This is an article I released Jan 2019 and as I comb through and felt compelled to re-release on my website as it’s so relevant to my journey and perhaps others:
I was a year into my role where I realized I could not continue to Manage a region, but had to find a way to Lead through a Strategy that was purposeful and could organize the chaos and unify for results. Through countless hours of jogging (training for a 1/2 marathon) and inspirational music, the Framework of One kept coming to me.
Looking for a collection of Quotes that speak to Teams and Unity, I found this curated by Dave Kerpen in an article for Inc. that sums it up well:
“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” –Andrew Carnegie
The Framework of One is quite simple: One Team, One Way, One Goal is about aligning resources for interchangeability of talent, harmonizing processes and platforms to one set of Goals and objectives to achieve results. By establishing this Way of Working, it set the stage for teams to come together for collaboration; a key obstacle that needed to be overcome due to multiple disconnected locations & business unites.
The results were remarkable when the Vision took on a life of it’s own, when team members would regularly connect with each other, coach, train and align on best practices and soon resources could be moved around where the skills were needed. Fast forward two years, the region that was last in terms of performance unbelievably arrived at 2nd place and to the disbelief of others that they started diving into the data to make sure it was valid.
While there is more to the story how we tactically achieved brilliant results, it starts with a challenge, self reflection, a purposeful vision and great leadership to show the way. I’m grateful to have led great teams and seek to influence many, many more towards “One”.