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Health & Fitness

Transform Your Business Through Workforce Alignment

Despite knowing the importance of workforce alignment, are you struggling to connect to your team? Is there a gap in communication between owners, managers and staff?

As a leader of your company, you know the importance of a tightly aligned workforce. This includes communicating short-term and long-term goals to your entire staff, establishing expectations, motivating team members, and other important leadership tactics. Despite knowing the importance of workforce alignment, are you struggling to connect to your team? Is there a gap in communication between owners, managers and staff?  Do you struggle to motivate individuals?  A renewed approach to workforce alignment can solve these problems and make a profound impact on your business.

In order to bridge the communication gap in your organization, start by removing communication barriers to facilitate open discourse and collaboration. This theory must be applied to every member of your organization, including the top management and leadership. As a leader, make sure every team member feels comfortable approaching you.  If someone on your team doesn’t stop by at least once during the day with a casual need, you need to make a conscious effort to advertise your availability. Our office at Vision Computer Solutions is specifically designed to allow for open communication. We purposefully have no cubicles and I’ve often considered removing the few doors we have from the hinges. Present your team’s communication problems to the group and conduct a brainstorming session to generate new ideas. Involve the team in the implementation of their suggested changes. Old business considers the water cooler the place where collaboration happens. Instead, find a culturally relevant way to make the entire office the water cooler!

When it comes to motivating the team to succeed, start by building a strong foundational understanding of how your company works. Many team motivation issues are merely a lack of leadership and clear, consistent communication of the greater corporate mission. Confirm each team member knows exactly how every aspect of the business interacts and depends on one another to succeed. Invest real and significant corporate resources into your cultural training plan. Every team member knowing how each division and job function contributes to the overall success of the company can help emotionally elevate the importance of seemingly menial tasks. Request that each team member communicate to you, in writing, how each of these divisions interact in their own words. I ask this semi-annually via a cultural questionnaire that helps me identify areas that need retraining. This accountability can motivate the entire team to put forth their best efforts for the betterment of the organization. For more tips on how to motivate teams, see my previous posts about incentive programs.

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Finally, acknowledge and reward positive behaviors. This does not have to be a lavish, expensive or time-consuming affair. Even a simple ‘thank you’ can go a long way towards making your team feel appreciated and valued. As leaders, we tend to overstate how often we praise our staff. Instead, create a personal accountability system and force leaders to hold themselves accountable to issue praise on a regular, measurable schedule. 

For more insights on workforce alignment, I suggest reading, “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits.” We have successfully integrated some of these philosophies in our Michigan computer consulting company and highly recommend it to others.

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