Becoming a Velocity Leader
One of the important aspect of leadership is to provide direction to his/her team. A leader is the one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way!!
We all have studied the concepts of speed and velocity in school.
Speed describes how fast an object is moving whereas Velocity gives both how fast and in what direction the object is moving.
If a car is said to travel at 50 km/h, its speed has been specified. However, if the car is said to move at 50 km/h to the east, its velocity has now been specified. How is this linked to Directional Leadership? Is leadership to do with direction and management to do with speed? Is speed more important than direction while managing teams?
Most of the organizations/industries describe themselves as fast paced and not velocity paced! Many leaders take pride in describing themselves as action leaders and not Velocity Leaders!! In order to be successful an organization needs to focus both on direction as well as speed. Leaders tend to push their teams towards achieving results without sharing the bigger picture. If a leader wants to be an effective VELOCITY Leader, one needs to follow CARE
- Confess: Reality is different from desire – everybody is not the same – their understanding of goals and speed of delivering the goal is different. Everybody may not be aligned to the common goal equally. The role of the leader is to accept/confess the reality of Goal Velocity of each of his/her team member.
- Assess: Once the leader confesses/understands the Goal Velocity of each team member, he/she needs to assess the gap in terms of alignment (direction) as well as pace (speed) towards the defined goals in order to enable them for success. Some team members may need alignment and others may just need a push in terms of speed.
- Refine: Once the Velocity Gaps are identified, Leader is expected to coach/mentor his/her team member, enable the systems/processes, provide support/guidance and review frequently to achieve effectiveness. Realign the direction and speed if required in order to achieve the defined Velocity Goals.
- Express: Post confessing, assessing, refining/reviewing the Velocity Goals, Leader needs to share feedback, acknowledge the bridged gaps, recognize and reward the team members by regularly expressing the team achievements.
A VELOCITY leader will not only provide direction and speed to his/her team towards shared vision and goals but will also promote healthy spirit of competition. He will also facilitate sharing and help clear hostility.
As leaders,lets encourage collaboration in our teams and build Velocity Culture by becoming Velocity Leaders!!
