One of the primary roles of a leader isn’t to stand up and tell others what to do. Your most important job is to put people in a position to succeed. That’s an every day, every hour, every interaction mission that demands energy, focus, and a tremendous amount of attention to detail. Creating an effective system can make that job easier for you and more predictable for your team.
Systems matter. By creating repeatable procedures and productive habits, leaders can empower their teams to work smarter, work more efficiently, and find more time to think about creative efforts in lieu of guessing, asking questions, and waiting to see what happens. Structure should come from the top down and include expectations on what work, communication, and success look like in every situation.
A leadership system may look different based on the leader, the team, the industry, or where a company is in terms of size and development. The system of, say, a start-up will likely look markedly different from a three thousand person company with workers and offices across the country and around the globe. Still, the basic elements and overall structure should share some basic principles and habits.
First, leaders should think about their mission statement every week. We’ve worked with teams that start their Monday meetings with some variation of their mission statement and what that looks like over the next five days. By keeping your company’s identity and core values top of mind, everyone will be able to better prioritize their projects and energy.
Leaders need to be honest with themselves. Set aside time every week to dedicate to examining not what you’ve done, but how you’ve helped others succeed. Only by ensuring tasks and responsibilities have been properly delegated, managed, and followed-up on, and what needs to happen next, can leaders truly understand their impact on the workflow of the company as a whole. No one is asking for perfection here. Instead, focus on reflection and action to make the right changes.
Next, schedule conversations with key team members weekly and all team members on a monthly or quarterly basis, depending on the size of your organization. This isn’t about task managing or seeing what they’ve done wrong. These conversations should focus on improving systems and processes at every level of the business, top to bottom and bottom to top. Look for recurring issues or concerns, as well as repeated compliments or notes about who is doing good work. Most often, it won’t take long to determine that there are recurring themes or issues that deserve your attention. Be sure to celebrate and share successes, too!
Finally, create metrics to measure success. This is an area where flexibility is important, for a number of reasons. Seasonally, economically, or on a client-by-client basis, what a win might look like can be dramatically different. Creating those expectations on a project or employee basis can help to establish accountability and improve efficiency. Share what those metrics are, but invite feedback from team members so the metrics are realistic.
One of the most important aspects of developing a leadership system is consistency. As a person and as a leader, the most influential individuals set the tone for the entire company. Leaders need to be accountable; oftentimes, that simply comes down to doing what you say and expecting the same in return.
Do you have a leadership system or a checklist that helps guide you and your company? We’d love to see it!