In previous articles, we explored why simply saying to your team, "just make it happen", is about the worst thing a manager can say. The process of "making something happen" can be broken down into three steps: 1) You think a thing. 2) You plan a thing. 3). You do a thing.
In this final article in this series, we will now focus on the "doing" aspect of making it happen. So you've come up with a brilliant idea, you've sat down and come up with an equally brilliant plan so your success should be assured, right? Wrong. The last phase of the creation process is just as critical as the other two phases. Please realize that people do not live in your head. They do not know all the nuisances of your grand design or what you intend in your heart. So how does the team find all this out? Simple. You tell them. If you do not effectively communicate your vision, the people charged with executing it will be like a ship without a rudder in high seas.
This sounds so blatantly obvious that you're probably going, "well duh". Think back to all the projects you have participated in that have not gone well. In how many of those would you say the project objective was clearly communicated to everyone? Did you understand how your piece of the project related to the overall strategy? Was there even an overall strategy?
Successful execution of an idea depends on sharing the vision from the beginning. People have to understand what they are working towards and how they will contribute to the overall effort.
Finally, leaders must be prepared for what inevitably happens in any collaborative effort: your team contributes ideas of their own and your vision takes on new shape. This is what you want. This is Nirvana. Now you've helped bring something into reality that has a chance to achieve everything you imagined and more because it has been enhanced by other people's perspectives, experience and talents. Leaders must be willing to share their vision fully with their team, provide guidance but allow it to take on a life of its own.
If you are willing to embrace these concepts as a leader, you will find that you are able to regularly succeed in efforts where others have not.