Alignment Series #1: How to align people with strategy

Strategies change. At least they should – in order to even just keep up with the change around us.

This series addresses Alignment. How can you align your people with strategy? How do you know when strategy must change? (even when it hasn’t been a year)? How do you re-align people when strategy must change in a way that changes their daily work?

Let’s talk about the first step – aligning people with strategy (when the strategy does not require significant change in roles or the work people do). Continue reading “Alignment Series #1: How to align people with strategy”

Align YOU with what you do.

Feel great & do even better! Who doesn’t want that for themselves? Who wouldn’t want that for others? So of course we foster feeling great at work. whoops! screech. halt. back up. We don’t? Why not? Mostly because what we think we need to do is hard. But they really are NOT what is needed, or wanted. I call these Better Business Management Myths and I’ve listed three for you below: Continue reading “Align YOU with what you do.”

Leadership -Connecting with (your) people to improve results. Step 7: Does cause-and-effect matter?

In this series we are talking about connecting โ€“ connecting to people, connecting people to the business results you want, and getting those results.

Iโ€™ve noted that as you work through this series you are bound to run into questions (Iโ€™ve opened up Ask Lori. for questions to me currently at no cost to you) and bottlenecksโ€ฆ

In this post I address a common question that often becomes a bottleneck, as it seems complex: determining up front the cause and effect relationship between objectives in your Strategy:

Question: Does cause-and-effect matter? When is it critical (figuring it out is slowing us down)? Continue reading “Leadership -Connecting with (your) people to improve results. Step 7: Does cause-and-effect matter?”

Wow! Fitting in, with a value-added mindset


Here’s our “wow” for this week:
This Wow! goes to —, our newest team member for his self-starting attitude and motivation to make a difference in moving us forward.

Why is this “wow!”? To best identify for the employer if the person is the right fit, deliverables are needed. To best identify for the employee if they are in the right fit, they need to take action.

If both the manager and the employee are thinking โ€œhow can I add most value to him/her, while staying aligned with company goalsโ€ then quick wins will follow. It takes both employee and manager to ensure a good fit and nurture the value for the company. Continue reading “Wow! Fitting in, with a value-added mindset”

Leaders nurture and invest

Recently I shared a โ€œPeople Measurementโ€™ and leadership conversation with Carlos Santayana, Owner and Principal at Santayana Group, and a prior Training and Leadership VP at Citi Group. I felt power and wisdom in his words and wanted to share them with you. With his approval I am publishing parts of our conversation below.

The selection and promotion of managers who invest in their teams and nurture excellence is a key transformative strategy.

โ€ข Leadership can create an atmosphere where subordinates are treated as valued partners and encouraged to think deeply and contribute ideas that increase profit, stakeholder well being and long term sustainability. Continue reading “Leaders nurture and invest”

Leadership Connection- Step 6: How People Fit to your Bottom-Line

In this series we are talking about connecting โ€“ 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 youโ€™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 youโ€™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 wonโ€™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, Iโ€™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 meโ€ฆ Continue reading “Leadership Connection- Step 6: How People Fit to your Bottom-Line”

Wow! The power of trust and customer feedback

You may not realize how important real (honest, open) customer feedback can be…

Here’s our “wow” for this week: This Wow! goes to — who as a trusted advisor gets our customers to tell us how they really feel about us, about our products and about any part of the process, even if it is under their full control, which might be a roadblock to complete success. Continue reading “Wow! The power of trust and customer feedback”

Wow! – When an employee steps up

When an employee steps up, something has gone right. Drill down and youโ€™ll find โ€ฆ continuous communication.

Here’s our “wow” for this week: This Wow! goes to —- who has grown remarkably in his ability to compare how he is doing not to others but to to where he wants to be, and to take accountability for getting there. His positive mindset and drive are making him and our company stronger each day. And his continuous communication and accessibility made him the โ€œgo toโ€ person when a challenge appeared. Continue reading “Wow! – When an employee steps up”