The 7 Rules of Alignment

by Ruth D Schwartz

Here is a conversation you can use with people when you hire them, train them, add new tasks, and evaluate them. It builds a vocabulary around communicating all the things that can possibly go wrong; and things go wrong, but we don’t always know or we’re not always able to articulate exactly what went wrong; we know what the symptoms are, but we don’t understand how it went wrong.

This is a list that you can religiously follow to uncover any assumptions and presuppositions to what is stopping people from being good and then take them to being great. This is not about setting the bar. These are the people who are making the bar; you are going to take them from good to great. There are just a few things that may or may not be happening, and you should do this with everybody all the time.

Let’s start the 7 Rules of Alignment:

1. You need a job description. I know this sounds elementary and a little embarrassing, but I work with a lot of small business owners who do not have job descriptions. If you want somebody to be successful, they have to have a job description. A lot of the time, the job description is where the training starts and stops, but that doesn’t make people successful and your job is to make other people successful.

2. People don’t always understand the scope of a task and its boundaries. Think of a sales rep who has to also process orders. Do they process orders and then see the orders through and do collections as well? That might be outside of their boundaries. Or, maybe they’re just doing the sales and never process orders and so they are living under their boundaries. Have a conversation about it. What are the limitations for fulfilling the job? One thing: you don’t come into this conversation with the boundaries defined and finished; you come in with a blank piece of paper and work it out together–even though you might know in the back of your mind exactly what you want the boundaries to be.

3. Measurable results. I used to call this “expectations,” but I learned that employees hate the word “expectations” because 99% of the time they hearyour expectation and they never get to expresstheir expectation. So replaced the word with what we really mean: measurable results. These are tangible things. What are the measurable results?

4. Authority. This is an area that people don’t articulate, but it’s very important. There are four levels of authority. And if you start speaking to them, you will find that a lot of your problems disappear.

Level 1 – Act when directed (or do what I say). We usually think of “do what I say” as delegation. People tell me all the time, “If I could just delegate… ” but what they are really saying is “Do what I say,” and “do what I say” is guaranteed to not to fix your delegation problem. However, there is a time and a place for “do what I say” at this first level of authority (for example, first responders, the military, and businesses with a lot of hierarchy). But mostly what I hear from business owners is that with level 1 authority, employees end up never thinking for themselves.

The next three levels of authority are:

Level 2 – Act after consultation

Level 3 – Act and report

Level 4 – Act autonomously

Have a conversation about appropriate authority (what’s the target, where it is now, what is a comfortable level of authority).

5. Time (deadlines, how often do I repeat this, how long will I do it). Talk about anything that has to do with time.

6. Knowledge, skills, resources and information. Talk about what is necessary. What would make somebody more successful? Allow them to tell you how they want to get more knowledge and skills, what’s their commitment, or what they need to be affective.

7. Information and support. This is the key to creating the dream business model you want. People generally work in the dark. They need information and support but they don’t always feel comfortable to ask for it. You need to create trust and allow them to tell you what information they need. Once you get good at this language and this vocabulary they will.

In order to make employees successful, now that you’ve had this conversation, ask, “How can I support you?” Whatever it is that they ask for or you negotiate, follow through. This is key: nothing will break the trust, responsibility, and performance of a business than a leader who is not trustworthy and responsible.

Remember, this is a conversation. Some people came back to me and say this didn’t work. Usually they haven’t unearthed what is really going on with that employee. Stick to it and keep digging.

This isn’t rocket science. Go and download the worksheet ( http://highperformanceadvocates.com/stop-managing-the-7-questions-that-create-alignment/ ). Whatever you do, follow the list. I promise it will put you on the path to finding freedom in your business for you and for your employees.