Unity is crucial to your effectiveness as a leader. How well you and your team work together as a cohesive, unified body can make the difference between success and failure. To achieve unity, you, your team and your organization must be in alignment with your vision.
Proper alignment with your mission can enable you to lead most effectively. It allows you to place your team members in positions where they can seamlessly work together as a group, fully utilize their individual abilities and reach their fullest potential within your organization. But how do you properly begin aligning your team with your mission?
Here are five ways to achieve unity and alignment with your vision.
1. Create a framework.
Building a leadership framework is crucial to aligning your organization to your vision. Without it, it will be harder to clarify your goals and clearly communicate them with your team. Start with establishing where you are and where your company stands. Then, examine where you want to be. From there, you can start planning and directing your team, resources and abilities in alignment with your goals. By establishing your framework, you will clarify your vision and unite your team under a common purpose.
2. Build a solid foundation.
Once you know what your goals are, it’s important you put the right people in place to achieve them. Look at what needs to be accomplished and the next steps you outlined with your framework. Then, consider the people on your team with the passions, abilities and skills best suited to carrying them out. By putting the right people in the right positions, you and your team will be able to function effectively in alignment with your goals.
3. Establish clear communication.
To create a unified team, you need to be aware of what’s happening within your organization by having consistent, open communication with your team. Regularly ask for feedback, check in and make yourself available for your team to share their thoughts, concerns and insights. By establishing a pattern of meaningful interaction, you create a stronger, more unified team that can readily adapt and work together to achieve your vision.
4. Give your team freedom.
The natural “flow” everyone is after, where you and your team work, communicate and solve problems almost seamlessly, can’t happen without trust. You need to give your team the space to do what they need to do, and trust them with the responsibilities they’ve been given and the positions you’ve put them in. By trusting your team and giving them freedom to operate in their abilities, you create a sense of flow and an environment where your team can operate seamlessly at a high capacity without the need for lots of managing or instructing.
5. Make continual adjustments.
Change is inevitable, both in and outside of your organization, as economies shift, goals are altered and people become disengaged from the vision. It’s important that you carefully monitor and maintain your team’s alignment. From there, you can make adjustments to best meet the challenges at hand and position your team where they can be the most effective. Regularly realigning your resources will enable you to respond to changes, adapt as needed and quickly recover from setbacks.
Achieving organizational alignment takes time. Start by making small adjustments, having open communication with your team and regularly monitoring your alignment with your vision. As you begin aligning your team with your mission, you’ll find it easier to adapt to changes and handle challenges as they come, allowing you and your team to gain momentum toward accomplishing your shared goal.