There’s been an awful lot written about the numerous advantages and disadvantages of remote work. We’ve read a bunch of it, and we suspect you have too. So rather than bore you with our grand unified theory on distributed work, we thought we might start offering some bite-size, useful ideas that you can take and actually apply to your business. To start, we want to talk about the importance of sharing a common “leadership language” and how that might be the best way for you to start truly aligning your team.

Alignment is kind of our thing at Applied Leadership Partners.

We believe very deeply that while agreement (harmony of opinion) is very nice to have, alignment (harmony of effort) is much more valuable.

Therefore, we spend a great deal of our time working with clients to help them align their teams around everything from brand and strategy to more specific topics like how to effectively have difficult conversations. Over the course of the past few years we’ve witnessed teams make big steps forward by simply taking the time to think hard about what they’re doing, incorporate and reconcile perspectives, and get everybody on the same page.

This is where sharing a common leadership language really helps the cause. As you might imagine we, as leadership development professionals, spend lots of time thinking and talking about all of your favorite leadership buzz terms, like: empowerment, ownership, accountability, empathy, innovation, and so on. To be clear, we like these words and think that they are all great things to strive for. However, what we typically find is that leaders and teams have not taken the time to adequately define and share these important, but somewhat squishy terms. We will often ask questions like, “what do you mean when you say empowerment?” or “what does it look like for someone on your team to actually be accountable?” We generally get a pretty long, vague answer. It’s ok, we get it. Most people don’t feel like they have the time to really dig into this stuff. They have some sense of what these words mean (to them) and use them when/if they seem appropriate.

The problem is that while most leaders have a general understanding of key leadership terms, most teams don’t have a shared or common understanding. Make no mistake, this is a real problem that holds teams back. It is also a huge, and often very efficient OPPORTUNITY to move teams forward. And though it may seem counterintuitive, distributed teams may be able to do this more quickly than those who share the same office. We’ll give you an example.

*Screen grab from our presentation with over 200 employees across the country from* *Freedom Financial Network*.

We recently had the privilege to work with the great folks at Freedom Financial Network. They have leaders and teams scattered all over the country, and they wanted to know how they could better empower (there’s that word) their people and get them to work more confidently and independently. Through the power of Zoom, we hosted a one-hour, online workshop with over 200 participants where we provided a simple, clear, and shared understanding of Empowerment and Accountability. We discuss the relationship between these two words, the core components of each, and most importantly, how they could apply the framework to their world.

In less than an hour, we were able to get a large group of leaders completely aligned on this critical concept while retaining 95% of logged in participants (n=195) for the duration of the presentation. That’s both effective and efficient.

I would like to share my appreciation for the great event you led this morning! The topics were relevant, the pacing and delivery style very engaging in a tough zoom environment (where you get no body language, feedback, or affirmation) and your answers to the questions asked were well thought out and impactful - thank you!
- KP, Director, Community Events and Culture, Freedom Financial Network.

Nobody had to get on a plane or stay in a hotel or pay for catering. It simply required an intentional date on the calendar, a Zoom line, and a couple of skilled presenter/ facilitators. We would submit that these kinds of engagements deliver a very attractive return on investment, and are accessible to almost any organization that is serious about leadership.

If we can be helpful to you and your team, we’d love to do that. Contact us and let’s see if we are a good fit for your team. But you can absolutely do this sort of thing on your own. Here’s one way to approach it.

Take some time to consider the most important ideas, concepts, or terms that your people need to be aligned on. It could be your strategy or values or priorities or even just a word.
Go to your journal or whiteboard or wherever you do your thinking and write down what YOU mean when you use these terms. Then try and write it for an audience. Write it in a way that would allow you to share it. This will really help you to clarify and refine your own thinking.
Make the time/space to consistently share this stuff with your team. It could be in an email or a video or a Zoom meeting or whatever medium(s) work for you.

If you can make this investment of time and energy, your team will start to align on the things that really matter and the whole organization will move with much greater confidence. Take advantage of the tools at your disposal and get your crew on the same page. It’s more important now than ever!

A very sincere thank you from us at Freedom. That was an incredible presentation. We’re getting requests already for more, and people are asking where’s the recording!
- Vance Rodgers, Director of Engineering, Enterprise Application, Freedom Financial Network.

Cover photo: @thkelley via Unsplash.