We all like a bit of freedom—the chance to act on our own initiative. Much of the time that’s a good thing.
Recently, however, I’ve been noticing just how much energy can be wasted if everyone is pulling in different directions in an organisation, even if they’re acting with the best of intentions. The result can be a feeling of overload and not having enough resource. In reality, lots of energy is getting wasted in unaligned, incoherent activity, much of which cancels out.
Yes, the organisation may be short of resource—quite likely it is…
Or maybe it has enough resource, if its participants would agree to a little more alignment in what they do—to sacrifice a little autonomy in the interests of a sensible workload.
An important role for leaders then to stimulate a shared sense of purpose that leads to coherent, aligned activity.
Perhaps that means you.