In a recent PR pitch, I was given statistics that indicated that the average employee in the average workplace has no confidence that his or her senior leadership team knows where they are going. Nor, does the average employee have faith and confidence that the executive team is choosing the right strategic direction.

My reaction? Although there are exceptions, I don't think that most organizations have a lack of strategic direction or that the executive team fails to plan, fails to set a reasonable direction, or fails to pick appropriate products to sell or markets to pursue. What the executive team fails to do is effectively communicate the strategic direction and plans^[1] throughout the organization.

And, they usually skip the why, the rationale for the strategic direction, which is the most important part for employee understanding. Yes, leadership teams stand up at the company meeting and announce their strategic direction and plans. This is not communicating - just telling or announcing. At least, it is not communicating at a level necessary for employees to integrate the strategic direction and plans into their job and activities at work.

Communicate Strategic Direction to Employees Individually

My thoughts about how to communicate strategic direction and plans have been pooh-poohed at more than one strategic planning session. I don't think that managers understand how critically important communicating the strategic direction at the level of an individual's job is to organization-wide understanding of strategic direction.

A manager must sit with each reporting employee and review the goals and strategic direction and work with the employee to answer the question, "What does this mean for my job and my goals?" Individual performance development planning^[2] makes the perfect implementation practice for this level of deep communication.

Done well, I'll bet that these employees have few concerns about their organization's strategic direction. The employees experience alignment with the strategic direction, one of the factors that's been identified as a key differentiator of a high performance organization^[3]. Wouldn't you like to be a high performance organization?

Communicate your strategic direction and plans so that employees hear you and deeply integrate their expected value add^[4].

_{Image Copyright Jacob Wackerhausen}

More About Strategic Direction

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References

1. ^{^} strategic direction and plans (humanresources.about.com)
2. ^{^} performance development planning (humanresources.about.com)
3. ^{^} key differentiator of a high performance organization (humanresources.about.com)
4. ^{^} value add (humanresources.about.com)
5. ^{^} Free Newsletter (humanresources.about.com)
6. ^{^} HR Forum (forums.about.com)
7. ^{^} LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com)
8. ^{^} Facebook (www.facebook.com)
9. ^{^} Google+ (gplus.to)
10. ^{^} @AboutHR on Twitter (www.twitter.com)