Direction - Action Issues
Direction assesses the strength of an organization's focus on the following Action Issues:
Action Issues #1
Employees believe that senior leadership manages the organization purposefully.
DESCRIPTION:
Employees look to their managers for clear leadership that is focused on the future and employees need to believe this is a role their company leadership takes seriously. This is especially so in difficult times when markets are turbulent and established ways of doing business are under threat. This action issue measures the ability of a company to be planful and proactive. The higher the score the more confidence employees have. This level of confidence becomes important when change is needed.
Action Issues #2
Senior leadership has set a clear vision, mission, strategy for the organization.
DESCRIPTION:
Most company leaders are clear about the direction in which they are moving the company they lead. This action issue is about the communication of that information. A carefully thought through vision that is not clearly communicated to the workforce will result in a lower score for this question. Again this becomes a critical issue when change is needed.
If an organization doesn’t understand the company’s vision, mission and strategy, the energy of it’s workforce will be focused on less important issues.
Action Issues #3
The vision, mission, strategy have been shared with employees throughout the organization.
DESCRIPTION:
This action issue reinforces the previous item. It is important for leaders to provide a simplified explanation of their plans for a company to the employees responsible for helping carry the plan into effect. This is a measure of communication of a company’s strategy. The challenge for leaders is to ensure the message is simple enough to be understandable and inspiring without being too complex or detailed. A higher score is valuable when changes are being considered.
If an organization needs to make changes, it’s ability to do so effectively is dependant on having developed the systems and skills to effectively translate that intent in detail to the workforce that will be responsible for achieving the results.
This action issues is an indicator of how well the organization has developed the skills and systems needed for success in this area.
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