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Organizational Alignment: The Power of Cross-Organizational Networks
How do organizations deal with the changes in today’s business environment? How do they keep up with the pace of change, let alone get ahead of it? How do they innovate and stay competitive? How do they increase their adaptability? How do they create organizational alignment quickly enough? Do they hang on to hierarchical structures as the main drivers for change? Or do they explore and stimulate cross-organizational networks as a new way to enable people and teams to collaborate more effectively across borders?
I witness a tenacious tendency within many organizations: the more things change around us, the more we tend to hold on to what is familiar to us. We tend to focus more on hierarchical structures and managerial processes. It gives us a feeling of control and overview. But, in fact, it is limiting collaboration, flexibility and adaptability. Many organizations struggle with this phenomenon.
“WHEN BUSINESS WAS FINE WE DIDN’T HEAR ANYBODY ABOUT IT. BUT NOW THE MARKET IS CHANGING EVERYBODY COMPLAINS ABOUT HOW INTERNAL SILOS ARE HINDERING US AND HOW THEY SEEM TO GROW STRONGER.”
Leaders need to stimulate exactly the opposite of what is often the organization’s reflex. Encourage people to collaborate more across borders instead of less. Leaders need to stimulate the creation of cross-border networks that combine the best knowledge, skills, experience, attitude available across the organization, needed to get a certain job done.
To be clear, in itself this is not new. Cross-unit and cross-team collaboration have always been important for a company’s success. But in the 21st century business reality there are two main reasons why cross-organizational collaboration has become more crucial than ever before:
- The accelerated rate of change: organizations need to be able to adapt quicker in a more agile way
- The changing relationships between companies and their customers, suppliers, and competitors: traditional boundaries are diminishing, and this calls for new ways of cross-border collaboration
I am not saying that hierarchical structures and managerial processes are no longer needed, but they will no longer be enough to deal with today’s challenges. Leaders need to put focus on creating and stimulating cross-organizational networking as an additional structure for collaboration. A new way of collaboration that leads to higher adaptability, agility, and responsiveness with respect to the new circumstances.
“Traditional hierarchies and processes, which together form an organization’s “operating system”, do a great job of handling the operational needs of most companies, but they are too rigid to adjust to the quick shifts in today’s marketplace. The most agile, innovative companies add a second operating system, built on a fluid, network like structure, to continually formulate and implement strategy.” – John Kotter, Harvard Business Review, Accelerate, 2012 (read the article)
Yet, many organizations do not have cross-organizational networks or leaders are not aware of these networks and don’t use them.
“While common sense might suggest that cross-departmental support for innovation would be a good thing, getting everyone involved is not a widespread practice. Survey respondents said they typically ask only certain departments for ideas, while other departments are relegated to implementation.” – Economist Intelligence Unit, Cultivating Business-led Innovation, 2012 (download the research report)
I have witnessed with my own eyes how cross-organizational networks can have a positive impact on collaboration and how they can boost a company’s success. One of the examples is a client we work with who has faced fundamental changes in the market. Growing competition from the east; increasingly demanding customers; technological advancements that require longer, more complex, and more expensive research and development cycles; alliances with suppliers to create pools of joint innovation, research and knowledge sharing. The board has chosen early in the process to fundamentally change the way divisions, units and teams needed to collaborate. Existing structures are not thrown overboard but are supplemented with cross-organizational networks. Key objectives are on the one hand to speed up the research & development process and on the other hand to create more alignment between the departments and teams of engineering, sales, and customer service. Networks can have a different focus: streamline knowledge sharing, tackle specific cross-border issues, act as sounding board to provide a second opinion, etc. Networks don’t stop at the company borders but can also include customers and suppliers. Some networks have become institutionalized; others are contemporary and will dissolve over time.
Together with the top 30 executives of the company we shared and discussed the progress they made over the past year. They reported the following results:
- A higher level of innovative thinking
- Better and faster decision making
- Better use of knowledge, expertise, experience, ideas
- Stronger basis for successful implementation/execution
- Better detection and development of key talent
- Motivating environment for employees to learn and grow
How did they do it? How did this team of executives create the new way of cross-organizational collaboration? Three aspects in their leadership behavior stick out:
Stimulate networks actively and openly:
- Analyze existing networks. Every organization has its hidden and informal networks. Make sure you understand where they are, who is in it, how they operate, and what their outcome is. Focus on stimulating and supporting the networks that add value. Stop or replace the networks that are not.
- Make networks a ‘formal’ part of your organization. Make them visible to everyone. Explain their importance and encourage them. At the same time discourage silo behavior.
- Focus your energy on communicating vision and strategic priorities and less on managing processes. Focus on the results and set the strategic boundaries. Allow the networks to fill in the rest of the strategy and to come up with ways to manage the results.
- Stimulate diversity within the networks. Make sure they combine people from different teams, cultures, expertise, and locations.
“The most effective networks connect to people with diverse expertise, from a broad range of functions, and across different locations.” – MIT Sloan Management Review, The collaborative organization: How to make employee networks really work, 2010 (read the article)
Make your people’s ability to create cross-border alignment a top priority:
- Invest time and energy in supporting leaders, employees and teams to learn how to create people alignment across borders and cultures. Define it as a core competency for everybody. Set up development and coaching programs to build the required mindset and skills.
- Create an alignment culture throughout the organization. Make the importance of people alignment explicit in your communication, in your strategy, in your behavior, and in your reward system.
- Stimulate a learning environment where people can build successes together. Register these successes. Share, communicate and celebrate them actively throughout the organization.
