Recent research from many sources paints a dismal picture of how leaders are doing at helping their employees understand company strategy and how they fit in.
You’ve probably heard the story about two bricklayers. You ask one bricklayer what he’s doing and he says, “I’m building a wall.” You ask another and he says, “I’m building a castle. To drive performance, leaders need more employees who understand not just that they’re building a wall, but that they’re building a castle.
Research shows that helping employees understand strategy matters, yet we’re far away from both the wall and the castle. The stats show the reasons are many and varied, including that leaders struggle with how to do it.
Understanding strategy means business
- Communication from leaders that focuses on explaining the organization’s vision/mission/strategies and how employee’s individual jobs fit into the big picture are key drivers of how employees feel about their leadership and the effectiveness of internal communication overall. Communication Climate Index, The Grossman Group, 2016
- Motivating employees to help achieve your strategic vision increases profitability 22% to 27% over a 6-12 month basis. Chief Executive Group, “4 Ways to Motivate Employees to Help Achieve Your Strategic Vision,” working study of 100s of their client companies, August 2015
- 57% of surveyed Americans stated they would perform better at their jobs if they better understood the company’s direction. Zeno Group, “Barriers to Employee Engagement” Study, 2014
- One-third (33%) of executives were not confident that their employees could accurately communicate the company’s business strategy to others. Zeno Group, “Barriers to Employee Engagement” Study, 2014
To drive engagement, help employees personalize strategy and understand how they fit in.
This “fit” is often called line of sight. Put simply, line of sight means that employees can see the connection between their goals and the organization’s goals.
The benefits are many – to ensure that employee’s best efforts are helping achieve the organization’s goals, as well as to help them know that the work they’re doing matters. Employees want to know they’re contributing to the larger whole, which helps drive engagement.
Creating line of sight
The goal is that employees can articulate how they fit in. Note that this isn’t about thinking they know but being able to talk about the contributions they make.
Sometimes, “talk can be cheap,” but this time “talk” – and the thought process that goes with it – can lead to improved focus and performance.
To get there, employees need to understand how they contribute to the organization’s success. First, they need a fundamental understanding of what’s important to the organization, including:
- The organization’s vision and mission
- Its strategy
- The overall goals of the organization
- Most important, the overall goals of their team
Employees need to know both their wall, and their castle:
- What they do (this is the wall)
- How they contribute (this is their castle)
Make this the topic of your next staff meeting
How do you think your employees would do at answering these questions? Try this exercise at your next staff meeting: tell your employees that you want to ensure everyone is understanding the valuable role that they play in contributing to your organization’s success. After all, your team rocks!
Here are your 6 steps to success:
Challenge your employees to think about what they do and how they contribute in context of your team’s goals, as well as the organization’s overall strategy.
- Tell them why this exercise is important.
- Ask your employees to write down their answers.
- Role model by sharing your answers – lead with your brilliance and inspiration!
- Have everyone share one-at-a-time what they came up with. Promise thunderous applause!
- Provide feedback after everyone’s turn on what works (celebrate!) and what can be better about how a peer articulates how he or she fits in.
Chances are, many employees just see their tasks and not the bigger picture of how they contribute. You also might learn that there’s a need for your team to better understand the organization’s goals and strategy, too. Or, there’s not clarity on your team’s priorities.
No matter what the learnings, you’ve started an important discussion that you can continue regularly, and can form the basis of lots of celebration in the future. And what team can’t use even more celebration?
When do you plan to talk with your employees about how they fit in?
