It’s of the utmost importance that we recognize how employee engagement and staff retention are connected. When employees are not engaged at work, they have little incentive to stay. Even pay increases often cannot keep an employee who is not engaged, especially if they don’t see a promising future that includes satisfying work and a clear development path.

Given this, it’s not surprising that an SHRM/Globoforce Employee Recognition Survey indicated that the top three workforce challenges for HR professionals are retention, engagement, and recruitment. Rather than dealing with the symptoms—turnover and recruitment issues—getting to the root of the problem leads to long-term solutions. Focusing on engagement can help reduce turnover, which also alleviates recruitment issues because there are fewer empty positions to fill.

Why Is Retention Important?

One of the most motivating reasons for businesses to improve retention is the fact that it’s expensive. The cost of turnover includes lost productivity, lost profits, recruitment, training, and more. A Deloitte report found that the average cost to replace an employee is around $7,000. For large organizations with high turnover, this can quickly add up. While this number might seem reasonable, the more shocking number that is less easy to see in a financial report is the cost of lost productivity, which is estimated around $120,000 per employee. Even the loss of one employee can have an impact on the bottom line.

Another reason to focus on retaining valuable employees is the company culture. High-turnover companies have a hard time building the culture they want because there are fewer long-term employees to demonstrate the ideal behaviors. Additionally, when employees see that others frequently leave the organization, it sets a negative tone and prompts them to question why they are staying.

How Engagement Impacts Retention

Gallup’s State of the American Workplace report captures the link between engagement and retention in a nutshell:

“Employees who are engaged are more likely to stay with their organization, reducing overall turnover and the costs associated with it. They feel a stronger bond to their organization’s mission and purpose, making them more effective brand ambassadors. They build stronger relationships with customers, helping their company increase sales and profitability.”

The same report found that only one-third of workers are engaged, which should be a red flag for most organizations. If you’re not confident that the majority of your employees are engaged, this could lead to a costly turnover rate.

How to Improve Employee Engagement

Improving engagement is possible, but it requires a sustained effort. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution that will immediately shift mindsets, organizations should focus on the following three components to improve employee engagement:

Recognition

Publicly recognize employees for a job well done. When leaders demonstrate that they value an employee’s contribution, it fosters further engagement. Employees also want to stay at a company where they feel valued and appreciated. You can do this by creating a rewards program, hosting monthly or quarterly dinners where employees are recognized for their contributions, or simply thanking your team at the next staff meeting.

Culture

Create a culture that encourages, supports, and motivates employees to do their best work. Whether you do this by allowing dogs in the office, having a company-wide ping-pong tournament, or having quarterly team meetings, your culture should remind people why they want to be there. So, while the elements that make up your culture will be as unique as your organization, determining the desired culture will be the responsibility of leadership.

Development

Employees today value education and learning opportunities. They also want to know what opportunities lie ahead. Create clear growth paths and provide the resources that will help people achieve their development goals to keep them engaged as they progress in their careers. This requires more than a single annual review and should include coaching and mentoring to help employees reach their personal career goals.

Conclusion

Retention is a real issue that should be addressed, especially if you already have high turnover rates. Increasing employee engagement can help improve retention and also provide the benefits of better productivity and greater employee satisfaction. Focus on your company culture and take proactive steps to improve engagement, especially among your top talent.

When you assess your organizational culture, you will be looking at the values, beliefs, and behaviors of leaders and employees. While some characteristics of your culture may be evident, others may be harder to define. It can be a challenge to analyze organizational culture, but it is a worthwhile exercise because understanding culture can help you identify which aspects of it are working and which may need improvement or transformation.

Examine Key Attributes of the Organization

A helpful way to analyze company culture is to explore some of the key attributes of the organization, such as how decisions are made and how employees feel about change initiatives. While each organization’s culture is a mix of different attributes, here are some examples that will facilitate a deeper understanding of your corporate culture:

Leadership involvement: Leaders are often key catalysts for driving a particular kind of culture. They model corporate values and deliver feedback that shapes employee behavior. When looking at organizational culture, it’s helpful to observe whether leaders demonstrate the behaviors that are needed to support the culture or if they take a “do as I say, not as I do” approach.

Decision-making: When you examine the role of critical analysis and the degree to which multiple stakeholders have a voice in decision-making, you can pick up useful clues regarding the type of organizational culture that exists. For example, centralized decision-making may be more prevalent in a hierarchical culture, but, as one researcher points out, the same organization may have pockets of consensus-driven decision-making.

How people communicate: How employees communicate internally says a lot about your culture. It can be helpful to observe not only the most common forms of communication (for example, whether most employees communicate face-to-face or via email) but also the degree to which open, honest, and two-way communication is common among employees and leaders.