“Being a successful network requires more than having the right knowledge around the table. If the people are not able to align their different areas of expertise, experiences, objectives, cultures, they will be useless as a network.” – cross-divisional network member
Change the mindset of people about failure:
- Start at the top. Understand that cross-organizational networks need a certain level of space, if you want them to become successful. Make sure the strategic priorities are clear, but allow networks to fill it in and experiment. Let go of the urge to control every part of the process.
- Give networks space to make mistakes and to learn from it. This can be in contradiction with what people are used to. There can be a fear of failure within the organization that can hinder this new way of collaboration. Be explicit to your people that mistakes are not failures, as long as they allows us to learn and grow individually and collectively (also read my earlier article on this).
“One who fears the future, who fears failure, limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity more intelligently to begin again. There is no disgrace in honest failure; there is disgrace in fearing to fail.” – Henry Ford, My Life and Work, p. 47
What do you think of cross-organizational networks? What are your experiences with networks? What are your questions? Share your comments below.
If you want to receive upcoming Leadershipwatch articles and news in your mailbox, don’t hesitate and register at the top of this page. Your personal information will be kept strictly confidential. Photo: WebWizzard/Flickr (Creative Commons)___________________
Aad is an international business advisor, change leader, people alignment expert, leadership team facilitator and executive coach. He is founder and managing partner at HRS Business Transformation Services where he works with executives and leadership teams internationally on four topics: ‘leading complex change’, ‘cross-cultural leadership’, ‘post-merger integration’, and ‘amplifying business performance’. Find out more about Aad and HRS’ services. If you would like to invite Aad to your organization or team feel free to contact Aad here.
Team Alignment: What if Your Team is Stuck?
Do you recognize this situation? A team is confronted with an important problem, and it has to tackle it. All team members are actively discussing and debating the problem, trying to come up with a proper solution. Everybody shares a clear will to solve this together and to reach alignment as a team. Everything that can be said about the problem is mentioned. All opinions and suggestions are brought to the table. But somehow the team cannot come to a decision. Somehow the team seems incapable of taking the last hurdle and making a final choice. The team is stuck! It develops signals of frustration and paralysis!
What do you do as a leader when you witness your team is paralyzed by indecisiveness?
Your ability to create team alignment is crucial in building business success (see my previous articles about the importance of people and team alignment). But does this mean that you always have to continue team discussions until you reach a shared decision, no matter how long it takes? No! For instance, sometimes the consequences of a decision are so extreme that a team can feel uncertain about taking this responsibility. Or, for instance, some teams can suffer from perfectionism. They try to reach the ‘perfect’ solution, but fail to find it because they are never satisfied. In these cases it will be counterproductive to keep on circling; the leader will have to step in. But is taking a decision yourself not ruining the team alignment and mutual commitment? Only if you do it carelessly! So how do you take action without damaging the team alignment? How do you do it in a way that still creates team commitment?
Here are four leadership traits that break your team’s indecisiveness without destroying team alignment and commitment:
Align with your team upfront what to do if the team is stuck
Avoid situations where you unexpectedly jump in and overrule the team. Prepare together upfront for the possibility that the team cannot come to a decision and decide on a procedure.
Make sure that all arguments / opinions / suggestions are exchanged
Indecisiveness of teams is often caused by a lack of knowing and understanding each other’s opinions, perceptions, suggestions, etc. Check actively if everything is on the table and there is no mutual misunderstanding. If not, there is still a lack of team alignment. In that case you make the team aware of it and continue to guide the team to alignment. If yes, and the team acknowledges it, they will accept you to step in and take a decision.
Focus on the common interest
Sometimes a team can get stuck because they don’t see the broader picture. Always make sure your decision is aiming at the common interest and explain to the team the broader picture. Explain why your decision is important and how it will serve the common interest.
Show that it is not about you
There is a big difference between taking the front position and keeping your team out of the wind versus showing how powerful you are and forcing your team to step into the wind. When you take a decision make sure you show your team that it is about you taking your responsibility. Not about you showing your power! Make sure you do not act based upon ego.
A striking example of these leadership traits is the way Abraham Lincoln took the lead in the decision to free the slaves, knowing his team was hesitating to take this momentous decision.
“When the rebel army was at Frederick, I determined, as soon as it should be driven out of Maryland, and Pennsylvania is no longer in danger of invasion, to issue a Proclamation of Emancipation. I said nothing to anyone; but I made the promise to myself, and … to my Maker. The rebel army is now driven out, and I am going to fulfill that promise. I have got you together to hear what I have written down. I do not wish your advice about the main matter, for that I have determined myself. This I say without intending anything but respect for any one of you. But I already know the views of each on this question. They have been heretofore expressed, and I have considered them as thoroughly and carefully as I can. What I have written down is what my reflections have determined me to say. If there is anything in the expressions I use, or in any other minor matter, which any one of you thinks had best be changed, I shall be glad to receive the suggestions.” (Inside Lincoln’s Cabinet: The Civil War Diaries of Salmon P. Chase (ed. 1954), 22 September 1862, p. 150)
Is your team stuck? What do you do about it? Share your comments below.
If you want to receive upcoming Leadershipwatch articles and news in your mailbox, don’t hesitate and register at the top of this page. Your personal information will be kept strictly confidential. Photo: Jack Dorsey/Flickr (Creative Commons)Aad is an international business advisor, business transformation & people alignment expert, leadership team facilitator and executive coach. He works with leaders of multinational companies and focuses specifically on three topics: ‘leading complex change’, ‘cross-cultural leadership’, and ‘post-merger integration’. Find out more about Aad and his services. If you would like to invite Aad to your organization or team feel free to contact him here.
