Will They Support or Sabotage Your Strategy?

Quick Insight

Know the values of your employees and how the strategy fulfills those needs. Company profits aren't as motivational as employees' values, including the desire to serve customers. Your strategy must show how profits are balanced with providing value to customers and employees. The strategy must also be clear. If people don’t understand the plan, they can’t support it or maybe even implement it.

“Often, the ‘best’ solution in the business world may not be the one that generates the most profit but instead the choice that maximizes the chances that the strategy will be accepted and completely implemented.” – Steve W. Williams in Making Better Business Decisions

Will your employees support or sabotage your strategy? A business owner may be heavily incented by profit, but what are the incentives for the employees? Company profits aren't as motivational as employees' values, including the desire to serve customers.

A strategy can be perceived as bad for the customer but good for company profits. If your employees truly care about your customers, they will struggle to support the strategy. Your strategy must show how profits are balanced with providing value to customers and employees.

Perfection is the enemy of the good. Sometimes strategies are so complex that they never get implemented or create confusion for customers or employees. If people don’t understand the plan, they can’t support it or maybe even implement it.

I wish you the employee support to achieve your strategy. I wish you well.

- Rob Stephens

Further Insight

CFO Perspective Resources

  • Download: Customer Dreams Worksheet - In this worksheet, you’ll identify the dreams of your customers and how you fulfill them. You can then clearly communicate the value you provide to customers.
  • Download: One Page Strategic Plan Worksheet - This simple PDF template allows you to quickly define in one page the key items for a strategic plan.
  • Video: How Do You Create Value? - Business success comes from creating value for owners, customers, and employees. In this video, I explain how to discover and increase what each group values. I’ll also reveal the “Three D’s” and “Three P’s” that each group wants. Once you know all this, you can provide more value to customers and employees, which leads to more value for your company.
  • Course: Creating Value - Business Success from Share Value - You get what you value when you provide value to others. Business success comes from creating value for owners, customers, and employees. In this program, you'll identify exactly what each of these three groups value and how to increase that value - and your success.

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