No matter how smart and shiny your new business strategy looks, bad company alignment will result in poor execution. This means that you will be unable to achieve your goals and will amplify all the problems within your company's culture.
If you let this continue your problems will continue to grow and soon you will (if not already) be unable to respond adequately to your customers needs.
i.e you may as well cease to exist.
The good news is that if you identify these problems and make some changes now- you will see an immediate improvement to your bottom line.
Here are 5 tell tale signs that your business is not aligned.
- You (the CEO/ MD) are pushed to your limit.
It is unhealthy when the CEO makes all the real decisions. - Your office is a hub of misinformation.
Talking about the business is great, but misinformation is extremely dangerous.
- Your teams do not work well with each other.
If you notice that processes for each team do not speak to one another you will often see a rise in interdepartmental conflict. - Your staff are playing the blame game.
Incidents of HR issues and petty grievances are on the rise. This is normally due to mis-communication and lack of accountability. - Your staff don't like change.
Employees may ignore or disdain change efforts/quality initiatives, they keep doing things the "old way".
What to do next?
As smart business leaders you know that you must ensure that everyone is aligned with your vision.
Vistage Speaker Jim Alampi has advised large numbers of CEOs, boards and executive teams on business issues, leadership, strategy and execution. He suggests that in order to maximise execution, encourage alignment and maintain momentum you should:
- Ensure that everyone is focused on the one thing that needs to be accomplished in this quarter.
(3-4 priorities should be identified and ranked each quarter) - Establish a communication rhythm that will ensure all information flows both up and down the organisation accurately and quickly.
- Breed Accountability. Every facet of the organisation must have clear goals and objectives that will ensure alignment between departments.
- Encourage Feedback. In order to remove obstacles and identify opportunities you should ensure that feedback and input is scheduled and regular.
- Bring your core values alive within your organisation. You should share and congratulate examples of great work and include your values in the appraisal and recognition processes.
Do you have any good examples of how to encourage alignment within your business?
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