A Leadership Stencil for Identifying Performance Behaviour Pattern?

What makes one person dedicate his or her life for a cause or for an organisation's growth while another person can still be part of the organisation and be completely committed to the expected outcome?

I had the opportunity to observe a specific set of individual contribution patterns based on my exposure to various sectors over the past few years – from corporate to academics to social sector. I wondered how a leader would play a key role in managing such a varying shift in team members’ dedication or commitment. Based on this thought process I would like to share here three spaces/strengths that people may operate from in any given situation (or project). There is no comparison here against each other.

Execution Level

Once a clear picture of what is expected as an outcome is given, there are team members who are ready to commit their time and energy to achieve it. They may be well disciplined in terms of planning (even micro level planning) and organised in how they approach their tasks. Delegating their work and guiding people becomes a key trait for them to be successful in ‘execution’. These are the members who we can say are aligned at the ‘Execution’ level with their leadership or the organisation's objective. With complete commitment, they will get the work done and many times ahead of time.

Thinking Level

While a clear expectation is set, there are some team members who will ask few more questions and dialogue with their leaders to understand more (often times the bigger picture). Clarity in what is expected and on the larger picture is what they look for before jumping to execution. In this journey, they start thinking about the larger picture along with their leader – in a sense they start co-creating a better clarity by sharpening and adding value. We can call these members as those who are aligned at the ‘Thinking’ level with their leadership or the organisation. Their inspiration comes more from evolving (or co-creating) a better journey for the organisation rather than being just committed to driving outcome.

Purpose Level

Understanding the ‘why’ of everything that one encounters as team member is the third and most critical aspect in alignment. These members not only understand the bigger picture, they also explore and get more understanding on the higher purpose of any initiative or move that an organisation is embarking. The energy expended from these members is more natural and unconditional, which helps in not only driving the necessary outcome but also in keeping the team (or peers) highly inspired at tough times. These members fall under the alignment at ‘Purpose’ level category.

All three spaces highlighted above are right and justified in their own ways, and we definitely need people at these three levels of alignment. Having a majority under one level alone many not suffice to drive the intended outcome or results. And there may not be a clear formula for this mix as well, as it is highly dependent on the sector we are dealing with or the organisation's business. For example, a Social Impact organisation may benefit a lot from having many aligned at ‘Purpose’ level when compared to a Manufacturing Unit where more alignment at ‘Execution’ and ‘Thinking’ level is beneficial. And if you take the Education sector, it would make us wonder what the outcome would be if many are aligned at ‘Purpose’ level – why we exist as a University or College or Institute.

Being conscious of these three levels of alignment may help in identifying the style of leadership one will have to follow when dealing with the team members or peers. While it is debatable whether it is a worthwhile effort to attempt coaching or mentoring people to move up the ladder in the alignment levels, mere identification of the existence of such levels in the team in itself will be a giant leap in driving outcome and results.

When I reflect now, in my career journey, this movement or evolution from aligning at execution level to purpose level several years ago has made it a more gratifying experience with utmost contentment. I can see my energy and desire to make a difference to larger community of stakeholders come from this alignment! And definitely, being aligned at the Purpose level does not absolve one from focusing on results (Execution) or growth (Thinking).

I am sure you would experienced similar performance behaviour patterns in your leadership journey. Would be great learning to hear about your experience.