Your Strategy Only Exists If People Understand It
No matter what size organization you’re a part of and no matter the industry, you probably agree that a strategy is important – something that all companies should have. But can you articulate why? And when it comes down to it, are you and your leaders walking the walk by setting a clear strategy that your people know and understand?
What is a Strategy Anyway?
Strategies look different at every company, but a unifying theme is that they are guiding principles that direct decision-making towards desired outcomes. A strategy may be as simple as defining your goals for the year and how you will reach them, or it could be aimed toward a 10-year future.
In the world of Fortune 500 companies, a business strategy is typically the result of months of planning. But for small and medium businesses, we believe the simpler, the better. The purpose of strategy is to point people to what matters, helping employees make decisions that will get everyone closer to their goals, so a single strategy document could suffice.
Get Out of Your Head!
The Predictive Index found that only 46% of small to medium businesses have a formal strategy (2022 State of Talent Optimization Report). However, we’d venture to guess that most business owners and executives already have a personal strategy that they haven’t formalized. This is the set of implicit assumptions and goals that guide their daily actions.
It is essential to clarify and communicate this strategy (get it out of your head!) so everyone is working toward shared objectives and following the same guidelines.
Strategy Can Help Retain Employees
The pervasive sentiment in the workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic has been one of exhaustion, confusion, and anxiety. Frankly, we believe that the Great Resignation is people’s attempt to seek relief from that funk.
As a leader, you can use strategy to help your employees out of the gloom. How? Clarifying your strategy and communicating it to employees can help them see their connection to a purpose and focus on the future. You’d be surprised how re-energized employees feel just from seeing on paper what they want to achieve. It feels that goals are more achievable once they have a name.
Purpose = Essential
As human beings, we need meaning and purpose - the feeling that we matter and that we can make an impact. Unfortunately, that rarely happens at work: in a recent article, McKinsey reports that over 80% of employees declared it as important to have a purpose, but less than 50% report their company’s purpose actually having impact. As a leader, it is your job to give purpose to your employees through a clear strategy that explains your goals and why your customers buy from you.
Back to the Future
A simple strategy will also project employees into the future. While the present may be difficult, the future is full of promise. The future is where dreams get realized and where hope lives. When you make employees realize how they can each contribute to your goals, when you paint them a future that looks better than the present, you give them an extra boost. Employees want to stay because you give them a reason to.
Your Strategy Only Exists If Employees Understand It
Documenting your strategy is the first step; the second (and equally important) step is to make sure that everyone is aware of it and understands it. A strategy only truly exists as a guiding force for your organization if your employees know it well and use it as a reference for decision-making. It is essential that you constantly speak about your strategy to ensure it is woven into the fabric of your organization.
Measure How Well Employees Understand (and Execute) Your Strategy
We use Line-of-Sight to assist business owners and CEOs in documenting their goals and ensuring their employees understand these goals. Line-of-Sight uses rigorous surveys to accurately measure how employees perceive their company’s operations.
One of several critical areas we measure is how well employees have internalized the strategy: do they know what the strategy is? Do they know on which basis the company competes? Do they trust the leadership? When we point out to leaders how much (or how little) their employees truly understand their goals, they have a chance to course-correct and re-explain what they want to achieve.
Sometimes, it is as simple as scheduling townhall meetings with employees to go over the strategy again, and regularly walking the floors to reinforce it by “catching employees in the act of doing it right”.