Faith Korode
As a CEO, you put valuable time and effort into mastering your business strategy. It shapes your business structure and operations by providing life to your vision, purpose and values, driving the way you work.
Why is organizational alignment important?
Organizational alignment means that all employees have clarity about their roles and responsibilities, specifically in regard to how they contribute to the company’s success.
Here are the key steps that CEOs can follow to build organizational alignment within their companies:
Step 1: Build the right team
Hiring the right people for the right roles may seem obvious, and yet so many companies get it wrong. Companies often hire people based on experience and skillset alone, but they forget about another incredibly important factor: culture fit.
Should culture fit be the top priority when it comes to hiring? Probably not. But nonetheless, it can’t be disregarded because it has a high impact on organizational performance. Having people on your team who believe in and agree with your company values is critical to moving the organization forward. If an employee’s values are not in line with those of the company, they won’t be motivated to contribute to achieving the mission, and therefore, they are more likely to underperform.
Step 2: Rally the team around a shared purpose
Your purpose must resonate with all other foundational aspects of your business — vision, mission, etc. All team members should know, understand and commit to upholding the company’s purpose. It’s important to consistently remind team members of the “why” behind their daily work to maintain motivation. Attributing each goal to achieving a larger mission helps keep the larger mission in sight, even when narrowing it down to individual tasks.
Step 3: Set and track collaborative goals
With the broader strategy in place, break down the overarching goals by teams. Here you can enlist the help of your management team to break down the goals further into individual roles.
In order to set and track goals properly, you must be on board with establishing a culture of transparency and accountability. Being transparent about individual responsibilities ensures that no two team members are stepping on each other’s toes, and everyone knows who is working on what.
Step 4: Implement good communication habits
We know that communication is often the root cause of workplace failures. It’s essential to not only strengthen the communication skills of your team members but also to establish systems and processes that will streamline effective communication.
Step 5: Encourage teamwork
By having employees work together to achieve goals, you yield better collaboration and faster results. Employees bring diverse perspectives, skills and experiences to the table, which can lead to innovative solutions and improved efficiency.
Step 6 : Focus on employee engagement:
Employee engagement is a key indicator of business performance and alignment. It’s important to consistently show appreciation to your employees and remind them that their contributions are meaningful.
The common theme among all these steps is that they all involve the team. I would argue that in any successful organization, your people are your best asset. Refining, empowering and driving forward employees falls on the shoulders of the CEO. This is why it’s critical to get every step right and ensure you are actively working toward strengthening your team at its core.
An empowered and aligned workforce is a productive one, and as the leader of the team, it starts with you.
