The True Cost of Misaligned Priorities and 5 Steps to Align Them

Leaders are responsible for two types of alignment within an organization:

• External alignment, where the focus is on positioning the organization to be in the right place and at the right time for success.
• Internal alignment ensures all the gears of a company are churning in the same direction and keeping the momentum flowing.

If internal alignment is skewed, there will inevitably be friction and turbulence, thus hindering results and leaving your organization in a bad spot.

Internal alignment is essential to the success of all businesses. Get alignment right, and you create a pathway to growth. Get it wrong, and misaligned priorities will stifle organizational growth and success.

How to Spot Misaligned Priorities

When your organization isn’t performing or executing at the level you know it should and can, it’s time to refocus and realign. Catch the symptoms of misaligned priorities, early on:

• Your team isn’t stepping up to the plate; performance is low.
• Lack of innovation and creativity; status quo has stifled growth.
• The same issues are revisited again and again, with little progress.
• No one is on the same page because there is no clear, committed strategy or expectations.
• Time is wasted on small, unimportant decisions because team members don’t know how to work together effectively.

Leadership Teams Must Be On The Same Page

Seek clarity.

Clarity means having a leadership team that is very clear about your desired outcome.

It does not matter if the desired outcome is a capital “V” vision of where you see the company in five years or a new supplies ordering process, you must be clear on what you want the outcome to be and why. 

Shared commitment and clarity is essential to aligning priorities.

Identify strategy and goals.

Where do you want the business to be in three to five years? What is the most important thing you need to accomplish to achieve this?

What strategy or approach will you use to achieve your goal? Answering these questions will create more clarity within the organization and increase the likelihood of achieving your desired outcome.

Establish clear expectations.

Leadership teams must be on the same page regarding expectations, and this starts with having clearly defined and aligned core values.

This is just the first step; once core values are defined the behaviors that exemplify the value must be identified and clearly communicated.

Expectations can then be set around all team members and consistently implemented to reinforce desired behaviors. 

Align your people.

While steps 1-3 are about preparing leadership with the strategy and skills for success, aligning your people will be the make or break point.

Teams united in a common purpose are the foundation of an organization; this is accomplished by communicating and collaborating with your team on company strategy, goals, vision, mission, values, and roles.  

This phase will also encourage team building and stronger interpersonal relationships leading to trust.

Measure performance.

When developing performance metrics, it is important to measure both activity goals (leading indicators) and outcome goals (lagging indicators). By focusing on activity goals, you can spot negative trends more quickly and make adjustments earlier.

Measuring performance needs to occur on a regular (weekly) basis. Leaders must commit to revisiting and measuring performance metrics continuously.

An effective, cohesive leadership team is critical in developing the sustainable competitive edge necessary to consistently realizing results. Leaders must be able to engage, energize and mobilize their teams to take action.

We Can Help

Does your Leadership Team need to get on the same page? We can help.

Together, we’ll design your unique Leadership Team Retreat or Quarterly Offsite that will realign your team’s priorities and get everyone on the same page to achieve real results.

Explore our Leadership Effectiveness Trainings and let’s get started designing yours.

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