Most leaders understand the vision, know where the company is heading and can translate the strategy and the vision to their subordinates well enough. But world-wide, there is a problem with Managers being capable of adopting the vision as their own and then communicating it to their teams successfully.
Therefore, the ‘Chinese Whispers’ phenomena is aroused and managers and CEO’s are left wondering ‘how did they make ‘that’ mean ‘that’???
The franchising industry is a good example of this – where the brand message promoted through mainstream marketing channels communicate one message but the experience had by the public from ‘site to site’ can sometimes be varied, inconsistent and not congruent with the brand.
This is less a ‘marketing’ issue and in fact, the argument could be made that its’ a ‘branding’ issue – of which issues are present in all – but the truth is that it is a vision alignment issue where the failure is seen in ‘delivery of the promise’.
The questions therfore have to be asked:
- How do you know that your message is being delivered accurately?
- Do you have a strategy for assessing the accuracy of your communication?
- Are your managers filtering the message properly?
- How quickly do you determine if the actual message is being translated correctly?
- What structures do you have in place to ensure there is an environment to align and adjust inconsistencies with your team?
Therefore, 3 Degree Leadership becomes about creating an environment of alignment and equipping your managers to do the same with their teams.
It stands to reason then that:
1st degree leadership is the ability to achieve a certain level of the vision on your own;
2nd degree leadership is the presence of basic skill sets to equip someone else to do a job; but
3rd Degree Leadership is the advanced skills to lead others to lead others to achieve the full extent of the vision.
3 Degree Leadership therefore overcomes the challenges had by leaders relating to:
- Improving the performance of teams;
- Developing executive skills;
- Strengthening a culture;
- Amplyfying the brand.
The success or failure of any enterprise is how successfully you can lead others to translate the vision through the core filters of 1. Management Teams; 2. Employee Culture; 3. Customer Experience and 4. Leadership Development.
Every leader should complete a Vision Alignment Diagnostic at least once a year to determine how well your people and your strategy is aligned with the vision. Contact Ilse on 0427 355 138 or e-mail ilse@purposesync.com to arrange a meeting.
This was a very informative article. The author’s insights were well-articulated and thought-provoking. I’m eager to hear what others think about these ideas. Any thoughts?