You might have the most compelling strategic vision for your organization, but if you can’t get it out of your head and get others to see it and believe in it, it might as well not even exist.
Just because the strategy makes sense to you doesn’t mean it will take only an instant for others to see it like you do. We often think that others think as we do, that others see the world as we do, but it’s more likely that there’s a lot of ground to cover between their perspective and yours (Please repeat after me, "Message sent DOESN'T always equal message received" 😉). Employees come to their jobs with their own context, and it’s the leader’s job to help them understand the collective context, including how you see the marketplace today, and how that led to your strategy.
Understanding Strategy Means Business
Communication from leaders that focuses on explaining the organization's vision/mission/strategies and how employee’s individual jobs fit into the big picture are key drivers of how employees feel about their leadership and the effectiveness of internal communication overall. Communication Climate Index, The Qualtrix Group, 2018
- Motivating employees to help achieve your strategic vision increases profitability 22% to 27% over a 6-12 month basis. Chief Executive Group, “4 Ways to Motivate Employees to Help Achieve Your Strategic Vision,” working study of 100s of their client companies, August 2020
- 57% of surveyed Americans stated they would perform better at their jobs if they better understood the company's direction. Zeno Group, online survey of 1000 Americans, early 2019
- One-third (33%) of executives were not confident that their employees could accurately communicate the company's business strategy to others. Zeno Group, "Barriers to Employee Engagement" Study, 2021
A recent study by Franklin-Covey which surveyed thousands of employees across industries revealed:
- Only 37 % said they have a clear understanding of what their organization is trying to achieve and why.
- Only one in five was enthusiastic about their team’s and organization’s goals.
- Only one in five said they had a clear “line of sight” between their tasks and their team’s and organization’s goals.
- Only 15 percent felt that their organization fully enables them to execute key goals.
- Only 20 percent fully trusted the organization they work for.
- Only 4 of the 11 players on the field would know which goal is theirs.
- Only 2 of the 11 would care.
- Only 2 of the 11 would know what position they play and know exactly what they are supposed to do.
- All but 2 players would, in some way, be competing against their own team members rather than the opponent.
It’s
up to leaders to engage others so they have the same clear picture you
do of your strategy and where the business is going. The reality is that
some may have small windows into your view of the strategy, but very
few have the whole picture like you do. Lift the perspective out of your
head and get it into others’ so they can own it and help you achieve
it.
Here are 6 steps to help your employees understand and buy into your strategy:
1. Put the strategy on a single piece of paper. Let it serve as a strategic framework that drives all work inside the organization.
An effective business strategy summary typically includes the following components:
- A summary of your organization’s strengths and weaknesses, along with the opportunities and threats you see.
- Your vision, mission, and values.
- The top business goals of the organization that, if achieved, will drive your success.
- The individual strategies that will help you achieve those goals.
- The measurement components for each strategy.
2. Share the strategic framework and ensure your leaders are aligned.
Give leaders the context behind the strategy so they understand how you got there and ask them to make the strategy relevant for their teams.
Don’t allow the bobble-heads.You know the meeting. Everyone nods in agreement during the meeting, and then leaves the room and does whatever they want. The senior-most leader leaves the meeting thinking, “Great, everyone’s on board and moving full speed ahead.”
Except what usually happens is that people go back to business as usual, or chat up the grapevine about how the ideas discussed will never work. It’s time to stop the bobbleheads.
How do you ensure alignment with your team instead of just having nodding heads?
- Engage everyone in critical discussions. Don’t allow bobbleheads to speak with their nods. Draw them out to find out what they’re thinking.
- Ask open-ended questions of your leadership team to get real-time input and commitment. How someone answers a question tells you what they’re thinking.
- Elicit opinions to ensure diverse perspectives are aired and discussed.
- Once you gain alignment, ask leaders to share how the strategy is relevant to their area of the business.
- Set clear expectations and accountabilities so every head-nodder has a clear set of actions related to their critical role in activating the strategy.
- Follow up individually with your leaders for their perspective on what was discussed. Ask questions to engage each one in dialogue, and check how well a leader is customizing the information for his or her team.
- Give leaders an assignment: Have them reach out to their staff and come back to you with perspective on parts of the strategy that seem confusing and/or barriers that may exist to implementing the strategy (along with recommended solutions).
3. Provide leaders training on how to use the tools. See
them in action so you can coach them on how to communicate big-picture
messages, along with that all-important personalization. Can your
leaders make the strategy relevant to their teams?
4. Use the strategic framework consistently in your communications with
employees so it becomes familiar to them and they see what’s happening
and how it ties to the strategy (they know what’s important when they
see and hear it from multiple sources).
5. As your thinking evolves about the strategy (quarterly, annually, etc.), update your framework and communicate regularly so employees are in the loop and understand the reasons behind decisions.
6. Celebrate “wins,” always connecting back to and reinforcing the core elements of the strategy.
Chances
are, many employees just see their tasks and not the bigger picture of
how they contribute. You also might learn that there’s a need for your
team to better understand the organization’s goals and strategy, too.
Or, there’s not clarity on your team’s priorities.
No
matter what the learnings, you’ve started an important discussion that
you can continue regularly, and can form the basis of lots of
celebration in the future. And what team can’t use even more
celebration?
"Everything rises and falls on leadership. And leadership rises and falls on communication."
--Peter Senge
Click here to read a related post entitled: Execution IS Strategy
To your greater success and fulfillment in 2022,
Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT
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