How well do your team members understand how other parts of your organization work?

Our reader poll today asks: How well do your team members understand how other parts of your organization work?

• Extremely well – everyone understands all other company functions 6.29%
• Very well – they understand most of the other critical functions 23.68%
• Well – they understand functions close to them but not most others 48.30%
• Not very well – they lack a basic understanding of other functional team roles 17.39%
• Not at all – I’m lucky they understand what our function does 4.34%

Provide a broader understanding. It’s great to see that 80% of you report that your team members understand the important parts of your organization outside their own team or function. That obviously improves coordination, helps them appreciate knock-on effects of their work, and makes them better prepared to take on larger or different roles as their careers progress. For those of you reporting that your teams aren’t familiar with other functions, put together a plan for how you can build their knowledge. Are there cross-functional projects you can put them on? Are there online courses they can take to understand other functions? Can you create mentorship opportunities with leaders from other areas? The better your team members understand what the rest of the organization does, the more their own roles make sense to them and the better positioned they are to grow in their careers.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.