Followers Make Leaders
LaKeysia P., a Moravec and Associates Consultant
Nine thousand workers, managers, and executives across a broad range of corporate, private firms and government entities were surveyed on how well their companies and agencies function. Among the conclusions:
Management top-level goals
- 55% of employees said their organizations decided what the most important goals are.
- 41% said they clearly understand the goals.
Work goals
- 21% of respondents said their work goals are clearly defined.
- 10% reported that their work has a strong link to their organization's top priorities.
What do the followers do?
- 34% of the time goes to assignments demanding immediate attention but are mostly irrelevant to top-level goals.
- 21% of the time is spent dealing with internal bureaucracy.
Clearly changes are needed.
Leaders need to settle on a few key goals and then communicate them down the line to align and accelerate transformation. It's easy to assume that frontline supervisors know organizational goals when in fact they've never used them to guide work.
Employees at all levels must have a clear line of sight to top organizational goals. The best way to accomplish that is for each person to work with her manager to align and formulate her individual work outcomes and measures. Everyone should think about his or her priorities each morning, build a work plan that results in the greatest progress toward top goals, and then use the planned outcomes to steer them throughout the day.
Ways forward
Here are some specific ways to get started:
- Corporations, private firms and Government agencies need to identify fewer key outcomes and implement align accelerate transform to cascade goals through the organization. This process involves bringing managers and employees together to align and identify specific results and measures with top goals
- Instead of saying "Yes" or "Yes but …" when asked to do something, employees ask for a "Time Out," during which they ask questions that clarify the goal and its urgency or importance.
- Managers and employees jointly review work plans for the day and determine what will result in the greatest movement toward top goals.
- If the request creates greatest movement toward top goals, the answer must be "Yes." Don't negotiate the what, only the how and when.
By using align accelerate transformation to formulate, plan, and align work, followers learn to be leaders themselves.
Related Consulting Services
![[PHOTO] Light streaming through a key hole illuminating an old iron key.](../images/ph_findings.jpg)