Openness to innovation: When analyzing culture, it’s helpful to note how the organization approaches risk and evaluates new ideas. A culture of innovation is not limited to start-ups. As one venture capitalist notes, innovative cultures in companies of all sizes share attributes such as embracing risk, accepting failure, and routinely experimenting with new ideas.

Approach to learning and development: A culture of continuous learning is typically one where employees and leaders seek out opportunities to acquire new skills and knowledge that will help them improve their performance. To better understand your culture, examine the variety of learning and development opportunities available to employees and how they respond to the opportunities.

Approach to change management: Change is the great constant, and how organizations approach it is an important characteristic of company culture. If leaders and employees resist change or rarely talk about it, that could be a sign of a more rigid culture. Alternatively, if change is welcomed and the organization has a strategy and detailed processes for managing it, then a more flexible culture may exist.

3 Steps to Successfully Improving Your Culture

Every organizational culture has room for improvement. Here are three steps to successfully implementing changes to your corporate culture:

#1. Identify culture gaps: With the aid of tools like surveys and culture assessments, conduct a gap analysis to fully understand the culture you have and how it compares to the culture you want. A gap analysis not only helps you define the existing culture, but it can also deliver new insights into employee attitudes and beliefs that might have been previously unknown or misunderstood.

#2. Develop a plan for the new culture: Once you’ve identified the desired culture, it’s important to develop a strategy for achieving it. Transforming corporate culture often requires new skills training to help leaders and employees develop the behaviors required to succeed.

#3. Reinforce the new culture: Sustained culture change requires that leaders continue to model desired behaviors and leverage the skills and knowledge they’ve gained to support their employees. The use of reinforcement tools can also significantly help. These tools include mobile boost learning, multi-rater assessments, and culture impact scorecards that help manage culture on an ongoing basis.

Build a Thriving Culture

Culture is unique to each organization and analyzing it is a process of observation, asking questions, and using tools to identify a variety of organizational attributes. Regardless of the type of organizational culture you have or the one you strive for, it’s necessary to provide employees with the required skills and knowledge for adjusting their behavior. Depending on your size and the degree of culture transformation  you’re trying to achieve, there are a variety of tools available to help you successfully analyze your culture, and if needed, change it.

There is no doubt that teamwork is essential to the success of any organization. No single individual can do all of the work on their own. That is why leaders must cultivate high-performing teams and lead them effectively.

Think of teams as the two essential components of a brick wall: the bricks and the mortar. Individual employees (the bricks) must have integrity and quality in and of themselves in order for the wall to be structurally sound. If you have weak bricks, you’ll have a weak wall. Leaders (the mortar) must also be strong and have the right mix of skills and abilities. The leadership provided is what holds the team together and allows each brick to do its job.

With this in mind, the leaders who develop these nine leadership skills are able to build the most effective teams.

1. Communication

Teams can’t perform to their fullest potential without strong communication, and it is up to leaders to model communication based on these three factors:

• Style: The way you communicate must be appropriately matched to the person you’re interacting with to help put them at ease so that they will be receptive to what you have to say.
• Facts: Some people are very responsive to facts and information. If you don’t provide the level of information they are seeking, they are less likely to engage because they feel that something is missing.
• Passion: Some people will be persuaded more by convictions and passion than they are by facts, so it is important to know when you must communicate with enthusiasm.

The key is to find the right balance for each individual. Find the style that mirrors theirs, include enough facts to satisfy their desire for information, and be passionate enough to engage them.

2. Time Management

High-performing teams are able to successfully juggle multiple assignments, and leadership can provide the training and tools to help them manage their time effectively. In addition, however, leaders must also create an environment that enables their teams to use the training and tools effectively.

One of the most important skills leaders must master to make time management easier for their teams is the ability to delegate effectively. When assigning tasks to a team or an individual, it’s important to be clear about the expected deliverables and due dates and to provide opportunities for them to obtain clarification. This enables the team to accurately prioritize their workload, do the necessary planning, and execute the task efficiently.

Leaders can also help by being proactive. The ability to be responsive to shifting priorities is a great quality for teams to possess, but constantly changing course due to a lack of planning—or worse, the whims of a few people—is exhausting and makes it impossible to keep up. But if leaders anticipate organizational needs and prioritize effectively, their teams will be able to function proactively, and reactivity will be the exception rather than the norm. Along with delegating effectively, fostering a proactive approach will enable your team to consistently manage their work and deliver on their accountabilities.

3. Empowerment

Like that brick wall, a team is only as strong as its weakest member. In the context of the workplace, strength often translates to empowerment—each member of a high-performing team must feel empowered, and leaders are responsible for achieving this.

Leaders can choose to be autocratic—telling people what to do—or they can engage others and allow them to have more input and involvement in decisions. Involving others tends to be more effective than an autocratic approach because in an empowered workforce, hearts and minds are engaged.

