‘Your people strategy is the way you communicate it’ – Michael Gerber, E-myth.
Every company, big or small, needs to take the time to set a company strategy: To think about where they are going and ultimately how they are going to get there, both in the short and long term.
For most companies this is usually an annual affair, possibly having brainstorming sessions, producing strategy documents and presenting to colleagues or board members. Sound familiar?
What happens once all this groundwork is done?
In the ideal world we have a business strategy that is alive and well within our business. We hold true to it, execute against it, communicate it to our teams and the market – after all we are excited and motivated by it!
But, how often do we hear about strategy documents that ‘go on the shelf’? That are no longer relevant when they dusted off and evaluated? Too often.
Michael Gerber, author of the E-Myth talks about communication, and the way you communicate, being key to your people strategy. I couldn’t agree more, and also extend this from the people strategy to the overall business strategy. If we keep our strategy to ourselves, or do a poor job of communicating it, it may as well stay on the shelf or even go unwritten. This may sound harsh, but any company is made up of its people, so if we are not all going in the same strategic direction, there is no way we can be as successful as we should be.
Take the time to set your strategy, communicate it (well and often) and execute it with gusto!
And if you’re thinking that you’ve got this sorted already, challenge yourself: ‘How many people within your team can articulate your strategy?’