how do I take ownership of mixed messages to the people under me from the
other leaders in my group pretty straightforward question I like it well
first of all you have to address this straight up with the other leaders in
your group because if you aren't aligned as a leadership team this is going to
hurt the cause it is absolutely gonna hurt the cause this is critical and it's
going to be hard and there are some things in your group that people do not
agree on and that is why they are undermining the messaging or why they're
giving out different messaging because they don't agree with it they don't have
the courage to stand up and say hey I don't agree with this right here so
let's do it a different way here's my thoughts they don't have to curse do
that so what do they do they just sit back and then when it comes time to put
out the word they put out the mixed messages and it's it's a bad situation
and you actually have to lead here that's what you have to do and it
shouldn't actually be that hard because what you're asking for is something that
anybody can tell is important so you know you say this you say to your
leadership team you go hey guys our message to the troops needs to be
aligned and right now it isn't we need to fix that is there anyone on your
leadership team is going to disagree with that no they won't
that's not what they disagree with they everybody knows that the leadership team
has to have an aligned message they have to be on the same sheet music and that's
what you need to do and and again it's going to be a hard conversation it's
going to bring out that statement should bring out the conversation of what
people don't agree on and why they're sending missed messages now if you if
you cannot get them aligned it is a serious problem but if you can't the
best thing you can do is mitigate
mitigate that to your team by becoming the trusted voice so with your team you
want to become the trusted voice now this doesn't mean that you can go on
undermine your other leaders and say uh echo came in here he doesn't know he's
talking about no no no no that's not what I'm talking about
I'm never almost never talking about undermining another leader or a
leadership team what I'm gonna do though is I'm gonna
translate I'm a same hey guys our job on this I know echo said that here's our
job here's here's what our focus needs to be here's the way this translates for
us so I'm not disparaging you and I'm not even disagreeing with you I'm simply
honing the message for my team now you still even when you do that you're
mitigating that as much as possible you still have to maintain the critical goal
of getting your leadership team aligned and one other little tool to help make
that happen is to present their words back to them mmm
and you said you know I wrote down what you said to the team this morning and I
just want to go through that with you and break it down a little bit and and
then go through it line by line and have the hard conversations and make the
tough decisions you got to make the tough decisions and also give a little
seed some points right be flexible but unify unify the message and there's a
worse not even worst case scenario but there are scenarios where echo and I
cannot agree on the message and we got to go up the chain of command now I
would never want to do that I would never ever want to say to my boss hey
echo and I can agree you need to make a decision for us to me that's a total
failure it's a failure in my leadership that I can't get us on the same sheet of
music so I don't I can't even think of any time that I ever did that went to my
boss and said hey boss I can't wait you know I can't come to come to a
conclusion here with the other tasks in your commanders I can't come to a
conclusion with the other platoon commanders or I can't come to the
conclusion with the my squad about how it is I've never done that
so you should be able to if you're right you'll win the argument and if you're
wrong didn't you change your mind so it's not that it's not like this open
not like I'm saying I'm great I'm just saying if you're right then you'll win
the argument and if you're wrong then you'll change your mind so it's not that
hard so that's what happens needs to happen here with the leadership team
we've got right now who's right and people that a
right need to convince the people that are wrong now you need to check your ego
obviously across the board everything everybody on the team's got to check
their ego because a lot of people will be holding on to their idea because it's
their idea and they love their idea mm-hmm because their statistical and
that's how I would deal with mixed messages coming down the chain of
command I'm going to go ahead and just say it that could have been one of the
best lines I've ever heard if you're right you win the argument if you're
wrong you'll change your mind that's a good that's a good one your thing denim
I did just make it up here I mean I guess it's something that I've known but
right yeah that's what makes it so good because you kind of kind of seems like
oh yeah you know right but that's never the case but if your being on the
up-and-up there it is right there