Many employees want to contribute to the success of the organization, but if they’re not empowered to do so, the company misses out on their valuable skills, knowledge, and experience. If leadership doesn’t allow participation, the team’s skills are squandered and they become disempowered and disengaged. Empowerment is good for both the company and the individuals and teams that work in it.

4. Decision-Making

The decisions that leaders make have a ripple effect—they have the power to influence many aspects of the organization and impact how teams perform. The scale of the decision directly relates to the consequences it will have. Because decisions from leadership have such power, it’s important to ensure that they are the right decisions.

Strong leaders get input, especially when making significant decisions. The people who will be implementing the decision often have ideas about the best path forward, more experienced leaders can share lessons learned, peers in the organization might have had similar experiences, and external sources may provide a fresh perspective. All of this information allows leaders to make better decisions and gives them more confidence to enforce accountability.

5. Openness to New Ideas

Success breeds success, but leaders cannot have tunnel vision about the things that are currently working, especially if they want to unleash the true power of high-performing teams. They must stay open to new ideas to maintain a competitive edge and consider other alternatives to embrace.

Leaders don’t necessarily have to seek out innovation or new ways of doing things, but they do have to maintain a mindset that allows them to see opportunities when they arise. One way to cultivate this mindset is to be continually learning by trying new hobbies, gaining new skills, and seeking out new experiences that will train the mind to automatically absorb new ideas and incorporate them when appropriate. Being receptive to new ideas is a discipline that can be rewarding both personally and professionally.

6. Teachability and Accountability

Leaders who are building high-performing teams should look for individuals who have both teachability and accountability.

Teachability is not the same as good listening skills and the ability to pay attention. Being teachable means understanding feedback and new information and then applying it on the job. Leaders and employees who are teachable are valuable in any organization, which is why it’s so important to recognize them and help them grow.

Personal accountability is demonstrating that when you say you are going to do something, others can rely on you to do it. When an individual has the combination of teachability and accountability, they can be trusted to understand the tasks assigned to them and follow through on their commitments.

7. Passing on Strengths

Leaders at every level have a lot of responsibilities, and they must ensure that all of them are delivered as promised. This often requires working with high-performing teams to complete the work, and leaders need the individuals on those teams to be as effective as possible.

It is up to leaders to work with individuals to make them better. This can be done through training programs, but one of the simplest ways is for leaders to share what they know. Passing your strengths on to your team allows them to build their skills, allowing for increased responsibilities and personal growth. Do this by allowing them to observe. Inviting them to participate in meetings and sharing experiences with them will expose them to the possibilities as they build their skill sets.

In addition to encouraging observation, it’s also important for you to explain to your team why you do things the way you do them. This helps teams understand the thinking behind your actions and allows them to replicate them more effectively. The combination of observation and explanation allows individuals to build stronger skill sets, which ultimately leads to better performing teams.

8. Employee Productivity

Employee productivity is a common goal for leaders at all types of organizations, and it’s a big topic to address, especially when building high-performance teams. One of the most important elements is understanding how much freedom each individual can handle with the tasks that are assigned to them.

Some people need a lot of direction and coaching when taking on a particular task, while others just need a few key pieces of information before running with it. What any given employee needs depends on how much experience they have with the task at hand. If they don’t have enough knowledge and experience, too much freedom will lead to lower productivity because they will be trying to learn along the way. On the other hand, if they have a high level of experience and are not given enough freedom to do the work, they will become disengaged. When maximizing the potential of a team, leaders must allow the appropriate amount of freedom to match the experience and competency of the individuals in the team.

9. Candor and Empathy

Leaders have an obligation to the organization to ensure that individuals and teams are able to contribute to their fullest. Maximizing all of their talent, capability, insight, innovation, and ideas requires delivering useful feedback.

To do this, leaders must employ both candor and empathy. Candor builds trust, which is vital when engaging employees and motivating them to work to their potential. Leaders with empathy demonstrate that they actually care about and identify with the individuals on their teams.

These two competencies work hand in hand—being candid with employees requires empathy. Hearing a difficult truth becomes easier when it’s clear that the individual delivering it has your best interests at heart. Leaders who can cultivate these two skills will be effective at building high-performance teams.

Strong Teams Need Strong Leaders

The performance of a team depends on both the individuals on the team and the leaders behind them. Without strong leadership, even the most skilled employees will not function to their highest potential on a team. On the other hand, the leaders who develop and hone these nine skills will unlock the potential of their teams and contribute to the success of the organization.

One of the most important components of successful change management is executive alignment. Whether your organization is undergoing a major culture transformation, kicking off a strategic initiative, or involved in a merger or acquisition, having leadership aligned during times of change is critical to your success. So, if you feel your organization is lacking executive alignment, it is important to know the potential effects it may be having on your business so you can take swift action to remedy it:

Corporate Culture Suffers

When alignment among leadership is lacking, there will also be a lack of clarity that will have a negative impact on the company’s culture. When people are left confused or frustrated for too long as a result of misaligned leadership, everyday conversations at the water cooler may quickly turn distracting or destructive to your company’s culture.

