would enjoy hearing from you. Please be sure to post a comment. For more information on creating cultural change within your organization visit bridgingassociates.com.  Ask for information regarding Collaborative Leadership: How to Harness the Power in your People.