Here are ten steps to take today and in the future to align your employees so they will positively effect your bottom line while achieving their goals.
1. Separate the strategic and tactical thinking processes
2. Define the business strategy in all areas of the business (Revenue, Operations, Personnel, and Financial)
3. Make everyone aware of the business strategy and plant the seed that will allow them to achieve those goals
4. Make sure clarity of the business strategy is established for all
5. Break the Strategic Business Plan down into goals by business unit, division and/or department (Eat the Elephant in small bites)
6. Develop a goal-orientation culture within the company
7. Formulate specific, time sensitive, prioritized goals that provide each employee with a clear sight to the strategy, department goals, and reflect upon their own roles and responsibilities.
8. Let the employee develop the metrics and reporting structure that will continue to provide clarity and measure achievement
9. Set process meetings to determine your success or failure with opportunity to recommend changes demonstrating their value in the process
10. Be satisfied that the overall business strategy must be changed to reflect the highly competitive and volatile marketplace.
Showing posts with label strategic planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label strategic planning. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Communication Process to Drive Growth
Most companies are focused today on driving growth, as I’m sure you are with your business. Many don’t realize that to drive growth you have to start at the beginning with interviewing the candidate and end it with the exit interview or retirement dinner.
Your company needs to focus on hiring the people that will perform better and stay longer. Then, you must identify the high achievers at a very early point in their careers and the retention of these high achievers must be considered paramount to the organization. How do you do this? Employee retention starts with the on-boarding process or orientation. This is best opportunity to start the communication line, explaining the business strategy of the organization and how their role and responsibility provides value to that equation. Communication is the key ingredient for any leadership team to articulate where the company is heading and how they plan to get there. This is the best time to align your employees appropriately but most companies do not spend the time to do such.
The next step in the process is make sure the capabilities of your people can support your company’s strategy and create a competitive advantage; a slight edge as we like to call it. Last but not least, we have to hold our people accountable and in most cases we assign that role to our middle management team. It is their responsibility to structure reporting relationships and evaluate individual performance to ensure the desired business results. They are the ones that execute the strategy.
Companies need to construct a training and development process that enhances communication between the employee and management, improves individual productivity, enhances performance and makes a more effective organization that achieves its revenue goals. Human Resource executives must take responsibility for administering this training process and utilize this process to shorten the learning curve and make employees much more productive and engaged earlier. This will allow companies to achieve sustained growth during these difficult economic times.
Innovative Leadership helps companies connect their people success strategies with their business objectives to drive growth. It's time to get that process into place, we can help.
Your company needs to focus on hiring the people that will perform better and stay longer. Then, you must identify the high achievers at a very early point in their careers and the retention of these high achievers must be considered paramount to the organization. How do you do this? Employee retention starts with the on-boarding process or orientation. This is best opportunity to start the communication line, explaining the business strategy of the organization and how their role and responsibility provides value to that equation. Communication is the key ingredient for any leadership team to articulate where the company is heading and how they plan to get there. This is the best time to align your employees appropriately but most companies do not spend the time to do such.
The next step in the process is make sure the capabilities of your people can support your company’s strategy and create a competitive advantage; a slight edge as we like to call it. Last but not least, we have to hold our people accountable and in most cases we assign that role to our middle management team. It is their responsibility to structure reporting relationships and evaluate individual performance to ensure the desired business results. They are the ones that execute the strategy.
Companies need to construct a training and development process that enhances communication between the employee and management, improves individual productivity, enhances performance and makes a more effective organization that achieves its revenue goals. Human Resource executives must take responsibility for administering this training process and utilize this process to shorten the learning curve and make employees much more productive and engaged earlier. This will allow companies to achieve sustained growth during these difficult economic times.
