Friday, October 1, 2010

What's for Breakfast?

We often think of goals and objectives as key. And of course they are vital. As the cliché goes (roughly) “if you do not know where you are going, any road will take you there.” So over the next few weeks we will be talking about objectives and direction a good bit.

But there is an important internal check we must think about, and honestly assess before we begin the crucial, direction setting work that is goals and objectives. And that is about getting our words and actions in line with one another. When our words and actions are reflections of one another, we are in alignment. If they do not match up, we are out of alignment.

A company’s whose culture is in alignment is a powerful thing. And conversely if we are out of alignment, it is very difficult to move forward positively. There is another remark that is almost a cliché that is normally attributed to management guru Peter Drucker:

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

So before we worry about the direction we head, if we do not want to get eaten for breakfast (and who does?) we should take a moment and think the words and actions of our culture.

What areas if we were out of alignment would be the most damaging? What areas do we have the best alignment? Our ability to think about these questions, and then address them together is a crucial job for all of us.

So take a moment, and let’s think about our foundation, which is our culture. What values to we say we have? What values do we act out every day? Where we are out of alignment we are weak and it makes it hard to build. If you ever see any of us acting out of alignment, it is vital – and required – to let us know. We must be each other’s check and balance for keeping our actions and words in line.

But where and when our alignment strong, watch out world, because from there we can build something powerful and strong together. We must also point out to each other when we are getting it right so we can aggressively build on success.

So we, as managers and leaders, must spend a lot of time talking about where we are heading – which is to say our objective. But to make sure that we are not “eaten for breakfast” we should take a moment, and make sure that the foundation we are building from is strong and built from both our actions and words.

Actions and words, in line and in harmony with each other – this will be our breakfast of champions.

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Father, husband, businessman, loves my family, community and country - appreciate what you have - it doesn't have to be this good