January is a traditional time for business to get everyone in alignment for a successful year. Kickoff meetings, revealing of business and strategic plans and any number of other activities to get the team setup for their greatest potential success. Effort and energy go into these rollouts but what happens after the information is shared? Is the sharing of information one directional – going out from leaders to team members and hoping they connect the dots?
As readers of this communincation, you are very aware of our commitment to our Promise Culture approach to best outcomes. By centering on Purpose, Vision, Passion, Core Values and the supporting principles of the model architecture which are specifically tailored to your business, a higher level of predictable success is achieved.
One of the foundation principles is based in the relationships with the people in the organization. When we look at the elements inside a productive relationship we find such things as respect, open communincation, timely responsiveness, collaboration, appreciation, engagement, and confidence just to name a few. These aspects of people dynamics are critical to the success of any objective or outcome. It is, therefore, important that these elements are aligned not only with the one-on-one relationships internally to the organization but are equally aligned with the objectives and plans of the business and all of the external touch points such as clients, customers, vendors, families etc.
If your organization has alignment issues, then the path you are taking is constantly on a correction course. Consider the alignment of the steering on your vehicle. If your tires are out of alignment, then many things are happening as you travel. Not in any particular order but your tires wear out faster and uneven. This is so true for your team members. When there is a lack of alignment in your people with organizational objective then your people wear out faster. It has been proven time and time again that when a person can relate their actual work or contribution directly to the vison and purpose of the business their level of energy and satisfaction stay consistently higher than those out of alignment. In some cases when the alignment on your car is so far out of straight, you place yourself at a higher risk of accident which is just another distraction on the path to success.
The fastest and best way to get to an end result is still a straight line. If your people and processes are out of alignment with the end result, then you will be in a constant state of rework or redirecting your teams’ efforts to get back on track. This is both time and energy consuming which results in lower morale and less profits. It goes with out saying that for most organizations, their most precious asset is their people. It is also typically true that the people are the greatest expense to the organization. For these reasons if your organization is out of alignment then it is fairly easy to predict higher turnover and higher costs of talent acquisition and retention.
This week as the leader in your organization, evaluate the alignment of people, processes, and outcomes. Ask someone of your team if they can explain how their roll directly contributes to the success of the company. If they can’t articulate an answer to the question, then maybe your people are out of alignment.
Need to get your organization a new alignment for 2023? A Promise Guide with JKL Associates is ready to assist you in your efforts. Give us a call at MI (313) 527-7945 or FL (407) 984-7246.
Journey On!
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QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS – EMAIL US AT PARTNERS@JKLASSOCIATES.COM OR CALL OUR OFFICES – MI AT (313) 527-7945 FL AT (407) 984-7246
Celebrating 30 years of Delivering on “Promises”
