Connecting vision and strategy to your culture and team: A deliberate and purposeful approach to building a successful company
Some businesses achieve success based on sheer hard work and determination of the entrepreneur and his or her team. However as the business grows, or as the economy or environment changes, new issues are encountered that can potentially derail the business from continued success. The vision and strategy, the picture and map of where the business is going, and the culture and team, the catalysts for executing how the business will get there, start to become unbalanced and disconnected. What we have found over the years of working with numerous entrepreneurs and their businesses is that a deliberate and purposeful approach of connecting these pieces creates potential to achieve high levels of success.
Vision – The big picture goal; what it looks like when the business achieves its purpose.
Strategy – What steps need to be taken, and how they are executed, for the business to reach that end goal.
Culture – The lifeblood of the business. Why the team gets up and goes to work each day.
Team – Having the right people in the positions to execute the strategy and live the culture.
These elements are constantly working for and against each other in every business. When you have a strong vision and planned strategy to reach that vision, coupled with an engaged team that builds on your culture, the four work in unison to propel a business forward. But when the team doesn’t align with the culture, or the strategy to reach the vision, a business can begin to weaken.
Often it is in periods of growth that challenges begin. This is due to the introduction of new processes and people to the business that were not there from inception. In the beginning, entrepreneurs tend to surround themselves and their businesses with people they know and trust – people who share their values. As the business grows, they bring in new team members who meet a technical need but might not fit the culture or understand the vision the business was initially built on. It is at this stage of the business cycle that the entrepreneur needs to create a deliberate and purposeful approach to ensure the culture, team, vision, and strategy is properly communicated and aligned.
Consider these questions:
What is your business’s purpose, your cause, your belief? How do you articulate this consistently to your team and your market?
What are your core values? Can your team name them when asked? How do they live these core values in their actions every day?
Does your team know the business’s vision and has it been clearly articulated, or is it still in your head?
Does your business have a 10-year goal, five-year goals, or even one-year goals? Do you find it hard to execute or get started on some of the goals due to the need to simply get your daily work done?
If you would like to learn more about the importance of connecting these pieces and some of the tools that are available to help you do so, you might be interested in our next Education Forum. On June 1st, we will host a presentation entitled “From the head to the heart of a business: connecting vision and strategy to culture and team,” which will be followed by collaborative break-out sessions and key takeaways to implement in your business. We will take you back to the beginning, start from the bottom and guide you on building a plan to connect these four key components of your business.