As we work with executive teams around the world, it is amazing to see those who get it and those who don’t. What is … it? It is the direct connection between organizational clarity and business performance.
Clarity in purpose.
Clarity in strategy.
Clarity in culture.
Clarity in story.
Employees need it. Customers demand it.
Yet, with that said, we still see many executive teams paying little attention to these dimensions of organizational performance. In fact, more often than not, this is the degree of C-suite involvement we see in each of these areas.
Purpose
Most executive teams invest the time to conduct a “find our purpose” workshop and define a purpose statement. Then they hand the keys to the head of internal communications to handle the rest. Many believe their job is done.
Strategy
This is an area where executives spend a significant amount of time, yet they “spend very little effort formulating a plan to ensure the strategy is infused into the minds of employees across the organization.
Culture
Culture raises its head when things get ugly, like when employee retention or recruitment numbers aren’t looking so good. Otherwise, defining, managing and maintaining culture gets relegated to HR.
Story
This is the message that defines the position the company wants to own, what it does, what makes it different and the value it delivers. This becomes a priority for many executive teams when competitors are threatening their market position. Otherwise, this story changes with the wind and is delivered inconsistently by sales and marketing professionals across the organization.
We are not trying to disparage or be disrespectful to C-suite executives … after all they are our clients. They are our reason for being. We are just being honest.
But the simple fact is clarity translates into improved business performance. It just does.
At the high-performing companies we have worked with, C-suite executives made an intentional decision to apply sustained effort across all four of these dimensions. Not only shaping and defining what they are, but also working to ensure they are infused into the minds of employees and customers. Why? Because that is what it takes to establish and maintain clarity.
In fact, the Institute for Public Relations (IPR) conducted an extensive, global research project to answer the question ‘Does organizational clarity drive organizational success?’ The study discovered there was, in fact, a direct correlation between the degree of clarity across the employee population and the company’s overall performance.
Does your organization need to increase clarity in these areas to improve business performance? If so, pick up a copy of “40+ Ways to Increase Organizational Clarity, Alignment and Performance” at Amazon today.
That’s Your OnMessage Minute.
