What do you do if your team members are not aligned with the goals and expectations set by the team manager?

Once you have a clear understanding of the reasons behind the misalignment, it's crucial to facilitate open and transparent communication between the team manager and the team members. Encourage a dialogue where both parties can express their viewpoints, clarify expectations, and address any misunderstandings or concerns. The team manager should clearly articulate the goals, objectives, and rationale behind them. Next, involve the team members in the goal-setting process. Rather than imposing goals from the top down, collaborate with the team to define and refine the objectives. By actively participating in the goal-setting process, team members are more likely to feel a sense of ownership and commitment to the outcomes.

As we all know expectations tend to depend on team or business needs, but what if the staff feels that the expectations stem from a manager's personal needs? Let's call a team meeting when a manager sets expectations or addresses a goal so that we can talk about WHAT needs to be done, HOW to execute it, and WHY. Keeping in mind the "R" in S.MA.R.T. goals, the expectations we set must be relevant to the team's strategies, and ensure that they don't stem from the needs of any person. If the misalignment has already occurred, a team meeting or 1:1 meeting must be held. Even if employees argue they say no to your plan, let's try to be as neutral as we can so that you may hear and understand all points of view by asking the right questions.

It’s always advisable to hear the views and opinions of others before making a decision. Listen to the comments of your team members, empathize and acknowledge their responses and don’t make the feel intimidated.

Desarrollar las relaciones de confianza en los entornos profesionales es clave para alinear y focalizar en los objetivos. Si los puestos directivos y la estrategia no tienen credibilidad, poco se puede alinear. Por ello, es importante ir alimentar y nutrir el valor de la confianza, con hábitos y comportamientos visibles, con coherencia, comunicación, ejemplaridad.

Clarify to team members not aligning with the goals and expectations of a job the importance of conforming to these objectives. Break the goals down for them to understand, inform them of the essence and benefits which will result from the successful completion of these goals to the enhanced performance and productivity of the team and company at large.

💥Great teams aren't possible without autonomy and alignment. Consider this example: 😕If you tell your team 'Build a bridge!'🌉 you have high alignment, but low autonomy. 👉Result= disempowered and demotivated people 😩If you're thinking 'Hmm, I hope someone is working on the river problem. I trust they know it's a problem.'🌊 you have high autonomy, but low alignment. 👉Result= lack of teamwork, frustration, slow progress on goals 🤩If you tell your team 'We need to cross the river. You can figure out how.' Aha! You have autonomy and alignment. 🎯Autonomy + alignment = highly impactful teams.🏆 Your job as a leader is to make the goal and vision clear, and trust the team to get there.

Offer training and guidance to the members who need it. Invest in them, supervise and monitor their progress from time to time. Be patient and give them time to process whatever has been learnt and transfer such knowledge onto the job.

Having clear goals and objectives through the previous steps of clarity and support sets us up to trust in the individual performing the work. To monitor progress, a daily scorecard, weekly one-on-one meetings, or a combination of the two can come in handy. The purpose of the scorecard is to identify any patterns that might arise in the execution of specific tasks or objectives. The one-on-one meetings open a space of support and coaching through obstacles, as well as a space to celebrate micro milestones. There's a fine line between continuous monitoring and micro-management, we want to empower our team members through clarity and trust not control them.

Pattern recognition is incredibly important to be able to adjust as needed. In the fast world we live in we don't want to "lose time" and "find someone to blame" when it's become too late. We do learn through mistakes and we also have the responsibility to meet our goals as an accountable manager or director. Flexibility is crucial to revisit the clarity step, are the goals clear, are the objectives contributing to the goals, and are there other obstacles in the way? Once we've worked with the team to identify the issue we can assess future actions, usually clarity helps with alignment.

An important element to consider in creating buy-in with goals is 'Identity'. It is easier to help the employee connect the dots on 'whats in it for them' in tangible terms (such as exposure, learning, salary, promotion etc). However, helping them align in terms of there self-identity can be a powerful driver. example questions to explore * What is your professional brand? * How do you want to be experienced by others? * What do you stand for/ want to be known for? * What would like to be able to achieve? * What kind of a leader/ employee do you want to be? * What could feel satisfying in achieving this goal? The list is long, but exploring in this way creates powerful connection, momentum & buy-in for everyone involved.

Algo que no se menciona y creo que es una pieza clave del tema es entender de que tipo de equipo estamos hablando. No es lo mismo un equipo multidisciplinario con locaciones en muchos países y células de trabajo que un equipo de 20 personas o menos. Las acciones de coaching alcanzan con rapidez a equipos pequeños y uniformes. Sin embargo, no son la herramienta clave a la hora de gestionar equipos grandes y contribuir a alineaciones estratégicas.