The Secret to Inspiring Your Team to Execute the Game Plan
Execution is defined as the carrying out or the putting into effect of an action plan.
The question for us, as leaders then, is, “How can we keep our teams executing consistently on the action plans we’ve created?”
Conversations Make Good Company
Conversations really do make good company. It’s true both with the company we keep in our personal lives, away from work, and in our professional lives with the company for whom we work. The conversations are what make the difference. The same is true with being a great coach who leads with hospitality.
What kind of ongoing conversations do you think are necessary for leaders to keep their teams moving forward, gaining momentum toward achieving goals and bringing the vision to life?
Think about every great leader you’ve ever had, whether it was a coach in sports, a teacher, a professor, a supervisor, manager, or executive in your personal life. Chances are, they were very engaged and consistent with their conversations.
Here are some types of conversations every leader should have with their teams and key stakeholders on a regular basis:
- Communicate expectations – remember the number one driver of performance is clear expectations. The best leaders reiterate what’s expected and needed seven times, seven different ways if they have to, to make sure everyone fully understands.
- Who will do what by when
- Communicate progress on a consistent basis – notice great coaches in press conferences after games and in the locker rooms with their teams; also consider great leaders in business and in life; how they’re always informing everyone of progress being made. This keeps everyone engaged and believing the vision they’re striving to bring into fruition is possible.
- Continually communicate your plan
- Celebrate short-term wins along the way – we have to celebrate small wins along the way; especially early wins. This gives positive reinforcement to those who have been focused, engaged, and inspired to perform up to the standards you’ve set, as the leader.
- Recognize the productive people who are executing
- Tough accountability conversations – the reality is, not everyone will buy into your vision; not everyone will be engaged, and not everyone will execute according to your plan. That’s when we have to step up, as leaders and great coaches, and have some very tough conversations around accountability. These are moments to put the informal feedback model into action. Let them know the situation, call out the behavior you observed, ask them how they think it’s negatively impacting guests, customers, clients, or the team, and then ask them how they can change their behavior to get a better outcome next time.
Provide in-the-moment feedback. If we hold back from having tough, accountability conversations, we aren’t doing them any favors
When we have tough conversations, one of three things happen:
- They change their behavior and come on board.
- They don’t change their behavior and we move to progressive discipline and they ultimately are “promoted to Guest”, as we used to say in my past roles in hospitality.
- They leave on their own.
There is nothing to be gained from shying away from tough accountability conversations.
Create a cadence and culture of accountability with simple, yet consistent conversations with your team. You’ll not only keep everyone engaged and executing the plan, but you’ll also create some amazing relationships along the way.
Enjoy the conversations! Your team sure will enjoy the process, and your own leaders will enjoy the results and fruits of your team’s consistent execution.
Great coaches are as graceful as they are wise, and as driven as they are diligent. The environments they create inspire and motivate people to grow and develop in ways they never knew they needed to grow.
We respond to great coaches because they help us get comfortable getting uncomfortable. They certainly say the right things, at the right times, for the right purpose; but it’s also how they say it which inspires us to dig deep within ourselves to give our best instead of shutting down.
Learn how we can help your leaders become great coaches here.
