We’ve got a question for you.
How’s business?
The question is straightforward, but the answer may be anything but. To build and grow a successful company, leaders must make sure all business functions are aligned and operating as a single, interrelated, interdependent system.
If one aspect of your organization is misaligned, the company’s ability to meet goals is at risk. As we’ve said in a previous post, it’s a lot like stacking hay bales—each bale must be carefully placed and properly positioned so the whole structure stays strong and stable.
In this blog series, we’ll use Jay R. Galbraith’s Star Model ™ as a framework to ensure your business is aligned across five key areas: strategy, structure, process, rewards, and people.
First up: strategy.
What is strategy?
Simply put, strategy is your company’s mission, values, objectives, and goals. In an ideal scenario, the whole team is crystal-clear about ALL this important information, and leaders regularly communicate about it. When this happens, everyone—from managers to drivers to workers on the floor—understands precisely how they’re contributing to business success, and they feel motivated and energized about moving the company forward.
Doesn’t that sound wonderful? Unfortunately, when we partner with clients to create a roadmap for growth, we often discover confusion, not clarity, about strategy.
Do you recognize these symptoms?
When the business strategy is missing, unclear, or too broad to be meaningful, or if leaders can’t agree on what it should be, the company is at risk. Symptoms of a misaligned strategy include:
- People are pulling in different, even conflicting directions
- Growth is slow or unpredictable
- Employees are unmotivated and disengaged
- No clear criteria for decision-making
Let’s talk about how these symptoms show up in two real-life examples.
The strategy and goals were unclear …
We worked with a feed mill leader who felt there was a great opportunity for the business to grow, but the growth was slow … too slow. The leader felt the sales team was always busy but not making necessary progress.
The goal of the business was to increase sales, and that goal was cascaded to their feed sales team. The sales team was working hard doing everything they could to increase sales: identifying prospects, meeting prospects, calling current customers. Obviously, they WERE busy.
We asked, “Where do you have the biggest opportunity in your market?” The answer: current customers. They had long-term customers who only bought a portion of their feed from the mill. There was an opportunity to provide feed in other stages of the animal life cycle or for other animals. The leader told us, “We should never pass another feed company truck while delivering to a customer.”
As we talked, the goal became more specific: to increase sales with current customers to gain a larger percentage of their business. This goal focuses more on the behaviors of the sales team and less on activities with less impact on the sales of the business.
The goals conflicted
A few months ago, we met with the feed division of a cooperative. As we hear from many clients, there was an ongoing conflict between sales and operations. The sales team was frustrated because they worked hard to sell and would get pushback from operations to service the sale. The operations team was frustrated because they would get last-minute requests and requests requiring multiple changeovers based on promises the sales team made to customers. Does this sound familiar?
The goal communicated to the sales team was to increase sales by 10%. The sales team was measured on their ability to meet that goal.
The goal communicated to the operations team was focused on efficiency. The operations team was measured on their ability to control labor hours. The labor hours for each location were tracked and shared with the broader operations team.
The goals were in direct conflict, which negatively impacted the relationship between sales and operations.
The operations team knew the goal of the sales team. The sales team assumed everyone had the same goal. They did NOT know how the operations team was measured. The awareness created in our discussion was the first step to bringing the sales and operations teams together. There is even more opportunity to define the goals in a way that both teams are pulling in the same direction.
What can you do?
Despite how varied these issues seem, they all improve when leaders focus on one key aspect of business strategy: aligning company goals with behavior. Here are steps you can take to determine if your strategy is not fully defined or if there is misalignment:
- From memory, write down the goals of the business. Don’t simply think of them, write them down. If you have to pull out a goal document to refresh your memory, you may have too many goals.
- What behaviors are the goals driving? When goals are shared with team members, what behaviors do the goals motivate them to take? If it’s hard to write down the goals because there are so many behaviors, the goals are not specific enough and behaviors are too broad to advance your goals.
- Ask managers and employees about the goals of the business. Leaders are often surprised by the response. Leaders typically feel they have been clear in communication about the goals, and find that it’s not as clear to managers and employees.
- Ask managers and employees, “What is the one thing you could do to have the biggest impact on business goals?” The answer will give you a better understanding of how employees interpret the goals and whether the goal is motivating the behavior you want to see.
Now that you know about the impact and symptoms of business strategy misalignments, you can identify and correct issues that have been holding you back. Next month, we’ll provide tips for making the most of your business structure so you stay on track for growth and success.
Did you find gaps or possible misalignment with your strategy and goals? Email Erin at erin@peoplesparkconsulting.com to talk about how these are showing up in your business.