Related articles
- Executive Team Alignment: The Power of Team Coaching (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- Organizational Alignment: The Power of Cross-Organizational Networks (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- Creating Team Alignment: Team Development Initiatives Should Fit Today’s Business Reality (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- Sustainable Change: Know How to Handle Complexity Across Cultures (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
Executive Team Alignment: The Power of Team Coaching
‘We should have had this discussion a long time ago. It would have saved us a lot of time and a lot of useless frustration.’ This was the feedback I received from executives during an executive team alignment session I facilitated not so long ago. The team was satisfied and relieved by the outcomes. They had not expected these results. They had even doubted the value of such a session. In fact, team coaching had never been high on their priority list.
A change is taking place in today’s business environment regarding teams and team collaboration.
Not the need for teamwork itself is changing, but the requirements for successful team collaboration are shifting. Economic and market changes require companies for instance to create new business models, to merge with other companies, to build alliances (with suppliers, competitors, or even with customers). Organizations feel the need for more flexibility and adaptability of people and teams in order to be able to keep pace with the developments. The need increases for more flexible ways of connecting people and building networks. Teams function much more cross-departmental. Functional and hierarchical structures are no longer the sole basis for teams. And on top of that organizations operate in an increasingly multicultural environment and face cross-cultural challenges (see earlier article on cross-cultural alignment).
Executive teams have the job to guide their organizations through these changes.
It is their job to stimulate people to create teamwork that successfully addresses these changing circumstances. In fact, they are the starting point of a successful change process. The executive team’s behavior is a vital example to the rest of the organization. Their level of alignment as a team is crucial. However, I frequently witness executive teams struggling with creating real alignment within their team. Why?
I experience three tendencies that hinder executives in creating team alignment:
- The tendency to perceive the building of team alignment as a rather technical and rational activity. Putting the focus on defining and clarifying tasks and responsibilities between each other. Setting and dividing goals and targets, and deciding on reporting procedures.
- The tendency to see individual coaching as the solution for a lack of team alignment.
- The tendency to underestimate the effect of a lack of executive team alignment on the rest of the organization.
Executive teams that put special focus on team coaching, and actively promote team coaching throughout the organization do not only improve their team effectiveness, but also initiate cultures that foster people connectivity, flexible networking, and successful cross-cultural and cross-departmental collaboration. They develop the competence to recognize the behavioral mechanisms that hinder mutual trust and openness. They create the ability to influence and change these mechanisms positively. I certainly do not minimize the effect of executive coaching on a 1-on-1 basis. This proves to be very useful, no doubt about that. But to create real team alignment team coaching is essential.
With the right approach and experienced facilitation executive team coaching provides the following benefits:
- Better understanding of the team dynamics that are taking place
- Better understanding of the different perceptions, ambitions, values, concerns, fears, aspirations, and irritations that are present
- Increased level of mutual trust
- More openness
- Better decisions
- Faster decision-making
- Deepened connections between the team and the rest of the organization
- Stronger basis for consistent execution throughout the organization.
In this interesting article Manfred Kets de Vries, professor of leadership development at INSEAD, describes the power of team coaching. I love the Hedgehog metaphor he uses to explain the dilemma between needing each other to accomplish things and at the same time wanting a certain amount of distance to escape from unknown/disagreeable behavior and qualities of others. I experience this dilemma more than once when working with executive teams. I witness over and over again how team coaching brings teams to a next level and creates breakthroughs in terms of mutual understanding, trust and openness and therefore boosts the team’s effectiveness towards the organization.
What is your experience with creating successful teams? How do you use the power of team coaching? Please leave your comments below.
If you want to receive upcoming Leadershipwatch articles and news in your mailbox, don’t hesitate and register at the top of this page. Your personal information will be kept strictly confidential. Photo: Lady-bug/Flickr (Creative Commons)Aad is an international business advisor, business transformation & people alignment expert, leadership team facilitator and executive coach. He works with C-level and executive teams of multinational companies and focuses specifically on four topics: ‘leading complex change’, ‘cross-cultural leadership’, ‘post-merger integration’, and ‘amplifying business performance’. Find out more about Aad and his services. If you would like to invite Aad to your organization or team feel free to contact him here.
Related articles
- Leadershipwatch Anniversary (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- Team Alignment: What if Your Team is Stuck? (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- Organizational Alignment: The Power of Cross-Organizational Networks (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- Creating Team Alignment: Team Development Initiatives Should Fit Today’s Business Reality (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- Leading Change: How Focus Creates Sustainable Change (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- The People Alignment Compass – Part 3 (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- Cross-Cultural Leadership: How to Avoid Making People Lose Face (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
Leadershipwatch Anniversary
This month is the 2nd anniversary of Leadershipwatch!
The past two years have been exciting and rewarding. Leadershipwatch has become a source for 21st century leaders to find new insights, advice and tips on how to deal with today’s leadership challenges.
Thanks a lot everybody for visiting Leadershipwatch and for enjoying and sharing its articles and content. Your reactions and comments have been a source of inspiration and encouragement!
This anniversary is a nice moment to look back at your Leadershipwatch favorite articles (most read by you):
- Cross-Cultural Leadership: How to Build Mutual Trust?
- Leading Change: What does Change mean to You?
- Leading Cross-Cultural Teams: Do you Understand the Cultural Differences within your Team?
I also like to share with you some of my personal favorites:
- Leading Multinational Companies: Three Significant Changes in the Role of Senior Leaders
- Leading Change in the 21st Century: 4 Myths About Cultural Change
- The People Alignment Compass
What articles are your favorites? What insights or tips did you like particularly? How did you apply them? Let me know!
I hope to meet you on Leadershipwatch many more times and I look forward to exchanging ideas with you!
Photo: Oatsy40/Flickr (Creative Commons)___________________
Aad is an international leadership advisor, business transformation & alignment expert, leadership team facilitator and executive coach. He works with executives and leadership teams of multinational companies and focuses on four topics: ‘leading complex change’, ‘cross-cultural leadership’, ‘post-merger integration’, and ‘amplifying business performance’. Find out more about Aad and his services. Contact Aad for more information.
