Communicating The “Why”
Article | Accountability Insights
The extended leadership team of a mid-sized service company was meeting offsite to discuss the details of several new strategic initiatives. Furthermore, the company was in the midst of a turnaround, which meant that the new initiatives would have to be implemented with near flawless execution, if the company expected to survive. To everyone’s surprise, when the CEO “Dave” addressed the team, he didn’t say a word about the details of implementation or execution, he only talked about the “Why”. Why the turnaround was important to the company, why it was important to the people sitting in the room, and why it was important to every one of the company’s stakeholders. Afterwards, members of the leadership team could be heard saying things like, “We already knew we had to deliver on the strategic initiatives, but when Dave got up and dug into the ‘why’ it was important to the company, to us individually, and to everyone else involved, I couldn’t wait to go back and make it happen.”
If you really want to capture people’s hearts and minds, you must provide compelling reasons for “Why we need to do it” and “Why we need to do it now.” As you consider communicating your key expectations, think about these SIX WAYS TO CRAFT A COMPELLING “WHY”:
| 1. | Tailor the why to your specific audience. | |
| 2. | Make it short, simple, and clear. | |
| 3. | Be candid, honest, and forthcoming so people believe it is real and genuine and not just the “Company line.” | |
| 4. | Make it a dialogue, not a monologue. | |
| 5. | Create “The hook” that catches people’s attention and persuades them to “Buy in.” | |
| 6. | Frame it in a strategic context (how the expectation fits into the big picture). |
Communicating “Why” does much more than merely clarify the reasoning behind a mission or purpose; it shows people they are worth the time and effort it takes to enroll and engage them in the mission or purpose, to persuade them to own it and make it happen. It sends people the unmistakable message that you respect and value them as key contributors in the process of making things happen. When you do this, you boost morale, people take ownership, and everyone’s efforts get supercharged to help them achieve the results you need. Most leaders spend 95 percent of their effort on the “What-When” and only 5 percent on the “Why.” Reverse it, spend the majority of your effort on the “Why” and you’ll begin to see your teams aligning more completely around what they need to achieve. For more information on communicating “Why” to build greater accountability for achieving results, please join the Accountability Community by visiting www.partnersinleadership.com
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