The best way to put a stop to this and take steps to repair the culture, is to have leaders collectively wrestle through the tough issues of mission, values, and strategy, and then effectively cascade that clarity throughout the organization. This will provide your organization with a common language, and an agreement on what to do in order to hold each other accountable to the desired culture. Providing this high-quality information will prevent individuals from filling in the blanks themselves with a negative picture of reality.

Leaders and Their Employees Are Uncertain of Expectations

Clarity and alignment begin at the top, and must trickle down to the people leaders and eventually to the individual contributors. If this does not happen, leaders are left on their own to make decisions with the information they have available to them. While they will try to direct their team and individuals, using this information to the best of their ability, neither party can be certain of the right decisions. Unsurprisingly, this leads to mixed messaging, with both employees and leaders getting confused and frustrated about what they are working toward. To overcome this and get change initiatives back on track for success, executive alignment must be achieved.

Your Organization’s Purpose Is Unclear or Undefined

When an organization’s purpose is lived authentically, it will act as a guiding compass for employees and leaders, ultimately dictating the right path forward. If there is no executive alignment on it, the purpose of the organization will be unclear to everyone. This leaves priorities open to interpretation from various vantage points depending on role, level, or department. When this happens, an organization where teams or departments are moving in every direction, rather than in the same direction toward a common goal. All too often this leads to decreased engagement, increased frustration, and a lack of momentum.

Inconsistent and Irregular Communication Causes Confusion

If the communication coming from decision-makers at the top is not open, transparent, and consistent, it may be a sign that there is a problem with executive alignment somewhere in the organization. When leaders are uncertain of the strategic direction, or not aligned with their fellow leaders, this can lead to inconsistent and irregular communication that contributes to the challenges mentioned above. The workforce relies on the communication they receive from the top to make decisions, and to know that what they are doing is in line with the rest of the organization and the change they are aiming to achieve. If this communication changes drastically based on who it is coming from and when, alignment and clarity must be improved.

Next Steps To Achieving Executive Alignment

Executive alignment is always important to organizational growth, but never is this more apparent than during times of major change – which, in today’s world, is more frequent than ever. If executives are aligned on organizational objectives and are committed to a strategy for the change, it will help bring the entire organization onboard. It will help support a corporate culture that promotes accountability and momentum, create clarity around expectations and the organization’s overall purpose, and help ensure that communication is consistent, transparent, and supports the desired outcomes.

When it comes to understanding the balance between theory and practice, look no further than your own home. There are many parenting theories, ranging from authoritarian (telling their children exactly what to do) to indulgent (allowing their children to do whatever they wish) and everything in between. As a relatively new grand-parent, I have watched with amusement as the parents-in-waiting espouse their unique theory of how they will raise their child. In most cases, these theories experience dramatic change as reality hits over the first 4 – 5 years.

Theory is an excellent starting point for understanding something complex. It can also be dangerous if we think we can master something by putting a label on it. In our solution oriented society, one perspective or theory can be adopted as the silver bullet to solve a mystery. If a person has trouble focusing, we explain it by labeling them ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). If they are fastidious, they are OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). And if they are wildly unpredictable, they are Bipolar. But these labels or theories never describe the whole person. They can at best only lead us to a better understanding if we apply them correctly.

New leaders usually adopt some theory of leadership, only to refine their perspective as the years of experience temper their initial position. Great leaders hold views lightly, and are open to assessing alternate and even conflicting theories as they develop their world view. I recently was struggling with my view of strategic planning. I read a book by Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel called “Strategy Safari”. The authors discussed ten theoretical approaches to strategic thinking, and concluded that there is a place for each method. Only after understanding all of the different techniques, could I come to my own understanding of what will work for me.

Robert Ornstein wrote in “The Psychology of Consciousness” about how an elephant is made of many unique parts. We do not obtain an elephant by adding separate observations of trunk, legs and tail together in conceivable proportion; he concludes that understanding “does not arise out of a linear sum of independent observations.” In other words, understanding requires both science and art.

As leaders, we gather independent data, and then form our images in the mysterious reaches of our minds. So, study business theory, then practice until you have looked at the elephant from all sides. Theory and practice must work in concert to create real understanding.

Change leadership is more than managing changes in company processes or tools; it is leading employees through the waters of change. Because it affects everyone, leading change requires the buy-in and support of all employees impacted by the change. They need to know what to expect, their role in the change, the benefits of changing, and how to react when they encounter change. Unfortunately, as pointed out in an article published by the Association for Talent Development, many organizations struggle to achieve employee buy-in and support for change, for reasons such as employee resistance, inadequate resources, and leadership behavior that doesn’t support change. To effectively lead change, here are a handful of actions you can take to prepare your team.

