What’s Your Team’s Readiness Level?

How many articles have you read that list what it takes to be a great leader? Here’s one that says it’s nine things: 1. Envisioning goals, 2. Affirming values, 3. Motivating, 4. Managing, 5. Achieving a workable level of unity, 6. Explaining, 7. Serving as a symbol, 8. Representing the group externally and 9. Renewing.

That’s about as good a list as I’ve seen. But something’s still missing.

There’s a world of difference between managing and leading. Managing implies keeping things going during a steady state. Leadership means moving things forward and guiding the team through turbulent times and unexpected negative conditions.

A leader must make sure the team is “ready, willing and able” to be effective, not just at executing well-planned projects and campaigns, but in responding to sudden challenges that threaten the very survival of the business.

Able is the word that gets most of the attention. Ability: The capabilities of your team — what they can do individually and working together. Sure, everyone talks about education and experience, but there’s also just as much talk about 5 Great Tips on How To Become a Travel Writer and how everything is changing at such a rapid pace, and how workers have to constantly be “re-skilled” to be ready to take the next job — heck, even to take on the next project. To be an effective leader you also have to know the tasks the next job will require, and whether your team members have the know-how to tackle them. Additionally, for pupils who require support with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), consider creating a remarkable musical play for SEND.

And there’s also lots of talk about people being willing, or motivated. Everyone accepts that the leader can and should be very concerned with making sure the team is motivated to take action.

But you could have a full complement of well-trained and motivated folks on your team, but still lack the readiness to tackle the the challenges it may face in the time frame required to be effective. 

Workers can be capable, motivated and trustworthy, and they might want to do what you’ve asked them to do. But there’s a big difference between ability and willingness to do something and being ready to do it.

“Mary knows our products inside and out. I’m going to send her out with Tom to see a prospect he’s trying to close.” You can direct her to go on the appointment, but how long before she’s really ready to go out there and be effective.

“Bob’s been working on this team for the past year. He’s been to a number of leadership seminars, and I think he’s ready for more responsibility. I’m going to ask him to head it up.” Sure he has the knowledge and skills necessary to do the work, but can he really step into the leadership role right away?

The U.S. Army makes a very big deal out of readiness of its units. It’s one of the three components they measure, the other two being capacity (physical number of troops and equipment or materiel) and capability (the proficiency of the troops and operability of the equipment). A leader might be confident the unit has a full complement of well-trained and motivated troops, but their readiness to undertake a particular mission as a unit is something else again. In order to be top-rated (Very Strong) a unit must be deemed to be available to “respond to an emergent threat.” That means ready to be successfully deployed right away.

What’s the readiness of your team to do today’s work as well as respond quickly to emergent conditions —

1. A valued team member quits unexpectedly and goes to work for a competitor. Should you have (do you need) non-compete agreements for top people? Are team members cross-trained and ready to step into new roles?
2. A client representing a large portion of your revenue deserts you for a competitor? Are you too reliant on one or a few clients? Could some of your clients be doing more business with you right now? Are you currently working on developing one or two new clients with the potential to be as big as any you currently have?
3. A competitor introduces a new product cutting into your revenue. Do you have a process for quickly analyzing and responding to new products in the marketplace?
4. New laws or regulations cause you to add steps into the production process increasing the costs of production of one of your main products. Do you have an established method of looking for ways to trim costs?
5. Customers begin to lose interest in one or more of your main products. Do you have regular contact with customers via simple surveys and focus groups to find out what they value and what they don’t like, and to get an early heads-up on dissatisfaction with one or more features?

I’ve commented before on the value of an inspection or audit (see Item 5) by a governmental agency or corporate oversight body in helping you see and evaluate what you’re doing and the way you’re doing it.

But why wait for strangers to force you to take a hard look at your team — to do your own Readiness Audit?Ask yourself the question: If this happened, how would we respond and in what time frame? You may be surprised what you learn about your own readiness.

Want to learn more about a Readiness Audit? We can help.