Being a leader and being part of a leadership team is challenging and at the same time a huge opportunity for those fortunate enough to be in this position.
Often when in a busy role with lots of demands it is easy just to muddle through without providing real clarity for the leadership team themselves and others within the organisation who are vital to your success.
In his excellent book The Advantage, Patrick Lencioni highlights six key questions organisational leadership teams must be able to answer.
Why Do We Exist?
It seems like a fairly straightforward question. Or is it? I guess if you were to pose this question to different groups of staff in the NHS, you would get very different points of view. Now diversity in terms of points of view is a positive as long as people are heading in the broadly the same direction.
Is this a question that you regularly consider as a leadership team? Perhaps you do and maybe you do but not often enough.
How Do We Behave?
Everyone knows how to behave, right? Well not necessarily. They may well know how to behave and at the same time will take their steer from those in leadership roles.
Do you let all new people who join the organisation what is expected in terms of behaviours and actively re-enforce this on a regular basis?
What Do We Do?
Now this might seem very much like the why do we exist question and in reality it is different. Ultimately this is the description of what we offer in order to meet our core purpose or reason for existing.
Is this something you consider at an organisational or team level?
How Will We Succeed?
Aspirations and overall aims are great. Yet it is taking the right actions that determines whether an organisation succeeds or not. At the heart of this is knowing what is critical to success and making sure this is given appropriate focus.
What Is Most Important Right Now?
In the ideal world, we would do things in a certain order. Sadly we don’t live in an ideal world. We are in a world where things move quickly and what seemed important a few hours ago may no longer be critical right now.
Make a point of stopping to take stock and ensure that the focus is on what is important right now.
Who Must Do What?
Individually you can achieve a lot. Collectively you can achieve so much more. Having clarity about who must do what keeps you on track and provides clear accountability.
How much clarity is there in your organisation as regards who must do what?
The reality is that organisational leadership teams face many challenges and having clarity on these 6 key questions can help you achieve success.
Goals and Achievements help healthcare organisations develop their leadership and management capability. Sign up for their free report the 10 Mistakes That Impact On Performance In The NHS.