Is your business structure working against your strategy or supporting it?
Let me explain. If you think of your strategy as the plan to achieve your goals, the structure is the framework that supports it. Trying to fit a round strategy into a square structure just won’t work. In fact, it works against your strategy, undermining your leadership and moving you farther away from your goals.
Take hiring talent, as an example. You want to hire the very best and brightest to move your business to the next level, a smart strategy. However, business owners think they need to do whatever it takes to compete for the top talent, often promising new hires too much, the wrong structure.
The problem is that the business itself lacks the leadership structure to maximize newly hired talent. Because you gave them too much to begin with, you end up with a revolving door of entitled people who have nothing to lose by moving on because they were given everything instead of having to earn it.
This is where your human resource structure can support your talent attraction strategy. By designing a human resource program that allows them to earn their way into elusive executive club, their motivation is aligned with your corporate strategy, not with their own self-interest.
Learn how to design a structure that supports your strategy by reading the full article on my blog.
How to Design a Structure that Supports Your Strategy:
- Look at your current structure – Does it look lasting and capable of growing or is it patched together and ready to fail? Going back to our HR example. Imagine your new talent walking through the door and seeing your business for the first time.
- Begin with the end in mind – Where do you see your business growing? Picture where you want your business to be in 3 years and draw an org chart that supports that vision, even if today you have to leave a lot of the roles blank.
- Model a successful structure – Who do you admire in business? How do they structure their business? Learn from their success and model their business structure, adapted to fit your own business.
- Imagine your business without you – What would happen to your business if you had to leave it temporarily for health or family reasons? Could it survive without you present? Too often businesses rely on the owners to fill all the key roles.
- Align with your personal goals – Are you building a business or running a charity? Don’t neglect your own personal goals in the design of your business structure (and that means not sacrificing your own paycheck to hire talent).
Want to work with a coach who can help you align your strategy and structure? Contact me to set up your free consultation!