Share the Vision

Employees need to understand not just that change is coming, but why the change is necessary. Taking the time to craft and communicate a vision for change helps the team to see that the change is a reality and not just words or wishful thinking. Sharing your vision also helps individuals to distinguish between which processes or accountabilities in the organization are changing imminently and which changes are more long-term. A vision can also be a source of inspiration to the team because it helps them visualize how things will look after the change has taken place.

Communicate Frequently

Telling employees that change is coming is informative, but it doesn’t effectively prepare the team for change. People often benefit from hearing messages of change frequently and in different forums so they have ample time to develop a deeper understanding of the change that is coming. Frequent communication in the form of one-on-one conversations, team meetings, and email communications not only helps the team understand upcoming changes, but also improves transparency, gives individuals opportunities to ask questions, and helps to open the door for employees to provide feedback.

Create Opportunities for Two-way Feedback

Communication about upcoming change shouldn’t be one-sided. Two-way feedback that provides individuals with a forum for expressing their concerns gives you the opportunity to add clarity and resolve confusion. It can also help to reduce individuals’ anxiety or fears about change as they learn how their role in the change management efforts will look.

Often, when individuals have a chance to discuss upcoming changes with other members of the team, they begin to see they’re not alone and that their fellow teammates can be a source of support for them. Two-way feedback opportunities, such as in-person or virtual brainstorming sessions, team off-sites, and other group sessions, allow individuals to discuss and resolve shared concerns or areas of confusion. The more people participate in dialogue about the changes that affect them, the more they become personally invested and likely to embrace the changes.

Determine Training Needs

Sometimes, changes are complex and sizeable enough that it’s clear the team doesn’t have the knowledge or skill set to deal with them. In this case, a valuable way to prepare your team for organizational change is to determine what kind of training will help them better cope with change and approach it successfully. Whether it’s leadership development that helps individuals more effectively manage themselves or others or skills development training in the areas of communication skills, teamwork, or time management, you can pinpoint training opportunities that will help individuals more effectively approach change before it happens.

Designate Change Champions

Like many things in the organization, preparing for change is a team effort. Instead of assuming that executive or team leaders are the only ones who can help prepare the team for organizational change, it can be helpful to identify others on the team who can help to drive and champion change. Instead of going it alone, look for those who are excited about the change and embrace the ideal behaviors and actions you want to see in everyone else. These people can then be peer leaders who lead by example and set the tone for embracing change.

In many ways, preparing for organizational change can be just as challenging as dealing with the change itself. With some thoughtful actions that introduce a vision for change and support individuals along the way, it is possible to reduce resistance or confusion about upcoming change. Sometimes people aren’t resistant to change at all; they just need a path and some patience to prepare for it.

Leadership is about more than just having an executive job title. Developing leadership that works requires continuous effort and ongoing training to improve skills and expand the knowledge base of leaders at every level. The goals of introducing leadership training programs in your company should be aligned with organizational objectives. For example, if you strive to create a culture of accountability, it is critical for leaders to both demonstrate that behavior and have the necessary skills for developing it among their teams. The competencies that leadership training addresses—communication, delegation, coaching, building relationships, and beyond—will help ensure that your company has a full leadership pipeline both now and in the future.

Strategies for Achieving Leadership Training Goals

Once you have defined the goals for your leadership training program, you need a strategy to help you achieve them. Think of leadership training like any other internal initiative and apply the same process: Create a strategy with interim objectives, milestones, and methods for measuring success.

1. Offer Appropriate, Relevant Training

In order to build strong leadership skills throughout your organization, you must first decide which kind of training is appropriate for various levels of leadership. This way, you’re spending your training budget in the areas where you’ll see the most impact. For example, it doesn’t make sense to have a junior executive go through a high-level leadership course to learn how to be a mentor if he or she doesn’t even have any direct reports yet. Although mentorship training might be interesting to that individual, he or she won’t have the opportunity to apply that knowledge for many years to come. A better fit would be an introductory course for building effective relationships.

Exercise: Perform a leadership assessment exercise to determine the types of training that will make the most sense for your organization:

• Step 1 – Create a chart that outlines the skills needed for each leadership position in the company (supervisor skills, delegation, organizational communication, mentoring, etc.).
• Step 2 – Create a matrix of all of the existing and potential leaders in the left vertical column and all of the necessary competencies you have identified in the top row.
• Step 3 – Rate each individual for each competency to see where the strengths and weaknesses lie.
• Step 4 – Compare this matrix to your leadership skills chart to identify and fill the training gaps.

For example, you might determine that the mid-level role of Marketing Team Leader needs skills in effective communication, increasing productivity, and coaching others. However, during the assessment, you have determined that Manager Mike, who is currently in that role, is not a strong communicator. Once you have identified the gap, you now know where to invest your training budget for that individual.

