To Lead is to Create Change
“If you want people to change, you must provide crystal-clear direction.”
From Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath
Effective leadership results in behavior modification. We are attempting to get others to adjust their behaviors to support the best interest of the team/organization/mission/etc.. This means change needs to occur. In essence leadership is a continuos change management exercise.
The quote above is from a book I highly recommend on leading change efforts. It highlights the reality, that after deciding on the strategy, a leaders first responsibility to the team is to provide ‘crystal-clear direction’ on what the expectations, roles and principles/values by which the team will be asked to perform under.
If we expect to get the best out of our team we must first give them the expectations, direction, and definition they need to be able to confidently deploy their gifts.
Does everybody on your team know how success is defined? What the expectations for their role are? What are the principles/values under which they can make the decisions necessary to perform their role?
