If you’re a non-profit or growing organization with a board, you’ve likely got a big group of stakeholders to communicate with. You need to make sure the board leaders, directors, management, and employees are all aligned on the direction of the organization, while keeping volunteers and external stakeholders and shareholders in the loop.
As you grow your business, you are likely to find yourself with some common challenges. After working with hundreds of clients in many different sectors, we’ve found a few things that commonly need to be given more attention. If you’ve been successful so far, and ready for you next level of growth, focusing on these things will very valuable.
As a leader you shape the culture in your organization from your words and your actions. The culture is also shaped by your employees and the environment that everyone creates on a day to day basis.
I was recently at someone's house and saw a great example of how they are using culture to teach their kids. (More on that later..)
At SME Strategy, we explain organizational culture as: "the way we do things around here".
How would you describe the way you do things at your organization?
What are the ways of being and acting that your team exemplifies everyday?
That's your organizational culture.
Image from public domain via Pixabay
A few months ago, I was talking to some friends about the importance of soft skills over hard skills. We discussed whether emotional intelligence, presentation, coordination and negotiation skills trump hard, numerical, quantitative skills. Naturally, if you put together a bunch of college kids that are wildly insecure about their independent inadequacies, a conversation like that is bound to lose its substance and end up a painful ego match.
You and your team have gone through the process of creating a strategic plan, and now you need a communication strategy for how you're going to share the message and the plan with your team.
Communicating your strategic plan and vision just one time is not going to be enough. You need to constantly and consistently engage your team in the direction of the organization, and continuously communicate why and how you (the people and the organization) are wanting to go there.
Lorie Corcuera is co-founder and culture creator at SPARK Creations, an organization that helps other businesses build (or re-build) their cultures around their people. Lori explains that SPARK helps to humanize work by putting the focus on people, to help them understand who they are, and how they can live their most effective life, both in their personal lives and at work.
Image: Public Domain Pixbay
Looking to add to your reading list this fall? We’ve reviewed 10 books on strategy and leadership, and here are our favorites (in no particular order):