Innovative Leadership helps companies connect their people success strategies with their business objectives to drive growth. It's time to get that process into place, we can help.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Don't Make Promises You Can't Keep
Many companies spend a great deal of time and energy focusing on the marketing conditions, planning their strategy to meet the highly competitive environment, preparing for those unforeseen external obstacles like fuel costs, economic recession, etc. only to fall quite short of their goals.
I have noticed the following pitfalls that companies fall in:
1. They streamline their management layers losing valuable and irreplaceable talent in the process.
2. They listen to the experts in their industry and the mass media without spending the majority of their time surveying their own customers to determine what their needs may be over the next twelve months.
3. They never tell the employee what their business strategy looks like therefore engagement goes out the window.
4. They eliminate the decision-making process when it comes to the financial resources needed to move forward, and
5. They focus internally at the cost-effectiveness of their operations and don’t focus on their sales and marketing efforts and appropriate ROI
The reason for the above pitfalls is primarily due to the fact that most companies do not have a Strategic Development Process in place that can help them through the “white water” and correct their course in a relatively short period of time opposed to changing the course entirely using up their precious response time.
Do any of those scenarios sound familiar?
We can help you focus on “What Matters Most” – the ways and the means to generate revenue, your people, the systems and processes that make a difference, and the financial expectations of your actions. In other words, we help you get results. The time is now to maximize your strategy and strengths.
For more information on our “What Matters Most” Process contact us.
I have noticed the following pitfalls that companies fall in:
1. They streamline their management layers losing valuable and irreplaceable talent in the process.
2. They listen to the experts in their industry and the mass media without spending the majority of their time surveying their own customers to determine what their needs may be over the next twelve months.
3. They never tell the employee what their business strategy looks like therefore engagement goes out the window.
4. They eliminate the decision-making process when it comes to the financial resources needed to move forward, and
5. They focus internally at the cost-effectiveness of their operations and don’t focus on their sales and marketing efforts and appropriate ROI
The reason for the above pitfalls is primarily due to the fact that most companies do not have a Strategic Development Process in place that can help them through the “white water” and correct their course in a relatively short period of time opposed to changing the course entirely using up their precious response time.
Do any of those scenarios sound familiar?
We can help you focus on “What Matters Most” – the ways and the means to generate revenue, your people, the systems and processes that make a difference, and the financial expectations of your actions. In other words, we help you get results. The time is now to maximize your strategy and strengths.
For more information on our “What Matters Most” Process contact us.
Monday, July 14, 2008
A Blueprint for Challenging Times
I find it interesting that many companies react to this turbulent market much like a child reacts to a thunderstorm. The company hides it head under the pillo
ws, waits the storm out hoping that it ends quickly and that there is no real damage. I have spoken to many Human Resource Professionals and asked them if their challenges for 2008-2009 have changed because of the poor economic conditions or other external conditions. The majority feel that their challenges have not changed and there is no need to do anything differently. It sure is dark under that pillow!
ws, waits the storm out hoping that it ends quickly and that there is no real damage. I have spoken to many Human Resource Professionals and asked them if their challenges for 2008-2009 have changed because of the poor economic conditions or other external conditions. The majority feel that their challenges have not changed and there is no need to do anything differently. It sure is dark under that pillow! In SuccessFactor’s whitepaper titled “Winning Through Talent”, they report that the four strategies that successful companies use when faced with decreasing revenues, shrinking budgets, and disengaged employees amid these uncertain times are:
- Rapidly align your workforce with changing economic conditions
- Optimize your workforce
- Identify and invest in your best employees and
- Dramatically improve communication across the company
- Implement a Strategic Development Process in which all employees feel they play a part and understand the direction the company is moving in.
- Improve Productivity and Performance Through Training and Development using proven methods with defined outcomes
- Identify the Strengths of Your Employees and Maximize Their Development in relation to the direction of the organization and its future needs.
- Learn to Understand How We can Communicate Better with our managers, our peers, and our subordinates to gain clarity in direction and desired outcome.
