Clarify

What and How to Clarify

It is one thing to list “Clarify” as one of the four fundamental functions of leadership.  It is another thing to know “what” and “how” to perform this leadership function effectively. The specifics of what and how to clarify can vary greatly across industries and leadership roles, but leaders can focus on some similar topics that apply to any team.

Purpose, Principles, People, Process and Performance

Teams are established for a Purpose.  That purpose is further defined and supported (or not) by Team Principles, which are values or beliefs providing guidance for Team activities and behaviors.  These activities and behaviors are performed by the People chosen by the leader, and develop into Processes, either good or bad, that then result in some level of Team Performance.  As a result, a strong Purpose with clear Principles are the foundation for motivating a Team of the right People performing the right Processes that lead to exceptional Performance.  The more the leader can clarify these aspects of the organization, the better the chance for success.

What is our purpose?

A football team is organized to play football.  A company is created to build widgets or provide a service.  An department or business team is established to perform a certain organizational function.  These are simple Team purposes that on a basic level establish the “why” the Team exists.  However, this is where a focus on clarifying the Team’s purpose can transform this simple definition into a more powerful, motivational and inspirational purpose. This only happens with leadership.

One of the first questions a child learns is “Why?”  This simple question is one of the most powerful clarification and learning tools we possess as humans, and this is a powerful leadership tool as well. If the basic purpose of a football team is to play football, a more detailed purpose may be to play football at an exceptional level that leads to a championship.  Even further, a football team’s purpose may be to play football at an exceptional level that leads to a dynasty of multiple championships that inspires and invigorates a community of fans. Each of these purposes is an extension of the simple purpose that is developed by simply asking the next “Why?”

A business organization and its teams similarly should have a clearly and consistently stated purpose.  Why does the organization, department or team exist?  For example, an organization may state that its purpose is to provide exceptional service to its customers, or to be the leading seller of a certain product.  Again, the more specific the purpose, the better it can guide a team member’s behavior and activities.  To be more specific, an organization may state its purpose as providing exceptional customer service to its customers by having the fastest delivery time in the industry.  Or, an organization’s purpose may be to provide exceptional customer service with the fastest delivery time along with having the most skilled and tenured team members in the industry. There are endless ways to state the purpose, but they all result from continuing to ask “Why” to get to a clarified, more meaningful answer.

A purpose may also be aspirational and inspirational.  Returning to the football analogy, if a team’s purpose is left to a basic description of “playing football,” the purpose will not serve as a strong motivation or inspiration for the team performance.  If an organization can embody a purpose that goes beyond the business basics of sales and service excellence, it can bind team members in a more human way.  Some organizations may incorporate in their purpose a desire to give back to the community they serve, or to provide a benefit to employees like educational scholarships or another employee benefit plan, or to create a culture of teamwork and camaraderie.  Here is a purpose statement crafted by a car dealership in Colorado: “To make a profound impact on the lives of our clients, team members, and community by serving all with uncompromised integrity, empathy, and excellence.”  This statement communicates a purpose far greater than selling and servicing cars and trucks.  It provides an inspiration and aspiration for the team to strive for a greater purpose that benefits clients, team members and community alike.  It spells out what the organization is striving for - a profound impact on the lives of clients, team members and community - and how it wants to accomplish that purpose - by serving with integrity, empathy and excellence.

There are endless options in defining an organization’s or team’s purpose. The point is to make sure that the organization, the teams within the organization and each team member understand the purpose and can clearly and consistently state what the purpose is.  If you ask ten team members what our purpose is and you get anywhere from two to ten answers, there is work to be done on the purpose.

What Principles guide the team?

