Growing health and effectiveness

A blog centered around The Addington Method, leadership, culture, organizational clarity, faith issues, teams, Emotional Intelligence, personal growth, dysfunctional and healthy leaders, boards and governance, church boards, organizational and congregational cultures, staff alignment, intentional results and missions.

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

The power of clarity in focusing and retaining good staff


In the busyness of everything we do in any organization, it is easy to lose sight of the real reason we exist and the mission that we have. But no matter what kind of organization you are a part of, clarity about who we are and why we exist becomes a far more important catalyst (if present) or hindrance (if absent) in ways that we might not realize.

Consider three ways that clarity or its lack impacts the organization you are a part of.

Clarity focuses all staff around the central mission of an organization while a lack of clarity produces a scattered focus with a great deal of energy being dissipated in activity that is unfocused and ultimately unproductive to the organization's mission. In fact, one way to help staff focus their efforts and work is to ask them how their work contributes directly to the actual mission of the organization.

Clarity allows for accountability of results, while a lack of clarity makes it difficult to evaluate results. Unproductive staff flourishes in an unclear environment, while productive staff flourishes in a context of organizational clarity. The more clear you are on your mission, the more evident it will be as to who is productive and who is not.

Clarity of mission allows you to attract and retain the best talent. Your best employees want to be a part of something larger than themselves. Larger than the next deal or strategy. They want to contribute something significant through the work they do. A clear and compelling mission that contributes to those we serve is a very strong glue for both loyalty and longevity. If our work matters to God, it must transcend how many people attend (say, a church) or what the profit margin is in a business. It needs to count and matter. But none of that is possible without clarity.

Always remember that "clarity leaks," if it is not constantly focused on. We get busy; people forget; the critical gets lost in the urgent. The most successful organizations are highly focused on what really matters - all the time.




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