Let’s review what we learned last month. The six questions below are in order of importance and have not changed in 25 years!
- Does the leader of the team enjoy working with the team?
- Does the team enjoy working with the leader of their team?
- Are both the leader and the team members aligned on the purpose of the team and the company?
- Are the leader and team members all aligned with the same core values?
- What about giving recognition appropriately and at the right time for the team and the leader?
- How important is money to the team and the leader?
I am guessing you do not believe this order of importance and if you do not, you might just be a member of a team that is not performing well, because the entire team is “not aligned” on some aspect, and most likely you have a leader who has stopped growing and is stagnant creating a “LID” for the team and the organization.
Okay, let’s look at this month’s topic of “Alignment.” What does it mean to have an organization/a team/employees/your business to have alignment? Probably this means many different things to different niche in an industry right? Well, not so fast here. If all the components and moving parts of your business are not all facing, believing, and working toward the same goal then you are not in alignment. If however, you are all working toward the same goal or outcome then you are aligned.
My mentor John Maxwell has a set of laminated cards which are values cards. This is a great exercise in alignment. Each person gets a set of cards and by elimination a person whittles down their pile of cards to just two. When a group of people sit down to do this exercise, it is so interesting to watch as each person works fairly fast to go through the majority of the cards, but then the task becomes harder. People seem to wrestle with what they really value. At the end of the exercise, there is a great opportunity to discuss how each person came to their top two values and who in your group/team/business is aligned in their values.
What about alignment in other areas of your business? What does alignment look like to you, your employees, your customers and so on? A garment company that makes swimsuits to the general public would not target men and women with skippy swimsuits to those in their 80’s. This would be an alignment problem. What about a dog food company that targets dog owners with people’s food? What do you think? Hold on here, yes, this is a group of consumers who is looking for good quality, real people food ingredients to feed to their dog.
An NFL team has just one GOAL….to win the SUPERBOWL! Every member from the front office to field goal kicker, to the equipment manager, ticket seller, and fans all are aligned with the same goal – to win the Superbowl. Then there are “sub-goals” which come into play. These sub-goals revolve around other parts of the business:
- The customer
- Finance
- Employees
- Growth
- Quality
- Community
Each one of these subgoals must have a standard of evaluation. These are:
- Well defined practices
- Clear path for all processes for each area of specialization
- What experience do we want our customers to have with their interaction with our organization?
- Clear expectation for our financial goals.
- Rigorous path of personal and professional growth for employees and management.
- Quality goals that are measurable, specific, and attainable.
- How will we go above and beyond in our community to show what we are FOR?
- With each of the six listed bullets above, define the following: 1) A baseline, 2) What the challenges are, & 3) Going beyond all expectations.
- Employees – the right people, with the right skills, in the right positions.
Each of the standards [if you will] discussed here today, must follow and align with the values and rules which the company/business is founded on, otherwise it will slip into oblivion.
I will reference my mentor again – John Maxwell: John says this: “I put a 10 on every person’s head that works for me and that I meet. Only the person can lower the number!”
If you would like to get in on this Business Goals Program, contact me and let’s talk.
janice@janicebastanicoaching.com
8914 Collina Ct.
Granite Bay, CA 95746
908-229-3797
www.janicebastanicoaching.com
www.johnmaxwellgroup.com/janicebastani