Related articles
- Team Alignment: What if Your Team is Stuck? (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- Organizational Alignment: The Power of Cross-Organizational Networks (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
Leading Multinational Companies: The Difference between Execution versus Action
Some time ago this executive team contacted me. They were dealing with important market changes that affected their business. There was an urgent need for change in the organization and they had defined a set of strategic objectives that would be the key focus for the organization. They were doing their utmost to roll out these objectives throughout the organization, but it did not deliver the needed results. They were constantly in contact with their managers to make sure the right focus and actions were carried out. They had put together a road map with all the necessary actions and they monitored it on a weekly basis. But somehow the road map resulted in a list of issues and problems that only grew bigger while the expected results lagged behind more and more. What was going wrong?
A recent global study by the Conference Board found that the top two concerns amongst top executives were as follows (Conference Board, 2009):
- Excellence in execution
- Consistent execution of strategy by top management
Why this concern? As I described in an earlier article Leading Multinational Companies: Three Significant Changes in the Role of Senior Leaders the leadership challenges have changed over the past decades. Or as Gary Hamel says in ‘The Future of Management’: ‘Right now, your company has 21st-century Internet-enabled business processes and mid-20th-century management processes all built atop 19th-century management principles.’ The 21st century business reality requires from leaders that they are able to execute their most important goals in a fast changing, globalized, and increasingly cross-cultural environment. Leaders who fail to mobilize and motivate the organization to consistently execute the organization’s most important goals are ultimately ineffective.
The point is that many executives struggle with creating effective execution. Getting from clear aligned strategic priorities and goals at C-level to focused execution throughout the organization seems to be a problem. One of the key reasons I witness: companies can suffer from a culture that is action-oriented instead of execution-oriented. And there is a clear difference between the two! Like the team I described at the beginning, executive teams are not always aware of the fact that they are sustaining an action-oriented culture. And in the 21st century this can seriously hinder successful execution.
Let’s take a closer look at what differentiates an execution-focus from an action-focus, and what leaders who drive effective execution do differently. Below I list 6 important differences.
Execution-oriented leaders:
- Focus on the WHY and WHAT. On the vision, the road ahead, and the results the company wants to accomplish. They do not underestimate the HOW, but see it as their role to create the right circumstances for their people to figure out the HOW.
Action-oriented leaders: spend a significant part of their time and energy in figuring out the HOW. They feel the need to define the HOW for their people. By doing this they tend to lose the broader perspective. Ticking of action lists becomes more important than creating desired results.
- Stimulate people early in the decision-making process to contribute their experience/ideas bottom-up. They invite people to think along in creating the vision and strategy. They make them co-owners of the vision and strategy.
Action-oriented leaders: define vision and strategy at the top and roll it down into the organization as a given. They fail to create ownership in the organization. People will wait for them to say what needs to be done. They will have to invest lots of time and energy in keeping everybody moving in the right direction.
- Maintain a longer-term horizon. They focus on creating consistency in the direction of the company. This longer-term view allows them be more pro-active in their decisions.
Action-oriented leaders: focus more on short-term solutions and tend to be much more reactive in their decisions. In a fast changing environment it will be extremely hard to keep up and to keep the organization aligned. Action lists tend to explode and focus gets lost.
- Try to avoid a ‘command and control’ style. They focus their energy on facilitating management and employees to achieve the desired results and they build the company’s success by delegating accountability as low as possible into the organization.
Action-oriented leaders: feel they have to control the situation. They hold on to hierarchy. They want to have all the information. They won’t hesitate to use their power to get things done.
- Maximize cross-boarder collaboration and teamwork. They break down structures and processes that hinder this.
Action-oriented leaders: Rely on functional and hierarchical segmentation. They unintentionally stimulate ‘tribal’ behavior (read this nice article on culture and tribal behavior)
- Stimulate flexibility. They value pro-activeness, agility, and resilience to change. They try to maximize these skills in the organization.
Action-oriented leaders: try to excel in planning and expect everyone to stick to the plan. This will cause less flexibility and increased risk avers behavior. The organizational responsiveness to external influences will deteriorate.
In closing I come back to Gary Hamel and like to recommend this video of him explaining his interesting take on the future role of managers (click here to play video).
How do you create an execution-oriented culture? Please let me know your ideas on the list above by leaving a comment below.
If you want to receive upcoming articles and news in your mailbox, don’t hesitate and register at the top of this page. Your personal information will be kept strictly confidential. Photo familymwr/Flickr (Creative Commons)___________________
Aad is an international business advisor, business transformation & alignment expert, leadership team facilitator and executive coach. He works with executives and leadership teams of multinational companies and focuses specifically on four topics: ‘leading complex change’, ‘cross-cultural leadership’, ‘post-merger integration’, and ‘amplifying business performance’. Find out more about Aad and his services. Feel free to contact Aad for more information.
Related articles
- Cross-Cultural Leadership: How to Create People Alignment (Part 3) (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- How Does Your Team Make Decisions? (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- Leadershipwatch Anniversary (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- Team Alignment: What if Your Team is Stuck? (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- Leading Change: How Focus Creates Sustainable Change (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
Cross-Cultural Leadership: How to Create People Alignment (Part 3)
Photo: Tuppys/Flickr (Creative Commons)
This series is about people alignment as a crucial competence for today’s leaders. Especially in a globalized world, where cross-cultural and multinational challenges are becoming more and more a normal part of the leader’s job. Successful leaders create people alignment and they do it by mastering three elements of alignment. In Part 1 I describe the first element: ‘personal alignment’. Part 2 describes the second element of people alignment: ‘team alignment’. In this Part 3 I highlight the third element: ‘organizational alignment’.
