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Alignment

What does your company do?

This question is usually asked to gauge your organization’s industry and the product or service you create. It’s a simple enough question to answer, its usually asked casually…and followed by more significant questions. Why not cut to the chase?

Perhaps a better question to ask: Why Does Your Company Exist?

Now we’re getting somewhere….

Can you recite your company’s core values or mission statement? Is there a story to tell about your founding principles? Has the mission changed over the years?

Culture has been a buzz word in 2011. We affiliate the term with ping pong tables, office parades, and roof top happy hours. But, what if your company doesn’t have the intention of playing ping pong? An audience member at a recent Tony Hsieh keynote commented, “My company isn’t cool like Zappos, so your message doesn’t resonate with our Senior Managers”. Tony replied that office happy hours were merely a gathering place for Zappos to create alignment.

How does your company create alignment?

Some companies are committed to customer service, other companies have a daily mission to keep their employees safe, and there are other companies who promote a world class sales organization. You don’t need super hip employees or an informal dress code to have an organizational culture. All you need is a “purpose” that aligns your organization’s founding principles to the goals of the individuals that serve it!

How are you promoting your Mission and Values?

What are your core business drivers?

Are you celebrating the individual?

Why Do You Care?

Accountability is high and mighty term to use in every day business. How can we attach an extended meaning to Accountability that makes sense to those in the trenches? To act with Accountability may mean staying late on a Friday to finish reporting for an absent team member. This extra effort showcases an employee’s dedication to their department, the organization, and an extended purpose. In this case, the A word is not an “or else” but the “the right thing to do”.  People are always willing to do the right thing! If communicated not as an expectation but a common goal, the accountability to any effort seems reasonable.

So what if the person who stayed late on Friday received a personal message on Monday explaining how their actions exemplified Accountability. Formulating a nomination program in accordance with the aforementioned scenario creates alignment. Someone put similar effort into founding the company 100 years ago. It’s good to know people still care…and what mattered then still matters now.

Why Are You In Business?

Rewarding employees for ‘above and beyond’ behavior keeps them feeling appreciated! Attaching ROI to such behavior can be difficult. So, we look at the reasons we are in business and create incentives. This often takes the shape of a trophy for someone who doesn’t value it…

Why can’t we award project managers for finishing a project ahead of time? Why can’t we reward an IT team for performing a disaster recovery test in a timely manner during operating hours? Show us the metrics for effective customer service and when we perform to them…how about some perks?

Every member of the team is responsible for driving revenue: some save time, some save money, and other save lives….incent accordingly!

Who Are You?

A team is a collection of individuals and no individual is more important than the team. But that doesn’t mean we can throw a tarp over a dynamic group and call it leadership. Every member of your team has distinct personal preferences and those preferences align with your organizational goals. How can we prove it to them?

You hire people first for their common sense. It makes sense to people to do things like show up for work, answer the phone, and to perform to minimum requirements. When we get past the minimum we start creating culture. We get past the minimum by asking for accelerated effort in accordance with personal interests. So, when John gets to the office and learns that Jennifer affiliated his use of creativity with the “making a difference” company motto….he feels like he is at home!

No one works for just a pay check. Everyone appreciates it when someone tells them that the work they do makes a difference. To learn that the office you sit in was built by a woman (your grandma’s age) that cared about the same things you do…..gives your life purpose!

Thanks for reading!

Dave Kovacovich