In addition to a clear and consistent purpose, it is helpful to clarify the principles or core values that underly that purpose.   These principles further define how the team will work towards achieving the purpose, but still on a high level.  Assume that an organization’s purpose is to provide industry-leading customer service by having the fastest delivery time and donating a percentage of its profits to specific cause in the community it serves.  This purpose in and of itself could be considered specific and inspirational for the team to work towards achieving this level of excellence and giving back to its community.  However, how will the team achieve this purpose?  Would they sacrifice safety to achieve the fastest delivery time in the industry?  Would they prioritize current profits over long-term growth in order to maximize the donation to the community?  Adding principles or core values to the purpose enables an organization to further clarify how the purpose is to be achieved.

Just like the organization’s purpose, there are endless options for an organization’s principles.  They may include such statements as:

Transparent communication

Respect through listening

Understand First

Serve with passion and gratitude

Teamwork

Safety first

People are our greatest asset

Integrity and honesty is nonnegotiable

Continuous development of our team and our organization

Grow to provide additional opportunities for our team and our organization

Principles can also be adjusted as company and market conditions change.  However, principles should always be clearly defined and communicated to the team and reinforced through training, recognition and discipline as appropriate.

The Right People

Organizations are made up of people.  No purpose or principle is important without having the right people on the team to live the purpose and principles. But how do you know who the right people are?  The first step is to clarify what you are looking for in the people you want on the team.  What kinds of people fit with your purpose and principles?  Obviously, ones that share, are inspired by, and are motivated to achieve the purpose and can follow the principles is a good starting point. But how do you know what qualities and characteristics to look for that align with the purpose and principles.  If the organization is committed to providing exceptional customer service with the fastest delivery time, it is best to have members on the team who possess a sense of urgency, or who have exhibited a desire to excel in prior jobs or endeavors.  Similarly, if one of your core values is respect through listening, do they demonstrate an ability to listen in an interview?  In addition, if part of the organization’s purpose is to give back to the community it serves, it is important to have people on the team who are motivated to perform for this purpose.  Have they demonstrated a willingness to serve others in other roles? Are they primarily motivated by money or individual benefits?

Having a great purpose with strong principles is useless without the right people in place to bring the purpose and principles to life.  So spending the time to both clarify what and who you are looking for is critical for success.  Do the people on your team have the right character, competence/capacity, caring, and communication qualities to live the company purpose and principles?  These qualities should be clearly defined and integrated into hiring processes, job descriptions, onboarding and training, and performance and compensation plans so they are highlighted and reinforced going forward.

The Right Processes

Just as purpose and principles are useless without the right people, the right people struggle to  achieve their potential without the right processes being in place.  For the company that wants to provide exceptional customer service with the fastest delivery time, having this purpose is irrelevant if the people working do not, as an example, develop the ordering, fulfillment and logistical systems that are necessary in order to create fast delivery times. Process is where the right people manifest the purpose and principles into tangible products and services that create value by achieving the purpose, or creates discord, tension and diminishes value by falling short of the communicated purpose and principles.

Every organization, team, company or group of people working towards a goal, develops processes that are intended to achieve the goal.  How well are these processes standardized, documented, trained, implemented and continuously improved to create efficiency, effectiveness and value? It is the leader’s responsibility to the organization and its customers to clarify these processes and implement them to achieve the organization’s purpose.

Performance

What is the intended result of the alignment of purpose, principles, people and processes?  It is  important to consider this question and establish a performance standard of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Trackable) goals that the team is striving to achieve.  These performance standards can be communicated and documented in several ways, including organization and department goals and objectives, individual performance standards and goals, and company and industry achievement awards of excellence as just a few examples.

It is not only important that these performance standards be communicated, they must also be tracked and discussed to identify moments of achievement and areas of opportunity for improvement.  If there is no follow through on the performance standards, there might as well not be any performance standard.

Above are some of the important areas that a leader must continually clarify in order to improve team performance.  Clarifying is, therefore, an ongoing process that evolves as the team members develop, competitors emerge, and the organization or industry changes.  It must be front of mind in every situation as having these areas clarified greatly impacts the organization’s ability to succeed.