Performance Is Everything

4Link People Performance to Strategy

“The real need is to creatively and systematically unfold the strategy, bring it to life by creating integrated action plans across an organization that ensure all functions and divisions are aligned behind it.”

—Farsight Leadership Ltd.

In chapter 2, “Superior Performance Comes From Alignment,” we discussed how superior performance is the result of properly aligning nine variables: organizational (goals, design, and management); process (goals, design, and management); and performer (goals, design, and management). Chapter 3, “Building a Compelling Vision,” dealt with the importance of vision and hiring people who are inspired by, and excited about, the firm’s vision.

In this chapter, we discuss the importance of creating a strategy and then linking performance to the firm’s strategy. We’ll share with you a case study of a hypothetical firm: Hunt & Associates. Then, in the next chapter, we share what successful leaders do to bring all the pieces together and encourage superior performance.

Linking performance to strategy is a critical piece of the puzzle that must be in place if you want superior performance. If you expect to have superior performance (let’s say by outperforming the gross domestic product), strategy is key to that endeavor.

“If people want more growth than the economy as a whole can provide, something has to give,” says Hay Group director of public sector consulting, Peter Smith. “All too often,” Smith elaborates, “there is ...