Organisational Engagement

Effective leaders are followed. The organisation is aligned to his strategy and his people fully engaged in its pursuit. Leaders tell good stories. These stories help the listener understand something of themselves, the values of the organisation, its purpose and direction. These stories are the leader’s medium for communicating the ideology, values, norms and direction that influence the thoughts and behaviours of his people. By these means he binds his people and aligns the organisation to his direction.

Our clients come to us to assist leaders at senior level down to middle management to engage the organisation and change behaviour in alignment with the organisation’s strategy or ideology. We do this by helping them create a central narrative from which stories can be told. This usually involves five initial steps in which we ask: where do we want to get to (the vision)?; how do we want to get there (the strategy)?; what do we need to do in the next 6-12 months (the priorities)?; what do we have to be good at (the skills and behaviours required)?; and how will we support the organisation to carry these out?

For this narrative to be relevant, understood and accepted by the organisation, it is then taken down each layer of the organisation, to be put in their language with their anecdotal stories. This is done by talking it through with the groups and getting examples from them of where they have seen the behaviours or skills working well or not working and where operations or processes may need to be changed or made clear. It will also unearth the support required at lower levels in terms of skills and resources. This part of the exercise also gives the leader eyes, ears and a fingertip feel for how his strategy is received.

Such a narrative engages the individual as part of a team. By understanding the vision, the individual associates with why she joined the organisation in the first place. Understanding the strategy and priorities helps her understand her role in the wider environment. Understanding the skills and behaviours means that she understands why she is being asked to behave in a certain manner and deliver a certain task. Knowing how she will be supported gives her confidence in herself and the organisation that she can deliver her part.

Where leadership is too strongly centralised, innovation and the fast and receptive use of initiative by middle management is constrained. For leadership to happen away from the core, the same ideology, values, norms and direction need to be communicated by local leaders. A strong narrative that can be embellished with stories from leaders below sets the framework for distributed leadership. This principle is true whether the organisation is a multi-national company, a clinical care group in a hospital or an infantry platoon of 30 men.

This process not only aligns the organisation to the leader’s direction and makes possible the distribution of leadership, it also makes talent and performance management possible, by identifying the skills and behaviours against which to appraise, hire and promote.