The culture of yesteryear was to keep a business’ management team and the rest of the operation’s employees separate.
Important information, like communicating company performance and future objectives, were often kept hidden in boardrooms and not shared with the greater worker base.
But things have quickly changed, with business leaders feeling more and more comfortable in sharing their goals and visions, largely because they now see the value in full business alignment.
“Sharing your business objectives with your team is a crucial aspect of success,” explains Rogan Jansen, co-founder and creative director at the Cape Town based design studio DashDigital.
“Whether you’re running a multinational brand or a small design studio like me, its paramount that your team knows what you as a business are working towards because ultimately, this will help them better understand their role in contributing to this success.”
Team motivation
Understanding their place in the bigger picture, is also highly motivating for employees.
There is great power in uniting your team behind a shared vision.
This level of empowerment helps employees feel more invested in their work which in turn leads to increased job satisfaction and engagement. And as we all know, driven, connected and collaborative employees are the best recipe for boosting productivity and achieving those all-important business goals.
“Motivation by instilling a sense of unity is a powerful tool and we do this at DashDigital by aligning with a set of values that we hold each other to. Things like do what you say you’re going to do, prioritise differing opinions and find new ways to learn and grow are just a few of the values we align with,” says Jansen.
“But this can quickly fall flat if you don’t trust your team with your vision and give them the correct tools to make it happen. We see collaboration and ownership as the cornerstones to our thriving team culture. And this is something we work on consistently. Great unified teams aren’t created overnight, nor do they stay unified forever, without everyone involved putting in the work.”
Clarity of purpose
Just like great teams aren’t built in weeks, full business alignment doesn’t happen with the click of a finger either. When it comes to communicating your goals with your employees, it needs to begin when they enter the business and continue throughout their stay on your team.
“Clarity on business goals and objectives isn’t something that should be said once like a tick box exercise,” says Jansen. “Communication of this kind should be built into your company culture, so that team members can use these goals to help guide them when making big or hard decisions, particularly in times of uncertainty and ambiguity.
In my own experience, I’ve seen how clarity of purpose improves a team member’s ability to execute, their ability to bravely change direction and truly learn to love what they do.”
Dangers of misalignment
As with anything in life, no business, no strategy and no team is perfect. So, it isn’t uncommon for misalignment to happen. Whether this is as a result of a misunderstanding of business objectives, goals that shift too quickly or don’t make sense or if it’s as a result of an employee simply checking out, misalignment can create a variety of issues for a business.
“Particularly in a small business like mine, misalignment can make a noticeable negative impact,” says Jansen. From disruption in projects to lack of accountability, low morale and a negative impact on performance, not being on the same page as a team can be disastrous.”
Misalignment is something that a business should seek to nip in the bud as soon as humanly possible. And Jansen recommends a refresh and reanalysis of the business’ shared vision, working to ensure that the common purpose is strong, that your culture is indeed collaborative and that everyone on the team feels involved in setting and reviewing goals.
“But its not enough to just focus on goals, its important for businesses to explain and review their expectations of their teams together with their team members. And even more importantly, its critical that the business creates a provision for regular and constructive feedback and if someone isn’t feeling connected, they know they have the opportunity to be coached or mentored and most importantly supported,” concludes Jansen.
BUSINESS REPORT