Why organizational alignment is important
Without having a sufficient level of personal alignment, leaders will experience difficulties with creating team alignment. Without having a sufficient level of leadership team alignment, leaders will experience difficulties with creating organizational alignment. A pitfall for executives is to believe that creating organizational alignment is primarily the domain of line-management. ‘The top should focus on strategy and financial targets, the execution and aligning the organization around the strategy is the job of line-managers.’ False! The 21st century’s business reality does not allow this.
The idea that senior leadership teams can stay out of sight in order to be able to focus their energy on the strategy (and believe that their team’s behavior will not trickle down into the organization) is a big mistake. In today’s fast evolving businesses, senior leaders play a crucial role in creating organizational alignment around vision and direction, focus, strategy, values, change execution, desired behavior, teamwork and cross-departmental collaboration. They interact actively with the organization on all levels. And this is even more important in multinational and cross-cultural environments where perceived cultural differences can enhance misalignment. Leadership teams who do not actively invest time in creating organizational alignment run the risk of getting disjointed from their organization, of not knowing anymore what is really going on, of not being aware of what the organization is expecting from them and not knowing how they are perceived by the organization. The leadership team’s ability to create organizational alignment has a strong impact on the business’ success.
How leaders can spot a lack of organizational alignment
How can you spot lack of organizational alignment in general, and more particularly in cross-cultural environments? How to create your ‘leadership compass’ that guides you to potential weak spots in the organization’s alignment? The following questions might help you in building your compass:
- What is the employees’ perception of me as leader? And of us as leadership team? Is it a consistent picture? How do cross-cultural aspects affect this picture? To what extend do we as leaders enhance this picture?
- To what extend is our vision, strategy and focus really shared by our employees and managers? Do they show ownership? If not, what are they missing?
- What is our corporate culture? Do we have one or multiple corporate cultures? Do we as leadership understand the culture(s) and the impact on our performance well enough? What do we do to support managers and employees to create cross-cultural effectiveness?
- Do I know the concerns of managers and employees in the organization well enough? How do I listen to their concerns and ideas? What can I do to improve this? How can I create a closer communication loop without being perceived a micro-manager who is interfering with their responsibilities?
- Do we know and understand well enough the obstacles that are hindering our managers and employees in the execution of our strategy? If not, why is this? What can I and we as leadership team do to remove these obstacles? How do we support them to be able to remove the obstacles themselves?
- How good is our organization with collaboration cross-department, cross-division, cross-region? What are we missing? What can we as leaders do to stimulate this? How should we support/coach our managers with this?
- Do we know the potential and talent of our people well enough? Do we know what qualities we specifically need to build our success? Are there cross-cultural differences in these qualities? Do our managers and employees know these qualities too? If not, how is this affecting our future as a company? How can we as leaders support people to develop and use their talent to build our future?
- How do we share and transfer knowledge within the organization? How well do we take cross-cultural differences into consideration when we share? How well do I and we as leadership team share successes and openly show appreciation to teams and individuals in the organization? How good are we as organization in coaching/mentoring each other? What can we as leaders do to influence this positively?
How do you create alignment in cross-cultural environments? What is the level of alignment in your organization? What questions would you add to the list above? Please share your ideas and thoughts.
This post is based on my keynote called ‘How to Strengthen Your Cross-Cultural Compass’, a condensed and energizing program designed for leaders who face the challenges of leading cross-cultural organizations and teams. If you would like to know more about this program don’t hesitate to contact us.___________________
Aad is an international business advisor, business transformation expert, leadership team facilitator and executive coach. He works with executives and leadership teams of multinational companies and focuses specifically on four topics: ‘leading complex change’, ‘cross-cultural leadership’, ‘post-merger integration’, and ‘amplifying business performance’. Find out more about Aad and his services. Feel free to contact Aad for more information.
If you want to receive upcoming articles and news in your mailbox, don’t hesitate and register at the top of this page. Your personal information will be kept strictly confidential.
Related articles
- Cross-Cultural Leadership: How to Create People Alignment (Part 2) (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- Cross-Cultural Leadership: How to Create People Alignment (Part 1) (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- Leading Multinational Companies: Three Significant Changes in the Role of Senior Leaders (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- How Does Your Team Make Decisions? (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- The People Alignment Compass – Part 1 (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
Cross-Cultural Leadership: How to Create People Alignment (Part 2)
Photo: Tuppys/Flickr (Creative Commons)
In Part 1 of this series I wrote about the importance of people alignment as a crucial competence for today’s leaders. Especially in a globalized world, where cross-cultural and multinational challenges are becoming more and more a normal part of the leader’s job, leaders need to understand how to create people alignment. In Part 1 I also described how ‘personal alignment’ plays an important role when creating people alignment. This Part 2 is about another crucial element of people alignment: ‘team alignment’.
What does team alignment actually mean? For one thing, a truly aligned team shows behavior that goes further than just ‘liking each other’, ‘understanding our goals’, ‘having agreement on things’, and ‘behaving as a group’. When we are part of a really aligned team we have a different relationship to the decisions we take in the team: we own these decisions as if they were our own. And even more: we commit to having these decisions work. We go beyond taking decisions together; we commit ourselves to the execution of these decisions. Team alignment is a choice by each team member: when a decision is taken, I will align with it and go for it all the way. Team members behave as co-owners and as partners in achieving what they decided as a team. This is radically different from the ordinary team behavior we see in many teams.
The leader’s ability to build real team alignment has a direct effect on the business’ success. This leadership competence has always distinguished great leaders from average leaders. And it has become even more crucial for today’s leaders of cross-cultural teams in multinational business environments.
