As a leader, it’s important to know where you want to take your organization. From there, you can create a well-founded, practical framework to help you and your team reach your goals. But before you begin building your framework to get where you want to be, you need to know where you are now.
Your context, or where you and your organization stand, is the raw material of your framework. It’s the fuel that drives the meaning behind your leadership. Knowing your context means knowing what your team is capable of, what challenges you may face and understanding the implications your strategy can have, to name a few aspects. It determines how you build your framework, how you carry it out — and ultimately — how lasting your changes will be in your organization. So where do you begin?
Here are three ways to audit your context in leadership.
1. Evaluate the objective aspects.
Start with gaining an understanding of the concrete elements of your environment. What infrastructure, financials, economics or competition is facing your organization? What financial capabilities or limitations does it have? What inventory, resources, and physical plant and equipment are available?
These objective elements are the easiest to deduce and are often readily attainable. Auditing your context in leadership starts with knowing the ins and outs of your organization, financially, physically and competitively. Doing so will allow you to know what’s available to you and where your company stands, and from there, start to evaluate the more intangible aspects of your organization.
2. Consider the human element.
More difficult to understand are the “soft” elements: the changing, non-physical, often human, subjective context of your organization. This can include your team members’ thoughts toward their work, their commitment — or lack thereof — to the mission, and the atmosphere between coworkers, among the other “soft” assets of the enterprise.
Remembering to probe into the intangible feelings, culture and thoughts of your employees can seem tedious and time-consuming. However, auditing your subjective context will help you understand your organization’s most important asset: the people. Your team’s contributions to your organization, including their time, enthusiasm and confidence, depend on your ability to accurately assess the subjective context of your organization.
3. Continually reevaluate.
Auditing your context is not a one-time event. As a leader, it’s vital that you continually keep tabs on your organization’s overall health and well-being. Just as you need to regularly monitor environmental, economic and physical aspects of your company, you must also frequently reassess the atmosphere and emotional climate of your team.
The human element of your organization is in a constant state of change. It can shift as your team’s perceptions, priorities and emotions do. Don’t allow yourself to be satisfied with first appearances or casual answers from your team. Instead, continually probe beneath the surface and repeatedly question your own perceptions. Doing so will help you avoid contextual blind spots and help you develop a relevant, context-driven leadership framework.
Auditing your context in leadership is not a one-time, one-size-fits-all process. It takes repeated, deliberate action on your part to understand your organization’s physical and intangible assets and liabilities. By continually monitoring your objective and subjective context, you will have the materials to build a lasting, applicable framework to take your team and your organization forward.