Are You a DAD Leader?

Why Your Team Needs You to Be.

By Michelle Masters

From Growth to Momentum
– Adding the DAD Framework

Let me first state the obvious: none of this is groundbreaking. That’s intentional. Strong leadership comes from mastering core principles. It’s about deepening your skills and refining your practices. The leaders who grow the most aren’t chasing the next “new model.” They know that real growth comes from revisiting the fundamentals with fresh perspective and deeper self-awareness.

That’s what this Leadership series is about. My goal is to provide simple, memorable frameworks that help reflect on and strengthen the core of how you lead every day.

Last week we talked about the MOM framework. This week, we’re adding another layer with the DAD Framework, which is all about being Decisive, Aligned, and Disciplined.

Where the MOM framework focused on clearing roadblocks and bottlenecks by Managing Obstacle Movement, with DAD we’re taking it to the next step by using Decisive action to navigate complex strategic hurdles, building trust with every tough decision. And we’ll talk about how to complement MOM’s task accountability as the Manager Of Minutes with DAD’s Disciplined commitment to routine and standards needed for long-term consistency. Then we’ll take a look at how MOM’s attention to Month-Over-Month growth of the individual, is further strengthened by DAD’s focus there is alignment between the individual, team and organization objectives.

The DAD framework provides the next set of building blocks that create momentum needed for you, your individual team members, and the team at large to achieve great results.

Being Decisive

Most leaders know they have to make decisions, but few understand that being decisive is one of the quickest ways to build trust on a team. Indecision creates a vacuum of stress and wasted effort. It forces your team to tread water, constantly waiting for permission or clarity. The decisive leader knows the tough call has to be made, and they make it with confidence.

How to Be a Decisive Leader:

• Make the Tough Call to Build Trust: When a team is stuck between two bad – or equally good – options, the decision-maker needs to step in. One of my coaches once said, “A wrong decision is better than no decision.” A leader’s job is to take the pressure off the team by absorbing the risk of choice and confidently moving them forward. This act of confidence, even under uncertainty, builds enormous trust.
• Know Your Decision Deadline: Not all decisions are created equal. You must be aware enough to recognize when a decision requires deep analysis and then it needs a quick, confident answer. Don’t waste two weeks analyzing a decision that only has a 5% impact on the business. When in doubt, move with confidence and speed.

Being Aligned

A team can be full of highly talented individuals and still fail because everyone is rowing in a slightly different direction. Even if the team itself is aligned, that doesn’t mean the team is providing all that the organization needs from it. The Aligned leader ensures that the strategic, operational, and individual goals are locked together. Doing this creates purpose for team members and results in a team that recognizes itself as doing great things and is recognized by others as doing great things.

How to Be an Aligned Leader:

• Ensure Alignment with the Organizational Strategy: Your team’s objectives and day-to-day work must map directly to the organization’s strategic objectives. Ensuring vertical alignment within the organization focuses your team’s priorities on activities that provide the most organizational value. It also helps the team to identify low-value or unnecessary work, which should be modified to better align or even possibly evaluated.
• Ensure Operational Synergy: The goals of your team should also align horizontally with the goals of peer teams, other departments. Organizational synergy gives leaders and individuals a common language with which they can problem-solve when departments inevitably clash over priorities or resources. It is also helpful when looking for ways to implement or improve cross-functional activities and reassociate tasks between teams.
• Connect Individual Growth to Team Success: I cannot overstate how important it is that each team member’s professional growth goals are explicitly linked to the team’s operational goals. Beyond the obvious benefit for the team and organization, something special happens when a team member knows that achieving their personal career goal (e.g., learning a new skill) directly helps the team reach a strategic objective. Their engagement level increases and they become self-motivated to achieve more. I will dare to say that it’s one of those win-win situations! Forgive the cliché.

Being Disciplined

Discipline means “teach” and having a relentless routine in this area creates a much-needed consistency that drives sustained success. It’s the act of keeping the team and yourself on track with goals and objectives that have been organizationally aligned. Discipline in this area protects the team’s focus and ensures that key decisions have been acted upon. It also encourages more frequent tough/critical conversations while issues are still small, preventing them from escalating into major crises that hurt both performance and morale.

How to Be a Disciplined Leader:

• Disciplined KPI Discussions: With objectives aligned, it’s important to have a regular routine for reviewing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) with the team. Discuss the activities driving a KPI up or down. It also creates regular opportunities to naturally recognize achievements and helps you spot potential issues early. Discuss the work in progress or nearing completion that will impact future KPI performance. Ask if anyone worked on things that aren’t represented in the KPIs… and then ask what KPI could be added to capture that. Disciplined discussions keep the focus on things that truly matter.
• Demand Adherence to Standards: Standards, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) only work if they are followed with discipline by everyone. The moment you allow a standard to slip, you are inviting your team to question the need for that and your seriousness. Consistently upholding standards will create a sense of pride within the team and protect it from reputational risks and unpredictable outcomes.

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Wrapping it up… The DAD Leader

As I said in the introduction, none of this is revolutionary. And that’s the point. Leadership growth rarely requires discovering something new every time. But it does require a rediscovering of sorts – a review of what we already know using your current perspective, your current team. Focusing on things that will matter most for your team right now and choosing to apply them with a deeper intentionality.

So what’s your next step? Maybe re-read a trusted leadership book with fresh eyes. Does your organization offer a mentoring program or can you sign up for leadership training? If not, look for a local workshop, a peer group to ‘mastermind’ with, or a coach who can help you work through the specific challenges in front of you.

Wherever you are in that journey, know this – you don’t have to figure it out alone. That’s exactly why I created Servant Leader Training. My passion is to walk alongside leaders like you who are ready to grow deeper and create real impact. I’d love to help you cut through the noise and lead with clarity and purpose. When you do that, your team won’t just follow – they’ll grow along with you.

I invite you to schedule a free introductory session with me today.

~M

P.S. If you missed last week’s post on the MOM Framework, you can read it here.