An organisation’s vision is a futuristic view of what it wants to become over a certain period of time. It is not just a document or a novel that hefty nobody that one wants but does not like to read.
It is, in fact, a simple statement that describes its wishful thinking on – what an organisation wants to be seen as in the future!
Once formulated, aligning your employees to the organizational vision will help you achieve all your short and long-term objectives & goals.
But in reality, the situation isn’t as sweet and ideal. Many companies, despite the best of their efforts, drift away from their vision. It is because the world out there is VUCA – volatile, uncertain, complex & ambiguous. Also, companies don’t invest enough time and thought in developing and encouraging their employees to keep them aligned with the company’s vision.
As a reader of this article, it seems you’ve already understood the significance of fine-tuning your employees and looking forward to implementing a systematic process to do so. Great! So, here you go.
How to align your Employees with the Company’s Vision?
Vision is no longer only a top management’s key result area. Developing a vision requires leadership commitment, support and input from employees. In order to leverage the employees’ support, the leaders of the organisation need to be mindful and aware of their concerns.
Peter Senge, Author of the Sixth discipline says, “People don’t resist change, they resist being changed”. The employees in an organisation resist because they don’t understand the impact of change in their lives. Every employee wants to know how the new way working would be, what would be is a role, how would they support their families and so on. If leaders are determined about bringing change, they must propagate trust, transparency and promises must be kept. Only lip service will not do!
Here’s a four-step process that will align your employees with your vision.
1. Develop the Mission statement
A precursor to vision is the mission statement which is the purpose of being in the business. So, first, develop the company’s mission statement that engaging enough to bind your employees together, and encouraging enough for them to work towards it as a team.
2. Differentiate Vision from Mission
Is there any difference between vision and mission? Yes, there is! A mission talks about a short or mid-term goal, or what the company is currently doing. A vision, on the other hand, is the long term and big-hairy-audacious goal (BHAG in strategy) that talks about the difference that the company’s presence will make to the society, or the world, in entirety.
So, to create a nice, comprehensive, yet focused vision statement which resonates, involve your employees, seek their input, and align them by engaging the achieving it on a daily basis.
3. Create and communicate your Core Values
As the business owner, it is the core values that support the vision and form the company culture. The beliefs or philosophy – they are the essence of a company's identity which help in the decision-making processes. For instance, if you believe in absolute transparency with everything you do, you would want your employees as well to follow it while dealing with the company’s customers. The value statement of your business proves a behavioural guideline for your employees while working towards achieving the company’s mission, and vision.
4. Align your People with the Company’s Mission
Your mission leads you to your vision. You don’t want to create disunity among your employees while working for your company, do you? So, align your employees with the company’s mission. Invest time in it in the form of regular team meetings, team building sessions, developmental training, motivational training sessions, refresher training, Q&A sessions, and appreciations for appropriate conduct.
Best Practices to Align Employees to the Organisational Vision
It is quite difficult to motivate, and or align a disengaged employee to the organisational vision. Hence, it all begins from hiring, not only the right professionals but characters that match the company’s thought process. Here are some of the best practices that will help the entire unit work in unison. You may add a lot more to the below in your context to achieve your goals.
- Invest in the hiring process. Set up extensive behavioural tests to identify the right match.
- Organise orientation programmes in the beginning to clarify the company’s expectations
- Clarify what the company wants to achieve in the short, and the long run.
- Set a behavioural code of conduct that matches your company’s values.
- Keep communicating the company’s vision and mission on a continual basis.
- Focus on appreciation, more than short-sighted monetary incentives.
Advantages of Aligning your Employees to the Organisational Vision
The most common benefits of aligning your employees to the company’s vision include the following.
- Everyone works with a common objective
- The company doesn’t delay the accomplishment of objectives
- Delightful, and consistent customer experience across the organisation
- Employees stay motivated at all times
- The company doesn’t deviate from the original plan
Conclusion
At Vedzen, we work as your lean consultants and success partners that help you envision the future to create a shared vision, and enable you to stay on track through customized strategic lean programs.
Comments / 0