“When internal leaders outsourced the work, they made the mistake of outsourcing the leadership of the work as well.”
I have seen lots of lists of the things that a company should never outsource. The three that seem to show up the most often are:
- Creating culture
- Crafting vision
- Providing leadership
With the right people in the room and an articulated process led by trained facilitators, the essential boundaries of core values and mission statement can be drawn out from a leadership team to help define their culture. Mission statements and core values become the litmus test for hiring, firing, rewarding, and virtually every decision a company makes.
An inspired vision can be cast that both inspires and motivates a team to reach for more. This is not something an outsider can craft and design, but merely cultivate from the team. A well defined vision (a clear picture of the future) provides the destination from where you can craft powerful strategic initiatives and action steps to make sure it is realized. With our clients, we commit to work for as long as it takes to get them in a strong rhythm for execution of those plans and any other issues that incidentally occur.
But we’ve had to face a sobering reality.
We can walk a company toward crazy clarity, but we can’t make them live there.
We can define the clear boundaries of values and mission, but we can’t control their decision-making.
We can define a process for articulating strategic initiatives and action steps. We can even offer to help assist the team in creating them, but we can’t actually write them.
- We can establish a meeting rhythm and even attend the meetings (which we do), but we can’t force them to meet.
At the end of the day, company leadership is going to make sure all this happens or not. It doesn’t matter how powerful, comprehensive, or well-defined the processes are, success will still be contingent on the endorsement and support of your leadership. That cannot be outsourced.
We’re humbled and overwhelmed by the success we’ve seen our clients find. To see a company move from...
Owner to team led
Lack of clarity to clear vision
Uncertainty to defined and articulated culture
“Tyranny of the urgent” to execution on key strategic initiatives
From discouragement to hope
...has been incredibly rewarding.
But we’re a coaching organization, not a consulting one. We don’t roll in with large teams in suits, with six and seven figure price tags. We provide the coaching and establish the tools for your ongoing success.
Our coaching imperative means that...
- We don’t catch fish for you, but teach you to fish.
- We work to develop independence, not dependence.
- Breed an ownership mindset among the entire leadership team.
But we can’t fulfill the role of leadership for someone else’s company. Only you can do that. Thankfully, except for the very rarest of exceptions, we get the appropriate support and endorsement from leadership, the team takes their appointed seats around the conference table, a regular meeting rhythm is developed, the strategic plans get executed, and they find a newly inspired future.
Is your conference table full of leaders, life, and execution? (or is it as empty as the one pictured above)
What would it look like if you offered the essential leadership to ensure success?
Are you ready to...
Establish a leadership team?
Create a defining culture and craft an inspired vision?
Determine strategic initiatives, action steps, and a meeting rhythm to make sure they are accomplished?