2. Commitment to Ongoing Leadership Training

The more you invest in leadership development at all levels, the more likely your pipeline will be filled with future leaders who are equipped to tackle new challenges. The best way to ensure that this happens is by creating a long-term strategy that includes regular training sessions that build on each other as individuals progress in their careers. Develop a strategy to meet your short- and long-term goals just as you would for any project or company initiative. This should include putting training dates on the calendar and making sure the timeline doesn’t get pushed back.

Exercise: Solidify your training strategy and demonstrate your long-term commitment by implementing a training calendar:

• Step 1 – Create a rolling 12-month training calendar that you update once each quarter.
• Step 2 – Prioritize the training gaps you identified in the previous exercise.
• Step 3 – Set training dates at intervals that make the most sense for your organization.
• Step 4 – Share this calendar with everybody in the company to help you stay accountable.

3. Develop a System to Evaluate Training Results

As you would with any new initiative, you need to determine whether the leadership development program is generating the improvements you have outlined in your goals. An evaluation might include a pre- and post- training 360-degree assessment, an employee engagement survey, a series of short tests to assess retention, or observations of changed behavior by a manager who works closely with the individual. Don’t forget: A successful organization needs excellent, not average, leaders.

Exercise: Remember that calendar you just created? Now it’s time to add evaluation activities after the training events that you have scheduled:

• Step 1 – Identify the metrics you want to track.
• Step 2 – Create the systems for gathering and evaluating data.
• Step 3 – Add measurement and evaluation activities to the training calendar.

For example, if you want to develop a coaching program, perhaps you use weekly coaching sessions and short surveys as metrics so that you can track how many sessions have occurred and each participant’s rating to determine how well the program is working.

If you are committed to developing leadership that works in your organization, select programs that are relevant to each group or individual, commit to an ongoing training program that builds on itself, and evaluate results to ensure that your goals are being met. The concepts are simple, but the implementation can be more challenging. Approach leadership training like you would any other important initiative in the organization and make it a top priority.

Introduction

Clear communication and alignment are key to successful teamwork in the workplace. According to one survey, 97 percent of respondents believe that a lack of alignment within a team plays a big part in a team’s outcome or impact. Understanding how to implement clear communication strategies, however, is often — well — less clear.
How do you cultivate a strong ethic of teamwork in the workplace through communication? The answer is twofold: by ensuring communication within teams is both frequent and effective.

Frequent Communication: “I Know What I Need To Know”

Frequent communication means keeping everyone in the loop. Teams execute more efficiently when everyone’s on the same page. First, team members avoid duplicating their efforts when knowledge is shared. Second, while each member has a specific role within the team, those roles are interrelated, so communicating frequently about one’s role speeds up the project. For example, let’s say one team member can’t start her role until another has the results of a specific task. In this case, knowing exactly when the other member completes the task keeps her – and the project – moving forward.
To keep communication frequent, the team should revisit key points and ask questions whenever it’s needed. If the team seems a bit too timid about frequent communication, it’s up to the team leader to model the desired communication behavior. Leaders should start each meeting with a “catch up” on accomplishments made since the last, and end with  a “recap” of what was covered.

Effective Communication: “I Understand Everything”

When it comes to successful team communication, just communicating frequently isn’t enough. Team members may know everything going on within the group, but they may still be left in the dark. How? Because they don’t understand everything. Think back to your school days — it’s the difference between scoring high on a quiz that requires rote memorization, but scoring low on a problem that requires you to link those quiz concepts together.

Effective communication requires all team members to know on a high level what’s going on within the team, but also to truly comprehend what’s going on. That can get tricky when your team is composed of members:

• From different parts of the department or company
• With vastly different expertise
• With different levels of comfort with processes
• Using knowledge sets that they don’t work with often.

To achieve effective communication, each team member should be able to summarize each key point that a speaker makes, if asked. If at any point during a meeting, something is not making sense, he or she must speak up to request clarification. Ensuring your team communicates effectively takes time, but ultimately you’ll save time by cutting down on costly mistakes that arise from a lack of understanding.

Cultivating Psychological Safety for High Performance Teams

Cultivating a team that engages in effective and frequent communication as described above is far easier said than done. Why? People don’t like to admit that they don’t know or understand things — especially in a group setting. That’s where the tenant of psychological safety comes in. First described by Amy Edmondson, a Harvard Business School professor whose work had a profound influence on Google’s recent study on teams, psychological safety refers to the idea that a team provides a safe space for “interpersonal risk taking.”
That includes the risk of appearing vulnerable by exposing the gaps in your knowledge. In a psychologically safe environment, team members don’t worry about feeling embarrassed or being ridiculed for saying, “Hey, I think I missed something” — or more importantly, “Hey, I don’t understand something.” Teams that exhibit high levels of psychological safety are ones where members, and especially team leaders, ask a lot of questions, which encourages everyone in the group to speak up more without fear of judgment. For effective and frequent communication to take place, a team must cultivate a culture of psychological safety. According to Edmondson, when you combine psychological safety with accountability, a high performance team is created.
Teamwork in the workplace will truly blossom when team building activities move beyond standard communication exercises — like improving listening and feedback skills — to also focus on communication that’s frequent and effective.