What are specific team alignment challenges for leaders of cross-cultural teams? The most important is that cross-cultural teams often deal with perceived differences in cultural behavior and cultural values. These perceived cultural differences can create confusion and irritation that could seriously hinder the team’s openness and trust. Underestimating the impact of these perceptions will likely damage the team’s alignment and therefore the team’s performance and effectiveness. Also languages can play a role in creating unintended misunderstandings. Don’t underestimate what unequal proficiency can do to a team. And last but not least, openness is vital to creating team alignment, but the way we deal with openness can differ between cultures. In creating team alignment this plays an important role.
Successful leaders know when a team is not really aligned or when team alignment starts to decline. They pay special attention to (re) building it. They understand that team alignment is not a static situation, but a process that needs to be sustained and maintained.
How can you spot potential lack of team alignment in cross-cultural environments? How to create your ‘leadership compass’ that guides you to you potential weak spots in your team’s alignment? The following questions might help you in building your compass:
- How is the team doing? Do we know each other well enough? Do we understand each other’s ambitions, aspirations and concerns?
- What is our mutual level of respect, openness, and trust? How do I encourage this as a leader?
- Do we understand the cultural differences in our team? Do we share and discuss the perceived differences?
- Do we discuss sensitive topics with each other or do we keep a safe distance? Do we openly share with each other when we feel certain team behavior or decisions are not in line with our individual values and ethics?
- How do I share our company’s vision, values, and strategy with the team? How well is the team aligned with the vision, values, and strategy? Are there different interpretations around the table? Do I know these?
- Do we tend to show agreement rather than alignment focus in our meetings? How do I stimulate alignment focus?
- Are our meetings spending more time on information sharing and operational details than on driving accomplishments? How do I stimulate the latter?
- Are we committed to each other’s success? How do I stimulate co-ownership?
- What are the things I can do to increase the level of team alignment?
How do you create alignment in cross-cultural environments? What is the level of alignment in your team? What questions would you add to the list above? Please share your ideas and thoughts with me.
In Part 3 of this series I will talk about another important element of cross-cultural alignment: organizational alignment.
This post is based on my keynote called ‘How to Strengthen Your Cross-Cultural Compass’, a condensed and energizing program designed for leaders who face the challenges of leading cross-cultural organizations and teams. If you would like to know more about this program don’t hesitate to contact us.
Aad is an international business advisor, business transformation expert, leadership team facilitator and executive coach. He works with executives and leadership teams of multinational companies and focuses specifically on four topics: ‘leading complex change’, ‘cross-cultural leadership’, ‘post-merger integration’, and ‘amplifying business performance’. Find out more about Aad and his services. Feel free to contact Aad for more information.
If you like this article and want to receive upcoming articles and news in your mailbox, just register at the top of this page.
Related articles
- Cross-Cultural Leadership: How to Create People Alignment (Part 1) (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- Leading Multinational Companies: Three Significant Changes in the Role of Senior Leaders (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- Leading Innovation: Why Executives Should Stimulate People to Make (Better) Mistakes (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- The People Alignment Compass – Part 1 (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- Cross-Cultural Leadership: How to Create People Alignment (Part 3) (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- How Does Your Team Make Decisions? (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
Cross-Cultural Leadership: How to Create People Alignment (Part 1)
Today’s and tomorrow’s leaders are more and more facing cross-cultural challenges caused by globalization, emerging economies and new markets. How to notice differences in cultures? How to understand their impact on people behavior and performance? How to avoid cross-cultural friction and conflict? How to lead people and teams with different cultural backgrounds? How to create successful collaboration and teamwork cross-border? Effectively dealing with cross-cultural challenges like these is rapidly becoming one of the key differentiators for effective leaders and successful companies.
The cross-cultural business environment is creating a fundamental mind shift: the ‘soft’ side of business (culture, people, teamwork, etc.) is turning out to be a very ‘hard’ element in creating business success. Mastering the essence of people alignment is a crucial competence for today’s leaders.
What differentiates leaders that master the essence of people alignment? Over the years I have worked with many leaders in many different cultures and I’ve identified two important elements in the behavior of successful leaders. First of all, they do not perceive creating people alignment as an activity next to all the other leadership activities, but it is on their mind in everything they do. Secondly, they understand that their ability to align people depends on the extent to which they create personal alignment with respect to the environment where they operate.
Personal alignment is about understanding yourself. It is about being in balance with the inter-cultural environment where you find yourself. It is about being able to explain and show others where you stand within this environment of cultural differences and why. It creates trust, transparency, and confidence. The impact of a lack of personal alignment on your leadership behavior and on the organization is direct and significant. Creating people alignment starts with having a sufficient level of personal alignment. Especially in cross-cultural environments personal alignment can be challenged easily. Successful leaders are aware when personal misalignment occurs, and they pay special attention to fixing it.
How can you spot potential areas of personal misalignment in cross-cultural environments? How to create your personal ‘leadership compass’ that guides you to potential weak spots in your personal alignment? The following questions might help you in building your compass:
- What are my core qualities? How do I use these in my work as a leader? How do they fit the inter-cultural challenges that I face? How do they support my cross-cultural effectiveness?
- What are my most important values that define who I am and how I act as a leader? How do I express these values as a leader? (Focus on the 3-5 most important values)
- How do my values fit the company’s vision, mission, and strategy? Where do I feel misalignment?
- How do my values fit the corporate culture and subcultures? What cross-cultural differences do I perceive? How do they make me feel? What is the effect on my behavior?
- Do I understand the cross-cultural differences that I experience? How can I increase my understanding? How can I increase other’s understanding of my perception and observations?
- What qualities do I want to improve or develop to increase my cross-cultural effectiveness? How could people in my environment support me with this (peers, colleagues, team members, mentors, coaches)?
