How to Establish Role Clarity in Leadership Teams

When a misaligned project team succeeds, it’s an accident. Without alignment — that is, a shared understanding and commitment — team members work at cross-purposes and doom projects to failure. Unfortunately, it’s an easy trap to fall into. When project managers simply assume their team is aligned, or when they accept head-nodding and verbal confirmations as proxies for actual alignment, the risk of failure increases dramatically. When I served as a manufacturing plant manager, I put a project team together to figure out how to increase throughput on a production line. Not long after, throughput had increased by nearly 9%, but yield had decreased by nearly 4%, increasing our costs and canceling out all the gains. The words “I thought that’s what you wanted” still ring in my ears. The fact that the team had decreased overall performance was my fault. I didn’t clarify objectives to ensure a thorough understanding of acceptable trade-offs. I learned that ambiguity was always my fault and could quickly compound into further misalignment. In a world in which projects have become more emergent, project managers need to ensure alignment — not wait for a lagging indicator to reveal that the team doesn’t actually have a shared commitment and understanding. Here are five questions every project manager should periodically ask their teams to create and maintain alignment: 1. What is your understanding of the project? When you achieve shared understanding, or cognitive alignment, you reduce the unit costs of making decisions, accelerate execution, and remove unforced human error. 2. What concerns do you have? To keep the team aligned, you need to pay close attention to every form of data. Never assume that concerns will find you. Go find them. 3. How do you see your role? When team members don’t have a clear understanding of how their role contributes to the project, they get off track or disengage. Don’t assume role clarity — verify it. 4. What do you need? This question requires the individual to think through the personal, tactical, cultural, and strategic implications of any change in project requirements. 5. How would you describe your current commitment to the project? This last question gives the individual an opportunity to share their commitment as a snapshot in time, including caveats, contingencies, dependencies, concerns, and limitations.

Clear is kind. One of the "a has" that so many school leaders I'm working with are having is that they needed to be much more clear with the leaders they support around two big questions: - What would a successful year for you look like? - How should you spend your time to ensure this success? I've worked with principals this spring to set the top 3-5 goals for the school and for each member of the leadership team through a process of getting input and feedback from individual team members and the team as a whole. After arriving at the final goals, I've said the following to each principal: "When you review the goals with each school leader, you need to be explicit: We can't say that our school had a strong year unless we met our schoolwide goals, and we can't say that you had a strong year unless you met your individual goals." After getting clarity on the big goals, the next thing to do is to get clarity on how each leader will spend their time. If the academic dean's big goals are around student achievement growth and measurable teacher skill development, then their calendar should be chock full of observing teachers, real-time coaching, practice-based coaching meetings, looking at student work, and leading PD. The leaders I'm working with are getting clear on this and again being explicit: "Because those are your big goals, your calendar -- and your reality -- should be that you spend your time in the following way ..." This doesn't mean that leaders at all levels can't thoughtfully flex their time or that there will be times where you will need to revisit and adjust the plans. Every school leader deserves to know what a strong job looks like and how they should be spending their time. Without that gift of clarity, there is a lot of fuzzy action around fuzzy goals leading to preventable underperformance and frustration.

Last week, I met with 350+ senior managers across the company to discuss our Leadership Principles, which serve as a playbook for building and leading unstoppable teams at SharkNinja. During the fireside chat, I was asked about accountability.    Accountability is at the core of effective teamwork. But how do we truly inspire it? Here are a few things I've gathered over my career:   Clarify: Accountability falters when individuals aren't clear about their responsibilities. As a manager, ensure absolute clarity. Ask, "Are you clear about what you're accountable for?" Own: Simply assigning tasks and walking away won't cut it. Take ownership of their success. Encourage regular updates (every three days) to course correct and offer support. Balance: There's a fine line between autonomy and setting up for failure. To drive accountability, guide your team through the process. It's akin to teaching a child to ride a bike – you hold on until they're steady. You hold on even when they say, “Let go, I’ve got this” – because you don’t want them to fall. Invest: When there's a clear understanding of accountability and a personal connection, they won’t want to let you down. Invest in your team's success, and they'll reciprocate.   Finding this equilibrium may take time, but the results are worth every effort.

👉 Do you ever wonder why your top performers sometimes fall short? It might be your fault. High performers thrive on clarity. When leading high-achieving teams, I've found that setting clear expectations is non-negotiable. It’s not enough to assume they know what's required—explicitly defining what meeting, exceeding, and greatly exceeding expectations look like is crucial. At the start of each performance cycle, I sit down with each team member to document these expectations. This isn't just a one-time chat but an ongoing dialogue. We follow up regularly, updating progress and adjusting goals as necessary. This shared document isn't just for the employee. I share it with the leadership team and ensure everyone is on the same page, fostering alignment and support. No one should ever be surprised! This practice might seem basic, but it is a game-changer. It transforms vague goals into actionable targets and aligns individual efforts with organizational objectives. In my experience, this clarity boosts performance but enhances job satisfaction. High performers want to know they are hitting the mark—and it’s our job as leaders to make that mark as clear as daylight. #Leadership #Clarity #HighPerformers #Alignment #Growth If this resonates, repost to share with others ♻️ and follow Tapan Kamdar for more in the future. 📌 Interested in growing as a leader? Get my free newsletter: https://lnkd.in/dRjtpxBA