A truly world-class organization has a performance imperative—a clear culture of individual accountability. A true culture of accountability is one that rigorously demands accountability from individuals at every level of the company. It’s not enough for certain teams or departments to have this culture while others do not. For an organization to perform to its full potential, every employee must feel personally accountable for their work and consistently deliver on their commitments.

When an organization lacks the individual and group accountability needed to achieve the desired outcomes, it’s your leaders who are the solution. Leaders set and deliver the vision to their employees in a way that not only explains why it’s important, but how they can contribute to it as individuals. Like any other organizational standard, if personal accountability is the expectation, leadership must model it themselves. Without this commitment from leadership, it’s unreasonable to expect that others will hold themselves personally accountable for their work.

The Gap Between Intention and Results

What is personal accountability? It is a commitment to following through on what was agreed upon—or, put simply, personal accountability is doing what you say you are going to do. Personal accountability goes hand in hand with trust; when people follow through on their commitments, they show themselves to be trustworthy. Likewise, when leaders show trust, people are more likely to want to live up to that trust.

Most people don’t intend to drop the ball or let their leaders down when they commit to something. In fact, most people approach their commitments in the workplace with the intent to follow through, and why wouldn’t they? It feels good to succeed. However, slipping deadlines and a growing list of tasks that just never seem to get done are all too common.

This scenario, where intentions are not translating into results, is a familiar one. There may be seemingly good reasons for this—competing priorities, a lack of motivation, an intense workload, and so on— but ultimately, it comes down to personal accountability. When viewed in this light, the explanations that are presented as reasons for failure become excuses for not following through on a commitment.

Of course, there are also legitimate reasons an individual might not meet the expectations that were outlined. It might not be possible in the given timeframe, they might not have the necessary skills, or the budget might not be realistic. These circumstances are avoidable, but it’s not exclusively up to individual employees to identify and communicate these challenges. Leaders and managers must also participate in a way that helps individuals follow through on their commitments. Closing the gap between intention and results will lead to greater personal accountability. Leaders can facilitate this in the organization by embracing a three-step process: defining a mutual understanding of the desired outcomes, assessing whether it is possible for the person to achieve the desired results with their current skill set, and getting their commitment to executing the agreed-upon plan. Let’s look at how to go about each of these three steps.

1. Achieving understanding: setting clear expectations

The first step in ensuring that assignments are reasonable is for both parties to have a thorough understanding of the expectations. Without this mutual understanding, the individual might fail to meet the desired standards, even if they are following through on their personal commitment.

When setting expectations around a particular assignment, include these three important criteria:

• What is the expected outcome?
• When is the due date?
• How should the individual accomplish the expected outcome?

This conversation will be different for every individual. For example, a junior-level employee might need more explanation about how a certain task should be performed. A more senior-level employee won’t need step-by-step instructions, but can contribute more to the discussion about a realistic due date. Tailoring the discussion to each individual is essential when the goal is personal accountability.

In a fully developed culture of accountability, achieving understanding is a two-way dialogue. Employees feel empowered to ask questions such as, “How much time should it take me to complete this task?” And leaders know that they must be prepared with all of the relevant information before assigning a task or project. When accountability is the company-wide standard, individuals know that clear expectations set the stage for success.

2. Getting agreement: adjusting for roadblocks

Agreeing to complete an assignment is more than just a simple yes or no. It requires careful consideration of whether the what, when, and how of the task are possible. When making a personal commitment, it’s not fair to yourself or others to make promises you can’t keep. Even though it’s good practice to aim high and maintain strong standards, taking on assignments that can’t be delivered as expected will slow the project, impede progress, and hurt your professional reputation.

Before making a commitment or assigning a task, take the time to anticipate the obstacles that might arise and make adjustments accordingly. Follow these steps to help come to a mutual understanding and set a realistic goal:

1. Look at the calendar and map out a realistic timeline.
2. Talk to others on the team about their availability rather than assuming they can help; remember that they have made personal commitments of their own.
3. Consider the knowledge and skill set necessary for executing the assignment and compare it against your own. You might have to factor in training or research time if there is a gap between what is required and your current abilities.
4. Carefully evaluate the budget to determine whether it is realistic.
5. Determine what other resources are required and make sure they are accessible.

All of these steps will help ensure that commitments are realistic and achievable. If you don’t take the time to do this evaluation and adjustment, you will inevitably encounter hurdles that will affect your ability to deliver on personal accountabilities. You can’t predict the future, but you can learn from past experience and thoughtfully apply those lessons to future commitments.

