Inclusion, Alignment & Accountability

Based on my many discussions with numerous businesses nationally whilst conducting leadership training and consulting sessions, I thought it prudent to share a few thoughts on some key steps.

Too often organisations skip the first two steps of inclusion and alignment, and jump straight to focussing on accountability through various complex KPI frameworks, budget tracking, and other performance management methods/tools. When this occurs, some crucial steps are missed, and those missed items can directly translate to poor results, and at minimum, a lack of sustainability in positive results. Whilst some organisations do this well, I will elaborate on some key deficient themes.

A recurring trend I see with a range of organisations (especially those with a national footprint) is a lack of polarised focus on initial inclusion and alignment within their teams. State and Regional Managers are not actively included in organisational goal-setting (as they should be), or they may have some cursory involvement (traditionally purely on the financial goals), but they are often not part of the driving force in developing the organisational vision and values.

For a business to be truly successful, there should be- unified communication through the structure on the business objectives, complete clarity, and most importantly- team buy-in on the company vision and values. It is an incredibly important piece from a motivational point of view, and further, provides a great opportunity for Regional and State Managers to obtain contribution and buy in from their direct reports. Imagine how powerful it is for a staff member to feel that they are a direct active part of the company strategic plan and objectives for a large scale National firm.

Teams need to feel supported and that they have been listened to. Even if they disagree with the final outcomes, if their opinions have been received, properly reviewed, and valued- they will be more receptive to change and new initiatives. The broader workforce may have a different perspective, and even unique ground level knowledge, of processes or outcomes that Senior Management are not aware of that can completely alter a new initiative that may have been otherwise doomed to fail. Additionally, with the same people constantly making key decisions without multi stakeholder contribution it can lead to ineffective group think.

Once staff members, supervisory, and management teams feel part of the process and feel that they have had some role to play in the development of the performance management framework they will be measured by, the process is much more palatable to them. It does not feel forced, and further, it removes a large portion of future issues stemming from the perspective of "I didn't know". I won't expand on effective goal setting in this article (I definitely will in a future one) but for an organisation to set effective goals, a rounded perspective needs to be obtained from a range of business divisions and levels.

A fundamental piece of success is organisational communication. Once holistic company objectives are set and the vision and values are developed and disseminated, the communication doesn't stop there. Organisations can often develop and share fantastic newsletters and communication pieces with exciting updates to current and potential clients, but there is not the same energy and focus on maintaining internal communications. This is an important facet of team alignment. Your workforce wants to feel they have had some level of activity in the development of the strategic plan to take you on the journey you are on, and then they also are keen to see how it is progressing.

In summary, accountability without inclusion and alignment is a one sided triangle, and is destined to fall over time.