Season 6 Episode TWO of the Intrepid Way podcast series, Leadership on the Ground, with Erica Peitler and co-host Todd Schnick
Why Context Matters
[Tweet “Without context, you have no #commitment and no #ownership. And thus, you have no #accountability and limited #action”]
SEASON 6 EPISODE TWO – Why Context Matters!
Discussion Guide for this episode:
This season is about the context of leadership, so to begin, we discuss what happens WITHOUT context.
Without context, you have NO commitment and no ownership. And thus, you have no accountability, and limited action too.
“It’s not just about getting action, it’s also about getting TRACTION.” Action without context leads you down the wrong path.
This is also about meaning. Head might be in the game, but if your heart isn’t, that’s not sustainable. “Meaning happens when we give people a bigger reason for doing.”
You need EVERYONE in your organization to feel like they are contributing to the BIG PICTURE.
With context, you get transparency, which provides a feeling that people are “in the know.” This leads to trust.
This context can be the “North Star” that pulls you, and the team, through difficult challenges. And in context, failures are not negative, they become the precursor to success.
You can work ON the business, or IN the business. Leaders need to focus ON the business. And when in context, you link these two, which is very powerful. This matters vertically (top down) but also horizontally, which improved cross-functional interaction.
When you operate in context, you provide a framework where there is “freedom within structure,” or the freedom to act and improve overall team collaboration. Values can be freedom within structure.
When you are operating in context, it becomes easier to ask your people to do hard things, such as going through a big change.
Another way to look at all of this is that we are talking about empowering your people, to give them the freedom to do their job.
Is context personal? The meaning of the organization HAS TO BE personal to people, or you will not get traction, and move the organization forward.