3. Taking action: leaders must be rigorous in their expectation

After confirming mutual understanding, accounting for potential hurdles, and adjusting commitments accordingly, nothing should remain in the way of delivering on an assignment. It is then up to leaders to demand personal accountability to see the project through.

To do so, leaders can measure progress along the way by checking in at previously agreed-upon points along the path to completion. This reinforces that the leader is expecting the promised outcome to be delivered on time and up to the previously discussed standards. Creating mini-milestones also helps individuals stay on track, especially for larger projects that might feel overwhelming. Leaders and employees can then work together to identify any necessary course corrections that will help individuals fulfill their commitments and stay personally accountable.

In addition to delivering on their own promises, there are certain behaviors leaders can display to promote accountability in the organization. When leaders recognize that a deliverable might not be completed as promised, this is an opportunity to provide support and coaching. What productivity or time management skills can be transferred to help an individual follow through on their commitment? What other adjustments might be necessary to ensure that the goal is met? By staying engaged in this way, leaders demonstrate the importance of personal accountability and show that outcomes must be delivered as promised.

Conclusion

Personal accountability is a hallmark of world-class organizations. To create a culture of accountability, leadership must demonstrate it themselves and demand it from others. In order for that demand to be fair, expectations must be clear and agreed upon, and leaders need to participate in the follow-through. All of these skills are teachable and can be honed over time with training and practice.

Individuals at every level, including leadership, can benefit from ongoing training. It’s important to remember that even if you have a strong commitment to personal accountability, you might need to learn how to coach others to do the same. Investing in leadership training equips executives, managers, and supervisors with the skills to help others achieve the highest standards of accountability.

We live in a world of automatic fixes. If your computer is acting up, you run antivirus software to fix it. If you don’t know how to get somewhere, your smartphone can give you directions while you’re driving—it will even make adjustments to get you back on track if you take a wrong turn.

Unfortunately, there is no such automatic fix to help your business strategy identify potential problems and the solutions that would best address them. In an automated world, organizational development is an area that still requires human ingenuity and ongoing effort to achieve excellence.

People, Process, and Tools

Since technology can’t do all the work, you must create an organizational development plan, establish regular checkpoints to assess your progress, and correct your course along the way. To execute excellently, try using an approach called “People, Process, Tools.” It works like this:

1. As Jim Collins advises in his book Good to Great, ask if you have the right people in the right seats.
2. Secondly, ask if you have the best process in place to enable people to optimize their performance. Are systems and processes fluid, or are they creating roadblocks to success?
3. Finally, ask if your people have the right tools to operate at maximum efficiency. Remember that tools and technology make a great servant and a terrible master, so tools are only valuable if they support and enable better performance.

Picture this: You go for dinner at an expensive restaurant. You place your order and wait patiently for 45 minutes, only to have your meal delivered cold. Is this a problem with people, process, or tools?  In fact, it could be any or all of these. If you were the restaurant manager, you would need to dig deeper to determine which area is causing the problem and establish a plan to fix it.

Implementing a System in Your Organization

Even if you think you already know where the weaknesses are with respect to your company’s people, process, and tools, using a systemized approach to organizational development can mean the difference between achieving excellence and constantly patching the holes. Here a few steps to follow:

Assess

Evaluate all areas of your organization and ask the following questions:

• People: What skills and competencies are necessary for each role? Do the people in each position have them?
• Process: Are the processes that are currently in place working? Are there new processes that should be implemented to help you achieve excellence?
• Tools: Does each person have the necessary tools to properly execute their role? Do those tools need to be updated?

Create a Path

After you have identified the weaknesses in each area, create a path forward by answering these questions:

• People: What specific competencies does each employee need to develop or hone in order to be successful in his or her role?
• Process: What steps will you take to improve ineffective processes and/or implement new ones?
• Tools: What steps will you take to ensure that each person has the tools they need to succeed?

After you have generated your answers, create clear milestones, schedule training if necessary, create committees, and make the necessary purchases to help you achieve those goals in the stated time frames.

Use Checkpoints to Correct Your Course

As you create your organizational development plan, make sure you create checkpoints between milestones to assess your progress so you can make adjustments as needed. For example, you might find that a particular employee has a more robust skill set than you originally thought, making them a candidate for a future leadership role and putting them on a new training track. You might also discover new tools or processes that you were previously unaware of, making it possible to create a new milestone. Whatever the appropriate course correction may be, you won’t necessarily realize it unless you take a step back and look at the bigger picture of your progress.

Take a good look at your team. If you could improve in just one area, would it be the people, the process, or the tools? If you’re not sure how to get started, download our free resources, The Ultimate Guide to Organizational Development, to learn more about how to assess your current status and create a path to get from where you are now to where you want your business to be.