It’s pretty much the same on most large enterprises or companies where the more the departments
and people are, the more complex are the processes and methods for communication. Many seem to have managed to
regulate the flow to make everything organized, but only a few CEOs have truly mastered the ways on how to keep
everyone from the simplest worker up to the managers become genuinely aligned and on the same page. As you
should know, the most successful companies are those that are aligned – on strategy, purpose and objectives - or
in other terms, Streamlined.
Generally, most people assume that this is the role of a senior leader, yet much of this alignment happens at a
team level. Over 70% of employees said to be disengaged from their company, & good managers can do more to
ensure that their team is on the same page as their purpose, their tools, and their output.
While many of us have tried being in a leadership position, here are tips on how a manager kept his teams
aligned:
No matter how you try to align everything & yet there’s no shared understanding, this
alignment will only last briefly or
temporarily. It’s like having two people on the same boat & one starts rowing forward while the other is
rowing backward.
Great teams row constantly together in the right direction, even when the destination shifts.
The best approach to do this is to get everyone in a room & leave their assumptions to make sure
everyone understands the
same thing about how your product works.
Establishing this shared understanding takes a bit of work, however, pays off many times over. We still
create and refer to
the directional map until now and it helps quickly clear up any misconceptions about how our product
functions.
Great managers eliminate obstacles so that team members can concentrate on one thing
and really get it done. But when everybody has a single focus on one area, you may be so focused on your own
domain that you lose sight of the big picture. Good managers can act as this omniscient, omnipresent force
that has a laser focus on your team’s level of quality, and can keep everyone on track to meet it.
Everyone is always ensured to stay up to date with our key operational and product metrics. We place these
in a single dashboard where it’s visible to the entire team. So that everyone can focus deeply on their work
yet at a glance can see if our level of quality is being kept up or if there may be fires that need to be
put out.
Numerous leaders attempt the “command and control” style of administration, where decisions
come from the top to the bottom. They make the decisions then instruct the team what to do and who is
required to leave and build it. With this scene, it’s very difficult to keep the team aligned. It’s greatly
demotivating to just execute someone else’s orders. If you deny a team of making their own choices, don’t be
surprised when they leave you for a team where they are allowed to decide.
A great way to help solve this is to create a culture where individual team members are given direct input
into the product roadmap. We do this at a micro level at our weekly ideation sessions. Many team members
might be reluctant to share ideas early on, but you can help things along by asking questions of your team,
which inevitably teases out new ideas.
Is this the most impactful thing we can work on right on? Could we solve this problem in a different way?
Are we even solving the right problem at all? Good questions are truly a great way of nudging people towards
having an impact on your roadmap. And the more impact your team feel they’re having, the more aligned
everyone will be.
For a regular manager with a heavy list of demands, alignment can always feel like nice to
have as opposed to pressing priority. One or two misaligned individuals might not seem like much in the
short term, yet it can be extremely damaging for your team and your company in the long run when you ignore
this.
Get your alignment right with Streamline to prevent your team from floating off course and avoid any
icebergs approaching soon. Don't forget to drop your comments or questions below to know how we can
help your team stay on the same page.
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