The Why Before the What Before the How

FountainBlue’s September 3 Front Line Managers Online meeting on the topic of ‘The Why Before the What Before the How’. My thanks also to our panelists for their participation. 

Our panel represented leaders and managers from a wide range of backgrounds who generously shared the whys, the whats, the hows of leadership, and their best practices for building momentum on key business initiatives, particularly when everyone and everything is experiencing so much change.

Each panelist boldly and courageously led from whichever chair they were given, to deliver information, results, communications, strategies, and processes – whatever the team and organization needed at the time.

And each panelist also did their own internal search on what works for themselves personally, serving their own ‘whys’ to ensure that their work maps to their values and their skills as well as the market opportunities.

It was impressive to see what our panelists navigated in this time of great change, and how they nobly led others through the process, leaving an indelible mark not just to the bottom line, but also to the culture and emotional wellbeing of those influenced by them.

Their humility, openness, and other-centric communication and leadership styles served them well as they listened closely and attentively to all stakeholders, and facilitated the successful collaborations which brought ongoing, tangible, measurable results.

Below is a compilation of best practices for leading and managing well:

• Take a strategic and ecosystem-based approach so you can better understand the challenges and opportunities ahead, and better envision, plan for and execute on the vision.
• Have the courage to step in and speak up no matter where you sit at the table for it will serve you well, but it will also serve everyone else impacted by the communication.
• Gather information about the market, the product, the customers, the competitors will help you better understand the why, the what, the how, the who around the choices you’re making every day.
• Build community and connection to raise the bar for yourself and others, so we can each better manage and lead.
• Understand the motivations of the key stakeholders, and ensure that they understand the motivations of other parties.
• Advocate for your company, product and team, so you can support everyone in building the business, regardless of your role and level.
• Align your vision, mission and values, and ensure that your actions, your people, your tasks remain in alignment.
• Measure and communicate progress so accountability is maintained.
• Agilely manage, lead, plan and grow, for nothing will stay the same.

The bottom line is that we can all be more open, more humble, more empowering and more supportive of others.

Resources:

• Find Your WHY – Simon Sinek https://simonsinek.com/find-your-why
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – FranklinCovey https://www.franklincovey.com/the-7-habits

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