Just like many digital helpers, it’s hard to imagine our everyday lives without a navigation application. It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about long distances like a vacation trip, or the daily commute to work. They show us the fastest route, avoid road closures, accidents and traffic jams, give us an outlook on how many kilometers still lie ahead and when we can expect to reach our destination.
A trip without a GPS is almost inconceivable for us nowadays. Reading complex maps or even relying on pure gut feeling? That’s usually both frustrating and not very helpful.
The GPS always shows me the easiest and fastest way to reach my destination. However, the final decision as to which route I take is still mine.
Facing risks and problems in team leadership
The same applies to the topic of team leadership: Leading according to pure gut feeling is associated with risks and potential problems. Especially when new challenges arise, major changes are imminent and crises have to be overcome.
Often, there is already a lack of objective knowledge about where teams are right now. Where are we right now? How are my teams really doing, and where is their potential?
The fastest way to the destination is not yet in mind here.
Facing the challenges
Imagine driving off blindly without a GPS, and after just a few minutes you’ve taken the wrong slip road and navigated yourself straight into a traffic jam. But if you take the time to switch on the GPS, enter a destination and look at the data-based recommendations of the navigation system before you leave, you can immediately avoid the traffic jam and ultimately recoup the time you initially invested several times over – while also saving nerves and explanations about delays.
Even when it comes to leading teams, there are challenges and problems in working together that are difficult to identify and quickly overlooked. What challenges prevent teams from achieving their goals? What are the traffic jams and roadblocks along the way and how can they be “bypassed” through intelligent navigation to guide teams to their destination in the fastest way possible?
By identifying challenges early, you save time and nerves because you can choose the right path directly without trying different routes beforehand.
Learning from other users
With “real-time information”, managers and teams know at any time where they are on the way to the goal. Based on short surveys in the team and the team database in the background, managers receive directly effective leadership impulses for the way ahead.
Which routes have proven to be the fastest? With the help of data-based approaches, modern software now recognizes which route led the most users to their destination the fastest. Especially in team management, these insights provide information about what has helped other teams in the same challenge. The database helps to find the best route to the goal for the individual situation and situation.
Making data-based decisions
Even if I use a GPS, I am still at the wheel and deciding which route to take. I receive data-based decision-making aids – ultimately, I decide whether to turn because I am the driver.
Why it’s hard to set the right priorities
Managers often do not know exactly where their team stands and what current challenges there are on the common path. Due to the operational tasks in everyday work, there is often no time to dive deeper into team leadership.
“We have other priorities right now” – We see the current challenges of the VUCA world in almost all areas, which currently make it difficult for everyone to set the right priorities. The introduction of a data-based support for executives should not be an issue of prioritization, but should be seen as a relief to better manage the many other issues.
Don’t wait until you or your leaders are “stuck” with your issues to solicit data-based leadership suggestions. When does the first team have two hours, for team onboarding as part of a workshop? That should mark the launch of team leadership software.
