(Don’t) Kill Your Leadership Initiative

Don’t Kill Your Leadership Initiative

As a coaching and consulting company we focus on helping learners and leaders adopt new initiatives that will help their organization and teams thrive and grow. But we know that anytime a business launches a new initiative, there can be serious challenges. Today we’re looking at a transformational framework, and three major ways to make a new initiative work for your team.

3 Places to Focus to Make New Initiatives Work

Russ Becker, helped simplify the three areas to focus on when introducing a new initiative to a team to help them not only embrace the change, but thrive during the process. “The real secret to successful adoption is in the way Leadership & Development initiatives are communicated and marketed internally and an effective internal marketing strategy is built around three key phases – align, equip and sustain. Use these phases when rolling out a learning initiative and you’ll soon have learners engaged, ambassadors on board and results to share that will grab the attention of any senior team.” – Russ Baker
You can read more from Russ in his recent article.

Whether you are the leader or the outside consultant charged with bringing about transformation this framework will add value and momentum to your project.

Transformation Framework

Align:

My good friend and thinking partner Joshua Schneider once referred to a leadership initiative as “an old old wooden ship. People must first must get “on board” with the initiative if they wish to reach a better place, to reach a new world.”

Getting people on board and aligned only happens if:

• Where the ship is going is better than where the people are now – build a buzz around the initiative
• There is a clear vision- communicate the purpose and value in terms that are meaningful to others
• Leaders are on board, not standing on the dock- secure and communicate the support of influential team members

You may think you do not have the resources, time, or need to align all of the people around the initiative, before and during the launch. However we learned the hard way that you can not get people to stay “in line” unless they are first “aligned” with you.

Equip:

Everyone approaches change and new initiatives differently, based on their experience and personality. If you are leading or introducing an initiative to an organization or team, you must prepare them with the critical skills, details and tools they need to meet the objectives and to continue to build buy-in.

Equipping using the I.D.E.A method allows equippers to take the lead in the first two contexts, and the person being equipped to find their place during the last two contexts:

• Instruct in a life/work related context (Tell Your People How)
• Demonstrate in a life/work related context (Show Your People How- learn where you are, don’t stay where you are)
• Experience in a life/work related context (Allow Your People To Take Action & Provide Feedback)
• Accountability in a life/work related context (Empower & Create Two-Way Feedback Loops)

Sustain:

As you sustain an initiative you must continue to gather evidence and data to demonstrate the return on investment. Regardless of the scale of your initiative you must first align and equip, in order to build and sustain the momentum.

You as the leader must continue to help navigate roadblocks, innovate, and continue to cast the vision for the initiative. It is in this stage that you begin equipping and developing leaders, ambassadors, and champions of the initiative to continue to keep it relevant and moving forward. The energy and focus you and your team bring to the initiative will determine the speed of its adoption and progress.

Kill Your Leadership Initiative

Remember, keep it simple: Align, Equip, Sustain! And you will knock it out of the park! You will kill, your leadership initiative…in a good way!