One of the main challenges facing today's businesses is to capitalize on human capital to create value and realize a competitive edge. This is best achieved through the alignment of employees' goals and actions with corporate objectives, thus eliminating time-wasting activities that do not serve the overall corporate strategy. The availability of an activity management too such as a carefully crafted planner will facilitate alignment and goal achievements.
Turning vision into a reality is arguably one of the key challenges facing today's enterprises. To enable transformation, organizations need to develop and execute grand strategies, and make the strategy an integral part of the organization, ensuring strategic alignment at every level of the organization; from the leadership to the employee at the front desk facing the customer.
Aligning everyone in the organization with the corporate strategy is one of the most important and challenging activities the leadership can do beyond formulating and implementing great strategies. Strategic alignment of the workforce enables the management team to move the organization forward in the intended direction. Misalignment with the strategy means chaos, inefficiency and waste of valuable resources, with a conflict between the vision and reality. To avoid this, employees across the organization need to buy into the corporate strategy. Starting with an effective form of communication, managers must ensure that each and every employee develops a keen understanding of how the strategy will affect them.
If, for example, the strategy is 'to compete on the quality of customer service and after-sales support', then helpful, cheerful and courteous employees will be fundamental to encourage target customers to return and possibly make personal recommendations, even if the prices are somewhat higher than local competitors.
There are a number of basic steps that management must take to ensure that employees are aligned with company strategies.
* Strategy must be communicated to the whole workforce to bridge the communication gap, which has been attributed to strategy failure.
* Employees must have the conceptual tools required for good strategic thinking.
* Employees must understand the strategy and how it impacts on what they are doing, and how their role will help to realize the company strategies.
* Strategic alignment needs to be built around the structure of the organization, by aligning departments to strategies and employee objectives and actions with departmental objectives.
* Strategy must be reflected in the structure of individual job descriptions, particularly in critical areas such as business development, programme management or customer service.
* There must be total workforce buy-in to the strategy.
Various tools have been tried, with varying degrees of success. The most common one is annual performance appraisals with year-end bonuses linked to performance. A goal-oriented diary specifically designed to align employee daily actions with pre-set goals would help to address all the issues mentioned above.
I have recently come across a success diary product that seems to bridge a gap in the market. It addresses all management needs for setting employees goals, communicating strategy and, most importantly, aligning employees actions with the company's strategies and priorities. The planner addresses:
1. Communication - the strategic vision, mission, values and strategies, including a top-level strategic map, can be incorporated into the design. This can serve as a reference manual that employees refer to on daily basis.
2. Total alignment - managers can check with employees what they are working on, how it relates to the overall corporate strategy and where it fits on the strategy map.
3. Employees' own objectives, the corporate objectives as well as personal objectives - typically five can be included with personal measures and targets.
4. The action plans required to achieve personal objectives could be disseminated over the planning period, and possible daily actions can be identified.
5. The diary can serve not only as a reminder but also as a record of personal commitment, and as a tracking device of achievements and lessons learned.
6. A tool for coaching team members - through tracking performance, achievements and challenges, managers can establish challenges, provide recommendations and/or provide required support.
7. The diary can be used as a record during the annual performance review.
8. Furthermore, the diary can be used as a PR gift to customers, suppliers, partners and the public at large, promoting the brand as well as communicating the strategy across the board.
Through the provision of a practical tool such as this planner, managers can ensure that strategy is well-communicated to the workforce, ensure alignment of their actions with the corporate strategy, and track performance on regular basis. Employees will understand what is expected from them, and will have a frame of reference in line with the overall strategy, thus eliminating time wastage and optimizing their performance.
For more information about this performance management product or to purchase The Success Diary visit: http://www.universalsuccess.com or The Success Diary website on http://www.thesuccessdiary.com.
Yahya, S. is a PhD holder from Imperial College, London, UK, with more than 20 years international professional experience at a senior executive level. His main interests are personal development, business management and strategic Planning. He can be contacted on us@universalsuccess.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Yahya_S.
Turning vision into a reality is arguably one of the key challenges facing today's enterprises. To enable transformation, organizations need to develop and execute grand strategies, and make the strategy an integral part of the organization, ensuring strategic alignment at every level of the organization; from the leadership to the employee at the front desk facing the customer.
Aligning everyone in the organization with the corporate strategy is one of the most important and challenging activities the leadership can do beyond formulating and implementing great strategies. Strategic alignment of the workforce enables the management team to move the organization forward in the intended direction. Misalignment with the strategy means chaos, inefficiency and waste of valuable resources, with a conflict between the vision and reality. To avoid this, employees across the organization need to buy into the corporate strategy. Starting with an effective form of communication, managers must ensure that each and every employee develops a keen understanding of how the strategy will affect them.
If, for example, the strategy is 'to compete on the quality of customer service and after-sales support', then helpful, cheerful and courteous employees will be fundamental to encourage target customers to return and possibly make personal recommendations, even if the prices are somewhat higher than local competitors.
There are a number of basic steps that management must take to ensure that employees are aligned with company strategies.
* Strategy must be communicated to the whole workforce to bridge the communication gap, which has been attributed to strategy failure.
* Employees must have the conceptual tools required for good strategic thinking.
* Employees must understand the strategy and how it impacts on what they are doing, and how their role will help to realize the company strategies.
* Strategic alignment needs to be built around the structure of the organization, by aligning departments to strategies and employee objectives and actions with departmental objectives.
* Strategy must be reflected in the structure of individual job descriptions, particularly in critical areas such as business development, programme management or customer service.
* There must be total workforce buy-in to the strategy.
Various tools have been tried, with varying degrees of success. The most common one is annual performance appraisals with year-end bonuses linked to performance. A goal-oriented diary specifically designed to align employee daily actions with pre-set goals would help to address all the issues mentioned above.
I have recently come across a success diary product that seems to bridge a gap in the market. It addresses all management needs for setting employees goals, communicating strategy and, most importantly, aligning employees actions with the company's strategies and priorities. The planner addresses:
1. Communication - the strategic vision, mission, values and strategies, including a top-level strategic map, can be incorporated into the design. This can serve as a reference manual that employees refer to on daily basis.
2. Total alignment - managers can check with employees what they are working on, how it relates to the overall corporate strategy and where it fits on the strategy map.
3. Employees' own objectives, the corporate objectives as well as personal objectives - typically five can be included with personal measures and targets.
4. The action plans required to achieve personal objectives could be disseminated over the planning period, and possible daily actions can be identified.
5. The diary can serve not only as a reminder but also as a record of personal commitment, and as a tracking device of achievements and lessons learned.
6. A tool for coaching team members - through tracking performance, achievements and challenges, managers can establish challenges, provide recommendations and/or provide required support.
7. The diary can be used as a record during the annual performance review.
8. Furthermore, the diary can be used as a PR gift to customers, suppliers, partners and the public at large, promoting the brand as well as communicating the strategy across the board.
Through the provision of a practical tool such as this planner, managers can ensure that strategy is well-communicated to the workforce, ensure alignment of their actions with the corporate strategy, and track performance on regular basis. Employees will understand what is expected from them, and will have a frame of reference in line with the overall strategy, thus eliminating time wastage and optimizing their performance.
For more information about this performance management product or to purchase The Success Diary visit: http://www.universalsuccess.com or The Success Diary website on http://www.thesuccessdiary.com.
Yahya, S. is a PhD holder from Imperial College, London, UK, with more than 20 years international professional experience at a senior executive level. His main interests are personal development, business management and strategic Planning. He can be contacted on us@universalsuccess.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Yahya_S.