In this series we are talking about connecting – connecting to people, connecting people to the business results you want, and getting those results.
If you are just starting this series, you can catch up by reviewing the earlier posts. Find a recap at the end of this post. In this post we’re focused on two points:
1. You must measure what you expect to get, in order to get it.
2. Instead of doing things (those things as you’ve always done them) right, you must be doing the right things right to be successful.
And I provide you with action you can take right now – using information you’ve already gathered in Job Descriptions and Performance Reviews – to improve performance now for your company.
In the last step of this Series you collected important materials, many and maybe all of which you are using to plan what you expect and see if you’ve realized that. Some of you may even have information that clearly shows where you were, and were not aligned, leading from your plan to your reality. Most of you won’t have this clear story connecting expectation to reality. You will soon if you are following these steps.
I listed five (5) groups of materials in Step 5. Since you may have recently completed Performance Reviews for last year, I’m going to start with those. If the Review does not specify the most important duties for a role, please also grab the Job Description associated with each Review. There is a huge opportunity waiting for you in this process, which you can start realizing benefits from right away, so bear with me…
What information is gathered in the Performance Review? Can you clearly see a connection between what people are held accountable for and your Strategy? What about each role – if essential duties are accomplished, does this bring your organization closer to its Strategic goals?
Many things happen within an organization that disconnect people from Strategy and I am touching now on just two, but two very powerful ones.
You must measure what you expect to get, in order to get it.
In the Performance Reviews you are seeing comments, ratings and such. You are likely seeing an attempt to capture an entire year of work in a few sheets of paper (help with Performance Reviews will be coming in another Series). At this point it doesn’t matter if it is automated (in fact, you are wasting your money to automate a process that is not working for you). What matters is if the Performance Review content is performing for you. Is it communicating to you, as a leader, what you need to know about what people are thinking and doing? These Reviews can provide you quick insight. Given what you see, if you continue with the status quo in roles, daily work and management, will the Strategy you just spent days putting together be executed, or not? If you are not sure, I recommend that you create at least a few supplemental “discovery” surveys that will give you the input that you need to know…now.
Instead of doing things (those things as you’ve always done them) right, you must be doing the right things right to be successful. You want everyone taking steps that will execute strategy. You don’t want simply busy work, which I can guarantee you will get if you are not clearly communicating your Strategy and realigning work and people to it every year. There are individuals on your team who know that what they are doing is not adding value. There are also those that have no clue about the connection between what they do and what matters most to you (your Strategy). I recommend that you take a look at the “What” of the work in your company. I still recommend surveys for this. But just starting by looking at Job Descriptions, and especially from the perspective of the Performance Review, will help you.
I care about how you are doing with these Steps and the health of your organization in general. Please feel free to comment. See you in about a week for the next post!
And as promised, here’s the recap of prior posts.
In Step 1 you selected up to three critical strategic themes or objectives.
In Step 2 you mapped these themes to your Strategy so that key objectives can be prioritized and contrasted (it is not uncommon to have conflicting objectives that need to be sorted out).
In Step 3 you prioritized so that you’d be sure that what is most important gets done.
In Step 4 you considered your roadblocks and took action so to clear your path (no goal-oriented person welcomes a stall or interruption, which can kill momentum, accuracy and focus).
And in Step 5 I asked you to gather some critical materials that will help you connect people to Strategy and bottom-line results.