Is Your Company Misaligned?
First, the problem.
This article is the first in a two-part series on alignment.
In my experience, many companies that have problems don’t realize alignment is their core issue.
They get so focused on this challenge or that obstacle that they fail to see the forest for the trees.
So today is all about helping you self-identify: Do you have an alignment problem?
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The overarching challenge of alignment is that when a company is not aligned, everything is harder than it should be. There’s more friction, more delays, more waste.
There’s less focus, less purpose, and, frankly, less fun.
You might be resonating with those feelings on an emotional level. But maybe you need some specifics to help call out lack of alignment.
Here are some of the most common situations I see that should be big red flags for you:
- Employees are disgruntled (sometimes for good reason)
- Management disregards personnel issues
- The business has “zombie problems” that keep coming back to life
- Compensation does not incentivize team members (below market rate, not enough upside, etc.)
- Some team members aren’t pulling their weight; everybody knows it but nobody holds them accountable
- Employees lack clarity on their actual job description; they can’t answer the question, “What should I be doing all day?”
- Managers make excuses for their team members instead of holding them accountable
- Initiatives don’t have clear ownership
- Teams don’t have (or don’t know) common goals
- Metrics set up competition instead of collaboration between departments (think: sales vs marketing)
- Leadership hasn’t provided a shared vision that filters down to every employee
- The company has a strategic plan, but it’s crap and everybody knows it
Anything in there sound familiar?
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How do you find out about alignment challenges?
If you’re running a smaller business, you probably know most of these issues already. In larger companies, you need to do some investigating.
You also need to create a culture where people can come to you when they see problems.
A note here: For every complaint you receive, you need to consider the source. Is this a company problem, or this person’s problem (or is this person the actual problem)?
But don’t dismiss a team member’s issues out of hand—even if they’re one of your more challenging employees to work with. In many cases, the people willing to speak up and tell you the truth are the people who care the most.
And just because you don’t want to hear it doesn’t make it true…
I think it’s fairly obvious, but just to reinforce the point: when your company is out of alignment, it slows down your growth. If you have big growth goals, that’s a big problem.
Stay tuned for part 2 next week, where I’ll share 7 tools to get your company back in alignment.
