I’m hearing more and more from organizations about how to protect employee engagement in a remote work environment. Then the next question is, “As a leader, what should I be doing?” Bestselling author Patrick M. Lencioni describes the leader’s crucial role in The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive. Lencioni talks about building and maintaining a cohesive leadership team, creating organizational clarity, over-communicating organizational clarity and organizational clarity through human systems. A lot of “organizational clarity”! These are essential elements for a business’s sustained success. Getting #1 right is critical. According to Lencioni, the essence of a cohesive leadership team is trust. This is marked by the absence of politics, unnecessary anxiety and wasted energy. The most important activity for building trust, says Lencioni, is getting to know one another at a level that few groups ever achieve. It is important that team members get comfortable letting their colleagues see them for who they are. I encourage you to have your leadership team read this book this fall and master all four elements. The results are less politics and confusion; higher employee engagement, morale and productivity, and lower turnover and costs.
-Marit Peters, IIAT president and executive director
