Successful organizations and leaders continually look for ways and areas to improve in order to create a competitive edge. Competing in today's ever- changing, increasingly global marketplace, challenges organizations to make the best use of their resources. To meet this challenge, savvy leaders invest in developing the strategy, people and processes to most effectively meet their goals.

Contrary to popular belief, organizations do not exist to make a profit. Organizations exist to develop loyal customers by providing valuable solutions and positive experiences. Money and profit is the reward for doing this well. The organization expending the least amount of resources to achieve their goals has a distinct advantage. That advantage translates to increased revenues, customer loyalty and profit. What do these successful organizations have in common? Their leaders relentlessly pursue the maximum degree of organizational alignment.

What is Organizational Alignment?
Your car wouldn't get far if all the wheels pointed in different directions! Yet that's how many organizations operate - the wheels (resources including time, employees, activities, etc.) aren't aligned, so the vision is an unattainable destination. Experience shows that the interrelationships between processes and departments are key predictors of overall success. Alignment is when all systems work in concert to create customer value and achieve business results.

Any systems not completely aligned with objectives will have a debilitating impact on results. For example, if Marketing and R&D are both strong, but do not work together, products or services may be developed that no one wants. By the same token, if the strategy calls for employee involvement, but recognition focuses only on individual achievement, any disconnect will have a negative impact on implementation of that strategy.

It makes sense, and is possible, to align every resource directly with your vision and strategic plan to significantly improve results. Organizations that understand and enhance the relationships between their actions and objectives create significant competitive advantage.

Where is Your Organization Out of Alignment?
Is everything in your organization going in the same direction? Are your systems aligned to attract and retain loyal customers? What keeps you from operating at maximum effectiveness? When focus is aligned with desire, you begin to take action toward your goals. Successful leaders create effective systems, organizational discipline, and FOCUS. Consider the following five critical systems. What elements in your organization are working against your strategic intent?

Strategic Planning - Specific goals are not enough. High performing organizations have a systematic process for regular strategic thinking and business planning. They determine where they are going and how to get there. Do you have a plan with clear objectives? How well is it communicated to employees? To what degree, if any, do day-to-day operations mirror your plan?

Structure - The best organizations are structured to make the most of their resources... specifically, their human resources. Leadership insures that roles and responsibilities are clearly defined and customers (internal and external) find it easy to do business with them. Does your organizational structure make it easy or difficult to create loyal customers and get the results you want?

Process - Poor processes derail even the best employees. Effective leaders create streamlined processes for absolutely every function from workflow and purchasing to communications and people development. To what degree do your informal and formal procedures help or hinder your ability to accomplish your objectives?

Rewards & Recognition - Are individual behaviors and results in alignment with your objectives? What do you measure and how often? Do you hold yourself and others accountable for the results necessary to meet your business goals?

People - Actions speak louder than words...How evident is your commitment to your employees? Are communications one-way or two- way? How do you value and develop people, including yourself, to get expected results?

Putting It All Together
Ultimately, results depend on Leadership. Constant radical change, uncertainty, new rules and regulations, and increased customer demands are the norm. How you manage and thrive under these conditions depends a great deal upon how well your organization is aligned to meet your objectives.

Can you, will you, do what's necessary to drive toward alignment? Are you and the leaders in your organization willing and able to ask for help to make it happen?

Ask yourself the following questions...Where are you out of alignment? What gaps in your systems inhibit your effectiveness? Which system, if improved, would have the greatest positive impact on your results? Where can you focus to get the best ROI on your change efforts? In any economy, the winners are those who make the best use of their resources. Alignment is not just theory. When applied strategically, it can mean the difference between merely surviving and thriving.

Reprint permission granted by author Allison Darling. of Management Concepts, Inc.

There's a lot to be said about the "working in the business" as opposed to "working on the business" debate. According to the theory, people spend so much time working "in the business" that they leave themselves almost no time to work "on the business."

