How to succeed through direction

One of the most important characteristics of great leaders is their ability to set clear paths for their teams, leading the way forward with direction and purpose. In fact, this strong sense of direction is not just desirable in leadership roles – it’s critical for the success of any business.

So what do we mean when we talk about direction, in an organisational context? It’s easy to pull out words like mission, vision and values, but what does it all mean when you really get down to it?

Well, when we’re talking about direction we’re talking about knowing:

• what you stand for
• what you’re trying to achieve
• how you’re planning on getting there

And your company’s mission, vision and values are an incredibly important part of getting there! Establishing these things are what will help you establish a clear direction, setting your business up for success and giving your team purpose.

Let’s look closer at how leaders can set the direction of their organisation and drive positive outcomes for their team. And how you can strengthen your own sense of direction as a leader.

The Importance of Clear Direction for Employees

As we said above, your organisation's mission, vision and values are all central to creating the direction (and potential success) of your business.

If you’re in a management or team leader role, you have the opportunity to create a more purpose-focused culture for your employees. When each individual team member knows what they are working towards, and how they fit into the big picture, they have a much stronger sense of being valued. This helps to create a more positive work culture and leads to higher levels of productivity and performance – happy employees, happy business!

As a leader, it’s important that you define and communicate this ‘big picture’ concept to your team, so that they know how their work fits into the organisation’s goals and mission. Ask yourself (and be honest) how many of your team members actually know the company’s vision and values – would they even know where to find this information?

Get Your Team’s Focus Back on Track

If you’re eager to get your team back on track and moving forward in a more positive direction, you can get the ball rolling by working on your own leadership skills.

The online course, How to Succeed Through Direction, is a great place to start. With this short eLearning course, running for approximately 30 to 45 minutes, you’ll gain a wealth of leadership knowledge in less than an hour.

Through videos, interviews and presentations from experts, you’ll understand more about the importance of company mission, vision and values. You’ll learn how to:

• Drive the organisation’s mission, vision and values
• Craft your vision statement
• Know your values and align them to your business
• Use mission, vision and values to support your team and culture
• Identify how you measure and build your business beyond the bottom line
• Feel confident in your ability to paint the ‘big picture’ for your team

The course will also provide you with invaluable tips for leveraging your clarity on direction and behaviour to further drive your culture. As the Learoy team says, if you feel like your team needs a GPS to get back on track, “make the mission clear by figuring out a direction – then, get everyone on board!”

Online Courses to Increase Your Leadership Skills

You may have also seen our recent article on how to choose the best learning environments for your team?

Both of these eLearning courses are part of the Leadership – Off the Leash journey, developed by the Learoy Tonight team and created specifically for today’s managers and leaders.