How Top Managers Create Clear Direction To Consistently Beat Targets
Top managers create clear direction in their teams to be able to consistently beat team targets. There is a lot of research and studies showing clear direction increases team performance by 20%+. In my experience, clear direction creates a much bigger increase in performance.
Just think about it. If you have several team members going one way and several going in a different direction, the lack of co-ordination drags both groups back. Neither gets as far, plus they waste resources competing against each other. Get everyone going in the same direction, all the combined efforts complement and reinforce each other. The team produces a lot more with the same resources as much less is wasted.
How Top Managers Create Clear Direction To Consistently Beat Targets
- Top Managers Define a small number of priorities to create clear team direction
- Top managers create clear direction by Translating strategy into everyday language
- To create clear direction great managers keep repeating the same message
- Top managers foster engagement and buy-in from the team
- Great managers make progress visible to maintain clear direction
- Finally, the best managers reinforce clear direction with systems
Creating really clear direction needs a lot more than putting financial targets on the wall each day. In my career, I had over 50 bosses that I had to support and from personal experience, only 2 or 3 stood out in terms of creating really clear direction and I worked in many top companies. Yes – these individuals are now very senior in big organisations.
I coach a lot of leaders, and a similarly small percentage can clearly and simply define their team’s direction as we start working together.
I have worked in many top companies and how top managers create clear direction nearly always includes each of these actions. When instilling team direction, too many manager make the mistake of not communicating the direction often enough. If you are not communicating clear team direction at least weekly, you need to do more to increase the results your team produces.
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1 – Top Managers Define A Small Number Of Priorities To Set Clear Team Direction
There are going to be a ton of things that you and your team are responsible for delivering. You probably have a lot of metrics you could look at and many different ways you could define the direction for your team.
The other day, I asked a finance director I was coaching how he defined his team’s direction and thus measured progress. He started listing of a ton of KPIs he looked at. I stopped him as he got near 10.
Ideally, you need ONE WAY to clearly define direction for your team. For example, I joined the board of a company that was about to fail and the only measure I kept communicating to the team for months was cash generation. Every time a team member came to me for a decision, I would ask them how each option they presented affected cash. I talked about cash in team meetings, in one on one meeting etc. Everything could be tied back to cash generation. A very simple direction consistently communicated.
Do not focus on more than 5 metrics. If you do, you may as well not focus on anything in the eyes of your team. Less is more.
Choose one or a very small number of messages or metrics for giving direction to teams.
2 – Top Managers Create Clear Direction By Translating Strategy Into Everyday Language
Team members do not follow what they don’t understand. Clear direction is simple. It has to be – so everyone understands it. Top managers work hard to:
- Align the activities of their team members directly and clearly to company strategy
- Ensure the direction they choose for the team is long term and will survive for more than a few months
- Socialise and get agreement from bosses for the team direction they have chosen. Another way of doing this is to work with bosses and their team members in creating clear team direction.
These steps require careful thought, planning, building a strong business case and then persuading bosses to support the direction for the team. If you don’t do all these steps, you run the risk of your team direction being changed frequently by bosses, which, in my experience, is often pretty disastrous for being able to hit team targets. Big changes of direction usually mean a lot of work gets wasted.
When you have set clear team direction with bosses, you can then work at filtering this down in clear language to each individual staff member. Don’t use jargon or corporate phrases and carefully explain the why behind the direction.
Back to the cash generation example I mentioned earlier. The main goal I gave the credit control team was to collect more money than last month’s sales. Simple, clear and using everyday language. For a B2B sales person, I might set the goal of winning 5 clients from their list each month.
Use everyday language to communicate a clear direction at team and individual level.
3 – To Create Clear Team Direction Great Managers Keep Repeating The Same Message
I have not worked for many managers that remind you of team direction on a weekly basis. The ones that do, usually lead high performing teams that are ahead of their targets.
Many years ago, I went to a talk by John Roberts, the founder of AO, which now sells over a £1billion each year of electrical goods online across Europe. He described his job as speaking to as many employees as possible, as often as possible and repeating the business’s direction. He would keep repeating direction until his staff made jokes about him and could repeat it back, word for word. This shows how important direction was to John and the lengths he would go to instil it in staff.
The direction, and the priorities in setting team direction should be communicated in meetings, in one on ones, in written updates, in KPIs, put on the wall, in decisions, in projects … there are so many opportunities. Plan at least 4 different ways you are going to communicate clear team direction each week and take action.
Show direction is front of mind for you – to your staff – and they will keep at the front of their minds too.
Use the same language so the message sticks. Treat communicating direction as a process, not a one-off announcement. Clarity comes from repetition. Keep communicating the same message again and again.
4 – Top Managers Foster Engagement And Buy-In From The Team
The more your team is involved in planning how to implement business strategy in their team, the easier the plan will be to implement.
By engaging the team and getting their input, the final plan is their plan as much as yours. We all work harder to ensure our plan succeed. We don’t have the same ownership and investment when the plan belongs to someone else.
So involve your team in breaking down business level strategy and creating team level goals that clearly align to business strategy. Then ask the team to break it down further to sub-team or individual level.
Get them planning the activities and projects needed to deliver the team goals. Get them problem solving, collaborating and working together. A series of workshops are great for this. A collaborative approach takes longer to formulate the goals BUT you save a lot more time during the implementation phases, usually making you a lot better off overall.
5 – Great Managers Make Progress Visible To Maintain Clear Direction
I love creating visibility and I love sharing that visibility with the team. Being able to show progress each week against targets is another great way to remind staff about direction and what is important.
Tracking progress gives everyone in the team the same picture, the same information and the same reality check. They can make better, more informed decisions as a result.
We as a team can celebrate wins, course correct as early as practical and replan to ensure we all know what is happening next to meet and beat targets.
Visibility helps create ownership and drives responsibility. No-one likes letting other team members down. Invest in tracking progress towards goals and literally spend at least 10 minutes each week reviewing progress as a team. [Click here for designing great key performance indicators]
6 – Finally, the best managers reinforce clear direction with systems
The more long-term your direction and goals, the more it makes sense to create systems that reinforce and embed the direction and goals in everyday work life. Systems automatically reinforce the direction. This reduces SOME of the pressure and workload on you to keep repeating and reminding the team of direction.
Step 1 – create visibility. Second step – create a team habit of reviewing progress.
Then you can think about aligning praise, recognition, bonus payments and other rewards to progress against specific targets and activities which generate the results you need.
Then you can work on aligning operating practices or how the team works. For example, you might ask the team to look at every decision through the lens of how it effects the cash in the business. Or the profit. Or the customer experience etc.
Other areas to consider – aligning IT systems, the type and motivations of the staff you hire and how you produce goods and services. Ask yourself – What do you need to do to fully align team members behind the direction of travel for the team?
Create as much alignment as practical when you are sure your direction is long term and supports the success of the business.
In summary
Creating clear direction takes a lot of work from the leader or manager of the team. I think that creating clear direction is one of the most important jobs IF you want your team to consistently beat targets.
How top managers create clear direction to consistently beat team targets include these 6 steps:
- Top Managers Define a small number of priorities to set clear direction
- Top managers create clear direction by Translating strategy into everyday language
- To create clear direction great managers keep repeating the same message
- Top managers foster engagement and buy-in from the team
- Great managers make progress visible to maintain clear direction
- Finally, the best managers reinforce clear direction with systems
If you have any questions on “How top managers create clear direction to consistently beat targets”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you.
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