How do you create alignment in cross-cultural environments? How is your level of personal alignment? What questions would you add to the list above? Share your ideas and thoughts and join us in the discussion.
In Part 2 of this series I will talk about a next important level of cross-cultural alignment: team alignment.
This post is based on my keynote called ‘How to Strengthen Your Cross-Cultural Compass’, a condensed and energizing program designed for leaders who face the challenges of leading cross-cultural organizations and teams. Contact us for more information about this program. Photo: Tuppys/Flickr (Creative Commons)___________________
Aad is an international business advisor, business transformation expert, leadership team facilitator and executive coach. He works with executives and leadership teams of multinational companies on topics like ‘leading complex change’, ‘cross-cultural leadership’, ‘post-merger integration’, and ‘amplifying business performance’. Find out more about Aad and his services. Feel free to contact Aad.
If you like this article and want to receive upcoming articles and news in your mailbox, just register at the top of this page.
Related articles
- Leading Multinational Companies: Three Significant Changes in the Role of Senior Leaders (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- Leading Change in the 21st Century: 4 Myths About Cultural Change (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- Leading Innovation: Why Executives Should Stimulate People to Make (Better) Mistakes (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- Cross-Cultural Leadership: How to Create People Alignment (Part 2) (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- How Does Your Team Make Decisions? (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- The People Alignment Compass – Part 1 (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
- Cross-Cultural Leadership: How to Create People Alignment (Part 3) (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
Leading Multinational Companies: Three Significant Changes in the Role of Senior Leaders
Today’s business environment is changing. A lot has been written in recent years about this change and its various aspects: globalization, emerging markets, different competitors, exponential rate of change, new technologies that change business models and market places, impact of social media, etc. It affects people and businesses worldwide, and surely also multinational companies. In working with multinational companies I see three specific changes that affect the role of its senior leaders. Three changes that require special attention and sometimes even a fundamental mind shift. Let me list these three changes in a condensed manner.
a) A shift from management & control focus to alignment focus
In today’s business world it is clear that agility, resilience, flexibility to respond, ability to adapt, speed of defining and executing strategic priorities, are more important for the company’s success than ever before. It has become one of the main roles of senior leaders to enable the organization to adopt these qualities. Hierarchical, top-down oriented mechanisms of control and management need therefore to be adapted and complemented with new ways of collaboration and teamwork. New ways that enable managers, employees, and teams to exchange relevant information faster with each other; to let knowledge and competencies flow more easily cross-boarder between units, departments and functions; to detect issues and solutions quicker; to be more flexible in adjusting to new circumstances; to speed up execution of new methods, processes and procedures.
New ways of working that focus on creating alignment between people and teams rather than on managing and controlling activities. An alignment focus that shows its power especially when changes are taking place, pressure is up, frictions occur, and opinions and ideas about what should be done are diverse. Senior leaders play an important role in creating this ‘alignment culture’. They focus their energy for instance more on building mutual understanding than on ‘who is right and who is wrong’. They want to understand the reasoning of others before they draw conclusions. They pay attention to the people behind the tasks and to the way people and teams collaborate. They show alignment focus inside the C-suite and are therefore perceived as a strong leadership team. But they show it also outside the C-suite and they expect the same behavior from their managers and employees. They make it a strategic success factor for their company. Alignment focused companies have the ability to quickly incorporate new insights, circumstances and opinions, and to convert these into choices, decisions and effective execution (read more here about the characteristics of Alignment focus).
b) Different and closer interaction between senior leaders and the rest of the organization
Not just more written communication or road shows, but more frequent and in-depth interaction with managers and teams within the organization. The key process from creating vision and defining strategy to implementing and monitoring execution has changed substantially. The organizational and market dynamics are changed in such a way that senior leaders can easily get disconnected from the company’s fundamental challenges and issues when they keep too much distance from the organization. In order to stay on top of their game they need to adjust their way of interacting with the organization.
Different interaction: by combining a traditional territorial focus (functional, business unit, geographical, etc.) with a focus on the informal cross-departmental networks and mechanisms that play an important role in the way the company operates. These networks and mechanisms are often less visible and can be important sources for success as well as for problems. Knowing and understanding these networks is becoming important for senior leaders in effectively handling today’s business complexity. This requires a change within the C-suite, where senior leaders sometimes tend to stay focused on their individual territories. Next to that a more integrated, cross-departmental orientation is needed to be able to better understand the organization and its informal networks and mechanisms. It allows senior leaders to interact with these networks or to stimulate networks deliberately, and to mobilize, share and transfer the benefits of the network to other parts of the organization (read more about dealing with informal networks).
Closer interaction: successful senior leaders create a flatter organization by having closer communication lines with managers and teams within the organization. They are more visible and accessible than they used to be. They actively carry out the vision and the company’s strategic focus and ask people for their ideas and concerns. They are aware of the power of leading by example and they coach their managers when needed (read more here about the coaching role of senior leaders).
c) Shift from one-culture thinking to cross-cultural thinking
Emerging markets and economies have created a shift in the way companies deal with cross-cultural differences. Expansion to new countries and cultures is no longer a ‘West moving East’ operation; bringing our culture to you. It is more and more also the other way around. Many multinational companies are confronted on the one hand with market places that develop and become mature rapidly, and on the other hand with ambitious and self-confident competitors. This creates new challenges for its leadership. One challenge is to address the question ‘how well do we understand and align with the local culture / how do we create the acceptance of the local market?’ Another challenge is the influx of new members from other cultures in senior leadership teams. This all means that cross-cultural sensitivity, skills and effectiveness are vital assets for senior leaders in multinational companies.