As a result, the future of the company suffers. This is especially the case when it comes to assessing your workforce, especially those employees who are close to retirement age. However, failing to conduct such an assessment - and to conduct it on a periodic basis - can have a negative impact on the future growth and prosperity of your company.

Gone forever
If you have employees who have worked for any substantial length of time - think 20 years or more - those employees are valuable in more ways in one.

Not only do they have the skill and experience cultivated by 20 years on the job, they also have extensive knowledge of your company and how it operates. As a result of the extensive knowledge and experience many (if not most) of these employees form the bedrock of your organization.

And if they retire soon, they'll be gone forever . . . and they'll take what they know with them.

So in the interest of making sure that their departure doesn't derail the company, an assessment needs to be conducted. That assessment should include the following action steps:

• Identify all members of the workforce who are conceivably within the age of retirement.
• Decide which ones hold the most value in terms of their knowledge and experience.
• Determine which employees would be the best candidates for 1.) Acting as a mentor for new employees (possibly their own eventual replacement), and/or 2.) Continuing to work for the company as a consultant or contractor upon their retirement.
• Meet individually with these employees and inquire about their plans. (It's important during these discussions to convey to the employees their worth and emphasize the fact that you're not trying to hurry them out the door.)
• Suggest - if you believe the time is appropriate - your plans for making the employee a mentor or eventually offering them work on a contract basis following their retirement. If you don't believe the time is appropriate, make a note to broach the subject at a later date.

It's often difficult to find time to "work on the business" . . . but this is one instance in which doing so will make it much easier to "work in the business" later on.

Copyright protected, Sorrell Associates, LLC all rights reserved worldwide. ©Gary Sorrell - www.NewsletterVille.com

The IRS is among a growing group of government agencies and corporations whose names and Web sites are being copied by imposters seeking your personal information. The IRS does not use e-mail to initiate contact with taxpayers about their accounts. Do not open links in unsolicited messages claiming to come from the IRS.

Not all scams come by way of the Internet or email. The telephone is a low-tech source of scams. Do not give away personal information to callers claiming to be from the IRS unless you have verified the caller's identity. You can confirm an IRS contact by calling 800-829-1040.

Thieves can use stolen data to access your financial accounts, run up charges on credit cards or apply for new loans. With a stolen identity, a con-artist might try to use your Social Security Number to intercept your refund or falsify employment records.

Some con artists earn their living by preparing false, and illegal, tax returns. Dishonest return preparers, promising unreasonably large refunds, can cause many headaches for you. Such preparers attract new clients by promising large refunds while skimming a portion of the inflated refunds and charging high fees for preparation services.

In contrast to shady tax preparers, some con artists openly tell you that you do not have to pay taxes. They make outlandish claims that taxes are not legal, that wages are not income, that a voluntary tax system means you can choose not to file or pay, and that income tax returns violate your protection against self- incrimination or the right to privacy. Such arguments are false and have been repeatedly rejected by the courts. Don't fall victim to these tax scams. For more information visit the IRS Web site at www.IRS.gov.

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
- Winston Churchill

The kind of people I look for to fill top management spots are the eager beavers, the mavericks. These are the ones who try to do more than they're expected to do - they always reach.
- Lee Iacocca

Do more than is required. What is the distance between someone who achieves their goals consistently and those who spend their lives and careers merely following? The extra mile.
- Gary Ryan Blair

CCI's mission "To unleash passion and purpose in people and organizations".

People: learning opportunities that support people working together effectively

Passion: speaking and consulting focused on creating an engaged workforce and passionate culture

Process: facilitating successful meetings which maximize participation, value differences, and get results.

We are a training, facilitation, speaking, and consulting organization.

Our goal is to bring out the very best in the people and organizations we work with. When people are passionate and on fire about their work everyone produces more. Let us show you how!

Collaborative Connections has been an Inscape Distributor for over 16 years. We proudly offer DiSC and other Inscape products and provide fun and engaging training programs which help people work more effectively together. See our website.

When you need online products around the DiSC we can provide high quality, cutting edge elearning options through CRK Interactive.