Page 259 - Fearless Leadership

246 FEARLESS LEADERSHIP

1. Do you feel you have not been understood or that your ideas
have not been listened to?
2. What have you not fully communicated? What have you
withheld?
3. Are you trapped in the need to be right or the victim mindset?
Where do you need to take accountability?
4. Are your personal preferences getting in the way of supporting
enterprise objectives and aligning with the group?
5. Are you willing to suspend your preference or agenda to
support the group decision?
6. What request do you have of the team or individual members?

Call for Level 5 Alignment

You do not need to settle for anything less than Level 5 alignment; how-
ever, it must be real and not another form of compliance. Support one
another in working through concerns and issues that prevent the group
from aligning. Remind one another of the choice each person must
make: to play small where the focus is on individual needs and preferences,
or to play big where the focus is on achieving the enterprise mission—a
purpose that is much greater than the needs of any single individual.
If you or the group have not reached Level 5 alignment, you have two
choices. The first choice is to reexamine the issue under discussion to
determine if the group is on the right track. You must allow for the pos-
sibility that Level 5 alignment cannot be achieved if you are not solving
the right problem or if there is a value-based conflict. The second choice
is to pursue Level 5 alignment by exploring what has not yet been
addressed or resolved. Keep the conversation open until all issues have
been surfaced. Learn and practice what it means to work together as com-
mitted partners. Your goal is to make sure that everyone is fully heard so
you can achieve lasting alignment.
Courage is not simply one of the virtues,
but the form of every virtue at its testing point.

—C. S. LEWIS (1898–1963)