Cross-cultural effectiveness is based on ‘reconciling and combining the best of both worlds’ rather than on thinking in terms of ‘one culture fits all’. It requires senior leaders to make it a top priority on their agenda: How well do we understand the local cultures in the markets in which we operate (read this interesting article about how to deal with local cultures)? How well do we understand the cross-cultural differences within our company? Or within the C-suite? What is the level of cross-cultural effectiveness of our managers? How well do we stimulate and support our managers to grow the necessary cross-cultural skills (read more here about how to deal with cross-cultural differences)?
What is your experience with leadership in multinational companies? How do you perceive these three trends? Do you see more changes? Feel free to comment below.
Photo: Shutterstock.com___________________
Aad is an international business advisor, change & business transformation expert, leadership team facilitator and executive coach. He works with senior executives and leadership teams of multinational companies on topics like ‘leading complex change’, ‘cross-cultural leadership’, ‘post-merger integration’, and ‘amplifying business performance’. Find out more about Aad and his services. Feel free to contact Aad.
If you like this article and want to receive upcoming articles and news in your mailbox for free, don’t hesitate to register at the top of this page.
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- Leading Innovation: Why Executives Should Stimulate People to Make (Better) Mistakes (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
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Leading Innovation: Why Executives Should Stimulate People to Make (Better) Mistakes
A while ago I was working with a senior executive team. The team was leading a global division and was facing a complex change that involved four continents. They organized a session together to align as a team on the change strategy, the short-term priorities, and the global execution plan. They asked me to be their facilitator and sounding board. At a certain moment the discussion turned to the question how to stimulate innovation in and across the regions. And at that point something strange happened … the discussion changed, the atmosphere changed, people started to feel uncomfortable.
Apparently there was a split within the team. On the one hand there were team members who got irritated by the inertia they perceived among their colleagues. For them it was clear what kind of innovation was needed and how to get this moving. They felt a lack of courage and boldness in the team. It frustrated them. On the other hand there were team members who got irritated by the thoughtlessness and recklessness of their colleagues. They saw several vital questions still unanswered and believed that without having clear answers and solutions the company would run a huge risk. It made them reluctant, and unwilling to take any hasty decision.
It was not the first time I saw this happening in leadership teams. They were not the only team struggling with this feeling of discomfort as soon as they started to talk about how to create innovation.
In such cases I regularly see power struggles arise within teams. With two possible outcomes: either one side wins the battle, or no one wins and the team ends up in a deadlock. The point is: both outcomes can have a very negative impact on the team and on the business, because very often both sides are wrong!
Two convictions tend to occur more often than we maybe are aware of, and they can seriously hinder leadership teams in creating the needed actions and culture that will drive innovation in their organizations. Both so relevant (especially in today’s business reality) that they deserve special attention:
- Believing that we have all the answers and solutions
The conviction that we have all the answers and that we know the solution. Unfortunately in today’s business reality the complexity and speed of change do very often not allow leaders to have all the knowledge, experience and information to find the right solutions upfront. We simply do not have all the answers to our questions. Underestimating this, or overestimating our knowledge and answers, can create ‘jumping to actions’ that can seriously damage the company (I know enough, let’s do it).
Successful leaders and leadership teams are aware of what they know and of what they don’t know. They pay special attention to getting to know the real qualities and competences of themselves and of the organization, as well as what knowledge and competence we probably miss to create successful innovation. They focus on creating awareness throughout the organization, and they motivate and engage employees to actively take part in filling the competence gap. They stimulate critical thinking. And they don’t like ‘sticking to how we do things around here because that has always been successful, so we do not need to change it’. They constantly challenge their own and other’s ideas and opinions and always look for ways to learn and grow.
- Fear of mistakes
The conviction that it is dangerous to undertake any action before we know exactly what we’re talking about. Risk averse leaders create risk averse cultures. Avoiding risks is not a bad thing, it is even a crucial reflex that can challenge the ‘we know it all’ thinkers (see point above). But when it becomes a dominant driver for leaders (often triggered by a search for short-term success or by a fear for the unknown), it can paralyze innovation.
Successful leaders and leadership teams stimulate people to step outside their comfort zone and to explore the unknown step by step. They understand that innovation requires trial and error, but they are aware that trial and error doesn’t mean ‘let’s shoot in the dark’. They stimulate people to look forward, on what is changing around us, on finding the right questions, and on answering these questions based on consistent argumentation. They convince employees that making mistakes is not a bad thing, as long as it brings us closer to the answers to our questions. They distinguish smart mistakes (mistakes that lead to learning and growing) versus stupid mistakes (mistakes that don’t bring any value and are a waste of time). And they don’t like ‘let’s just do it, we must do something, we don’t know and let’s see how it turns out’. They stimulate people to improve the trial and error processes in the organization and to make better mistakes.
When I worked with the executive team on discussing and clarifying these two pitfalls I constantly thought of the presentation by Tim Harford, that I saw a few weeks earlier. His speech inspired me to pay closer attention to the way companies deal with mistakes, turning these into drivers for innovation. His thought-provoking way of explaining why we should make more mistakes instead of less, mixed with powerful storytelling, makes this a valuable video that I warmly recommend to you.
Click picture to play video
What is your experience with creating innovation? How do you stimulate people to make mistakes? Feel free to comment below.
If you liked this article and would like to receive upcoming articles in your mailbox for free, don’t hesitate to register at the top of this page. Photo: Seth1492/Flickr (Creative Commons)___________________
Aad is an international leadership advisor, change & business transformation expert, leadership team facilitator and executive coach. He works with senior executives and leadership teams of multinational companies on topics like ‘leading complex change’, ‘cross-cultural leadership’, ‘post-merger integration’, and ‘amplifying business performance’. Find out more about Aad and his services. Feel free to contact Aad.
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- Amplifying Business Performance: Successful Leaders Approach Financial Growth Differently (leadershipwatch-aadboot.com)
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