When you are a leader you need to provide direction to your team members. Without direction your team members won’t know what they need to accomplish and they won’t know what to work on. With direction your team members will know what to work on and they will know what the end results of their actions are expected to be.

To provide direction to your team members you can do the following:

• Define a vision
• Set goals
• Establish priorities
• Delegate responsibilities and authority

Defining a Vision

A vision for your team gives them something to work towards. It captures the results you want to achieve and makes it clear to your team that there is a purpose to the efforts that they are making.

For example, the vision for Toastmasters International is “to be the first-choice provider of dynamic, high-value, experiential communication and leadership skills development”. This vision is the driving force behind what the Toastmasters International organization does.

Another example of a vision statement is the Rotary vision statement: “Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change — across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.” This is another powerful vision statement that inspires the members of Rotary and gives them something to work towards.

Another example of a vision statement is the vision that I created with the action team for my Toastmasters High Performance Leadership project. Our project was creating a training program to teach people how to run a promotional booth effectively. The vision we created was the following: “Provide volunteers with skills and capacities to be effective in designing and operating trade and information booths.” This vision was the end goal we wanted to achieve with our project.

To provide your team with direction, work with them to create a vision statement. Don’t just create the vision statement by yourself. Get input from your team members and let them contribute to the vision statement. This will help them to feel ownership of the vision and it will make the vision something they want to strive towards because they helped to create it.

Setting Goals

Once you have a vision statement you have an end goal that you want to achieve. Typically, your vision statement will be a grand goal that may take a long time to achieve. To reach your vision you can create stepping stones to follow by setting goals for your team to achieve.

For example, to achieve the vision for my promotional booth training project I created the following goals with my team:

• To create a reusable training program
• To create a training program that sells itself
• To train Toastmasters to facilitate our training program

All three of these goals were large in scope and I was able to provide a more narrow focus for my team by working with them to create additional subgoals for each of these three major goals. For example, we broke the goal of creating a reusable training program down into the following goals:

• Create learning objectives
• Create three main modules for the training program:
  • Before the trade show
  • During the trade show
  • After the trade show
• The workshop will be designed to have an experiential learning focus
• Create a facilitator guide for workshop presenters
• Create a workbook for participants
• Create a feedback form and survey
  • Feedback form for the day of the training
  • Survey for feedback after the participants’ next event

Now we had some actionable goals that the team can work on. For example, the larger goal of creating a reusable training program is rather vague, while the goal of creating a facilitator guide is much more specific. With these more specific goals I had tasks that I could assign to my team members.

Establishing Priorities

Once you have created the goals for your team, you need to establish priorities. Different goals and tasks will have varying levels of importance. Some tasks need to be done right away while other tasks can be left to the future.

For example, here again are the main goals from my promotional booth training project:

• To create a reusable training program
• To create a training program that sells itself
• To train toastmasters to facilitate our training program

These were all important goals for my team. Without priorities it would be unclear which task I wanted my team members to complete first.

After reviewing these goals it was clear that the task of training Toastmasters to facilitate our training program had a lower priority than creating the reusable training program. At the start of our project creating the training program was the top priority and training Toastmasters to use the training program was left as a future task that could be started once we had finished creating our training program.

When you set priorities your team members will know where to focus their efforts. When your team members are deciding on what to work on next they can review the list of tasks that are assigned to them and they can choose to work on their highest priority item first. This will ensure that the most important tasks get completed first.

As work on your project gets done, priorities will change. This means setting priorities for your team is an ongoing responsibility. As tasks get completed you need to update your priorities.

For example, in my promotional booth training project the top priority at the start of the project was creating the training program. After the training program was created the top priority became providing the training program to an audience of Toastmasters. This new priority changed which tasks I delegated to my team members, which in turn changed the focus of my team. The team’s efforts shifted from creating a facilitator guide to running the training program in front of an audience.

Delegating Responsibilities and Authority

Once you have goals and you have prioritized your goals you can delegate tasks to your team members. When delegating you should delegate both responsibilities and the authority needed to carry out those responsibilities.

When you delegate authority team members don’t need your permission to make decisions about what they need to work on. They can make those decisions themselves. At the outset you make it clear what your team members are authorized to do and they can then carry out their tasks without the need for you to supervise their every move.

When delegating a task you need to make it clear as to what your team members need to do. For example, one of the tasks for my promotional booth training project was the creation of the facilitator guide. I delegated this task to my team members and when I gave them this task I gave each team member a specific section of the facilitator guide to write. Once they had this task they were able to get started on writing the facilitator guide and they did not need me to supervise them because it was clear at the outset as to what they needed to write.

Conclusion

As a leader you need to provide direction to your team. One of the ways you can do this is to define a vision statement for your team. Having a vision gives the team something to strive for. An end goal that they will work to achieve.

Once you have a vision you can set goals for your team that will move them closer to achieving your vision. A clear goal gives your team a clear direction to move in. As your team completes goals they will be motivated as they move closer to achieving the team’s vision.

In addition to goals you also need to establish priorities. Having priorities will ensure that the team works on the most important tasks first. This will ensure that those important tasks get completed and less important tasks can be left for after the top priorities get completed.

Another important tool in providing direction to your team is delegation. By a delegating a task to a team member you empower that team member. The team member now has the responsibility for carrying out that task as well as the authority to do so.

Remember to provide direction to your team. Create a vision, set goals, establish priorities, and delegate tasks that will move you closer to your team’s goals. By doing this you will create an effective team that accomplishes goals and that is all always moving closer to your envisioned future.