We all agree that we must maximize employee performance and be more productive in this highly competitive global market. We also agree that we must continue to be results-oriented so that we provide our customer with superior services or products. Isn’t it time that our people development professionals step forward and change the environment by being proactive and not just reactive? We need to develop the strengths of all of our people focusing on the most talented and while integrating your people development plan with the strategic planning process of the company. People development plus process-oriented effectiveness equals productivity.
So, isn’t the blueprint for success the synergistic effect produced by focusing on people development and process orientation, and then monitoring how the implementation process affects the result?
Have you started your people development process? If so, any recommendations, and if not, what is holding you back?
Monday, February 11, 2008
Cautiously Optimistic
The Feds have reduced the rates and are forecasted to do it again this week and the American Corporation and small business owner are to let out a big “sigh of relief”.
I can tell you from my experiences this past week that no one is breathing a “sigh of relief”. Companies have put some of their spending on hold, like training and development, marketing and promotional materials, and are continuing to focus on the costs and related expenses that can be reduced.
Why is it that we as business people tend to hide in our caves until the storm blows over instead of getting out in the mix and making the necessary adjustments so that everything is more in order to weather the storm than ever before?
The return on investment for training and development expenses can be measured and defined. Believe it or not, there is a system where behavioral change can even be measured over time so why is it that we don’t take a more aggressive approach to an external threat like economic conditions, especially the prospect of a recession?
One of the reasons we are not more aggressive when threats affect our businesses is that we have not strategically planned for this threat. Any company that did a strategic planning exercise using S.W.O.T. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis or similar exercise certainly came up with economic conditions as a potential threat in 2008. If you didn’t record economic conditions as a possible threat, please retire now and/or transition or sell your business. The problem I see is that most people use strategic planning to set action steps when the climate internally and externally is at its calmest and not as a vehicle to help them through the periods that get the roughest.
So, let’s sit back down and make sure our external resources in terms of opportunities and threats are well reflected in our planning as well as our internal strengths and weaknesses.
Effective organizational effectiveness can minimize the effect that an external event has on businesses and people can become totally engaged when they know what they need to do to overcome the external challenge.
Awareness, planning, implementation and results…it sure sounds like something that focuses everyone on the challenge, defines a plan to get somewhere, allows for mid-course correction if the weather changes, and focuses everyone on the results. I guess if we all do that I can become cautiously optimistic….but I am not.
I can tell you from my experiences this past week that no one is breathing a “sigh of relief”. Companies have put some of their spending on hold, like training and development, marketing and promotional materials, and are continuing to focus on the costs and related expenses that can be reduced.
Why is it that we as business people tend to hide in our caves until the storm blows over instead of getting out in the mix and making the necessary adjustments so that everything is more in order to weather the storm than ever before?
The return on investment for training and development expenses can be measured and defined. Believe it or not, there is a system where behavioral change can even be measured over time so why is it that we don’t take a more aggressive approach to an external threat like economic conditions, especially the prospect of a recession?
One of the reasons we are not more aggressive when threats affect our businesses is that we have not strategically planned for this threat. Any company that did a strategic planning exercise using S.W.O.T. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis or similar exercise certainly came up with economic conditions as a potential threat in 2008. If you didn’t record economic conditions as a possible threat, please retire now and/or transition or sell your business. The problem I see is that most people use strategic planning to set action steps when the climate internally and externally is at its calmest and not as a vehicle to help them through the periods that get the roughest.
So, let’s sit back down and make sure our external resources in terms of opportunities and threats are well reflected in our planning as well as our internal strengths and weaknesses.
Effective organizational effectiveness can minimize the effect that an external event has on businesses and people can become totally engaged when they know what they need to do to overcome the external challenge.
Awareness, planning, implementation and results…it sure sounds like something that focuses everyone on the challenge, defines a plan to get somewhere, allows for mid-course correction if the weather changes, and focuses everyone on the results. I guess if we all do that I can become cautiously optimistic….but I am not.
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