How great companies stay 'centred' and accomplish extraordinary things.
The Main Thing
The main thing of business performance is to keep your employees and business centred i.e., aligned which means:
1. Getting every employee headed in the same direction with shared purpose
2. Integrating the resources and business processes/systems to achieve that purpose.
Sterling Development helps our clients achieve alignment by enabling the construction of the measures, processes and systems necessary to become aligned and to stay aligned through our People-Service-Profit approach. We focus on your employees and their ability to deliver world class service. Profit is what you get if you do the first two things well.
Our approach can be applied to an entire organisation or to any of its parts. We have seen managers and supervisors at all hierarchical levels use the power of alignment to unleash the energy that comes from balance, focus and the commitment of employees to accomplish the Main Thing.
Alignment (Performance) Essentials
- Performance (growth and profitability) are the result of alignment between employees, customers, strategy and processes
- Management must keep employees focused and centred around (a few) key performance objectives
- Alignment allows a business - all at the same time - to:
o Rapidly deploy a coherent strategy
o Be totally customer focused
o Develop world class people
o Continuously improve business processes/systems
Alignment (Performance) Key Points
- Gives the power to get and stay competitive by bringing together previously unconnected
parts of a business into an interrelated, easily comprehensive, model
- Alignment gives the power to create a business culture of shared purpose
- By integrating core business factors, overall direction, leadership and culture, alignment gives the power to achieve consistent, defined levels of performance
Alignment is the New Leadership Competence
Alignment gives managers the skills to:
- Connect their employees’ behaviours to the business mission turning intentions into actions
- Link teams and processes to the changing needs of customers
- Shape business strategy with real time information from customers
- Create a culture of performance in which these elements all work together seamlessly by following the deceptively simple steps:
o Carefully crafting and articulating the essence of their business and determining the main thing o Defining a few critical strategic goals and imperatives and implementing them o Tying performance measures and metrics to those goals and imperatives o Linking the measures to a system of rewards and recognition o (Personally) reviewing the performance of their people to ensure goals are met
How Aligned is your Business?
1. Do all employees understand your strategy?
2. Do all business processes/systems meet the needs of your customers?
3. Is the main thing clear to all employees?
4. Is the strategy translated into work that employees are trained and rewarded to do?
5. Are core processes/systems designed to deliver what customers really want?
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