The Leadership ChallengeSample

Challenge 30

NEHEMIAH: CREATING ALIGNMENT

READ: Nehemiah 4:15–23

Today we focus on getting the most out of your team through alignment. It’s a familiar concept form the automotive world. Your car’s tires can all be headed in generally the same direction, but they must be precisely aligned for maximum effectiveness and longevity. Even a slight aberration will have a negative long-term impact. The mechanical alignment of tires is much easier than aligning the complex interactions and dynamics of a living team, but the time and thought spent in the process is worth the investment. In our reading, Nehemiah achieves alignment by ensuring that his team has a common understanding of the overall objective (his vision of the wall). Then he adjusts subordinate goals and systems to support the desired end state and manages change to make needed adjustments (the warning system, work shifts, and sleeping arrangements). In military operations, leaders create alignment through operations orders that ensure that in spite of different subordinate missions and capabilities, each team component is prepared to adapt to circumstances and take initiative to meet the commander’s intent—the assigned definition of success. Even the best order cannot anticipate every subsequent event, so leaders modify their plans to ensure everyone remains aligned with the vision.

What other aspects of positive leadership do you see in our text? What can you do to help ensure alignment in a team in which you are currently working?