LSA Global Insights Newsletter: July 2018

July 29, 2018

7 Immediate Management Actions to Create Team Alignment


Your employees may have their oars in the water, but do they know what direction the boat is headed?

And if so, do they understand how their oars can best move the team toward its goal? 

Successful managers know that team alignment is critical. Our organizational alignment research found that strategic clarity accounts for 31% of the difference between high and low performing teams. And our annual Best Places to Work engagement research confirms that three "Alignment with Goals" questions matter most for managerial effectiveness. 

3 Questions Matter Most
In terms of goal alignment, the most effective managers have employees that rate the following three questions higher than their lower performing peers: 
  • "I understand the company's plans for future success." 
  • "I know how I fit into the company's future plans." 
  • "I understand how my job helps the organization achieve success."   
As you can imagine, getting consistently high scores on these questions is not always easy. But it is worth it. Employees, who rate these questions higher, perform better in terms of four key managerial effectiveness metrics.

4 Important Management Metrics

Employee Relations
 
Bad managers exacerbate employee relations problems while effective managers decrease issues, claims and lawsuits. This is not a trivial matter. The number of claims by employees increased by 2000% from 1969 to 1994 and increased by 70% between 1992 and 2003.

Employee Performance
Bad managers negatively impact financial health. Companies with higher performing managers realize a 48% increase in profitability and a 20% gain in performance.

Employee Engagement and Retention
Bad managers negatively impact employee engagement and retention. Companies with higher performing managers realize a 30% increase in employee engagement scores and a 19% decrease in turnover. 

Customer Engagement
Bad customer-facing managers negatively impact customer engagement. Companies with higher performing managers realize a 17% increase in customer engagement scores. 

7 Management Actions to Increase Alignment
We have identified seven concrete actions your managers can take to improve alignment with goals to improve performance, engagement and retention.

Voice of the Customer

"LSA's ability to get a group of 20+ executives from around the globe on the same page, push their thinking to new heights, and ensure an executable plan was excellent. I would recommend LSA to anyone looking to take their leaders and execution to the next level."
Rob Sturgeon | Executive Vice President | ServiceSource

About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned


The Key to Unlocking Better Managers


Effective managers create organizational alignment by ensuring strategic clarity, building high performance cultures and differentiating top talent.
  • At a strategic level, good managers set the right course by creating clear goals, roles, success metrics and career paths. 
  • At a cultural level, good managers commit to making it a great place to work and value people as their most important resource while ensuring that their direct reports are held accountable and recognized for their contributions. 
  • At a talent level, good managers consistently attract, develop, engage and retain top talent that fits.
 

About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned