Is There a Saboteur in Your Midst?

I was frustrated. And confused. And didn’t know what to do.

I really liked my executive team. Each of the seven people on our team was a highly skilled expert in their function. We shared the same values. We got along. We worked hard and had fun doing it. But our progress was much slower than I thought it should be. And I couldn’t pinpoint why.

Then the US Navy came to visit.

The Commander

Our Finance Director’s father-in-law was a retired naval commander. He now consulted with all kinds of military and civilian leaders, helping them find clarity and solve difficult challenges. He had agreed to spend several hours with us thinking about how to improve our work.

What we discovered was shocking. We had a saboteur in our midst. The reason we weren’t achieving all we could is that someone was undermining the process.

I’ll never forget the moment I realized it. We had just been led through a very simple exercise. In fact, it was so simple that I thought it was a waste of time.

“On a blank index card, I want each of you to write two sentences,” the commander said. “In the first, state the top priority of your organization right now. In the second, write down your top priority for your own role.”

It took me less than 30 seconds. Some team members took longer. No one needed more than a minute. After collecting the cards the commander handed them to me.

“Okay, everyone but John take a five-minute break. John, read through the cards and then tell me what you think.”

The Saboteur

I was stunned. The first sentence on every single card was different. I don’t mean we all worded our organization’s top priority in a slightly different way. We had radically different ideas of what or top priority was. Worse, none of the team members’ understanding of our top priority matched mine. Yes, we had a saboteur in our midst. And it was me.

How could this be?

The team gathered every week and I met regularly with each leader. We often talked about our strategy. It wasn’t just a notebook on a shelf collecting dust. Yet we were clearly not united in our understanding of our top priority. In fact, we were working at cross purposes.

The Strong Man and the Tiger

Last week I saw a video of a man playing tug of war with a tiger. The man was large—well over six feet tall—with muscles on his muscles. He held one end of the thick rope in his hands. The tiger? Well, he was just an ordinary tiger. Except he held the other end of the rope in his mouth.

The man pulled and yanked and strained but couldn’t make any progress. He tried steadily dragging the tiger. He attempted to get the tiger off balance by jerking the rope in a regular rhythm. No matter what he did the tiger held strong, not giving up even a claw’s length to the strong man.

This was how it felt leading my team in those days. A lot of things were going really well. But no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get us to make any progress on some of our priorities. Now I knew why. We were pulling in opposite directions.

The Light Bulb

Soon after our meeting with the commander, the light bulb went on for me. Though I had communicated our vision priorities to the team, they weren’t clear in their minds. And it wasn’t because I hadn’t communicated clearly, it was because I hadn’t communicated often enough.

I spent a lot of time thinking about our strategy and priorities. But my team spent much of their time thinking about tactics and programs. (As they should.) For the picture to be clear in their minds I needed to communicate again and again. Clarity comes from overcommunication.

One of my least favorite household chores is dusting. I don’t understand how a shelf full of pictures can gather dust by simply sitting there.

Communicating organizational priorities is like dusting. It’s not a one-and-done exercise. It has to be done again and again or the picture becomes fuzzy. As leaders we think we sound like a broken record, but right when we’re ready to stop is when our team members are starting to see clearly. The trick is to communicate the same priorities in different ways and at different times.

Your Turn

How aligned is your team on your top priority? Are you willing to find out? Try the exercise the Commander gave us with your team members. It only takes a couple minutes but could be quite a revelation.

How can you communicate your top priority to help bring clarity? What are ten different ways you can articulate it?

Where and when will you communicate it? Come up with five different contexts where you can pass it on?

What would it look like if each of your team members shared the exact picture of what you are moving toward? How much could you accomplish if every one of you was pulling in the same direction? Who knows, you might just be able to pull the tiger across the line.