To drive engagement, help employees personalize strategy and understand how they fit in.
I've written before about research from a myriad of sources that shows that employees overall don’t understand company strategy. Said another way, they don’t get how they fit in. And that’s a missed opportunity.
This “fit” is often called line of sight. Put simply, line of sight means that employees can see the connection between their goals and the organization’s goals.
The benefits are many – to ensure that employee’s best efforts are helping achieve the organization’s goals, as well as to help them know that the work they’re doing matters. Employees want to know they’re making a contribution to the larger whole, which helps drive engagement.
Create Line of Sight to Help Employees Articulate How They Fit in
The goal is that employees can articulate how they fit in. Note that this isn’t about thinking they know, but being able to talk about the contributions they make. Sometimes, “talk can be cheap,” but this time “talk” – and the thought process that goes with it – can lead to improved focus and performance.
To get there, employees need to understand how they contribute to the organization’s success. First, they need a fundamental understanding of what’s important to the organization, including:
- The organization’s vision and mission
- Its strategy
- The overall goals of the organization
- Most important, the overall goals of their team
I often share the story of two brick layers who were hard at work. When asked what they were doing, the first brick layer said: “I’m building a wall.” When the other was asked, he said: “I’m building a castle.”
Employees need to know both their wall, and their castle:
- What they do (this is the wall)
- How they contribute (this is their castle)
As a leader in these unprecedented times, it's harder than ever to stay connected with your team and help them stay engaged, motivated and productive. This free eBook provides 8 key strategies to help you drive performance and get results.Click here to get your copy.
Make This the Topic of Your Next Staff Meeting
How do you think your employees would do at answering these questions? Try this exercise at your next staff meeting: tell your employees that you want to ensure everyone is understanding the valuable role that they play in contributing to your organization’s success. After all, your team rocks!
Here are your 6 steps to success:
- Challenge your employees to think about what they do and how they contribute in context of your team’s goals, as well as the organization’s overall strategy.
- Tell them why this exercise is important.
- Role model by sharing your answers – lead with your brilliance and inspiration!
- Ask your employees to write down their answers.
- Have everyone share one-at-a-time what they came up with. Promise thunderous applause!
- Provide feedback after everyone’s turn on what works (celebrate!) and what can be better about how a peer articulates how he or she fits in.
Chances are, many employees just see their tasks and not the bigger picture of how they contribute. You also might learn that there’s a need for your team to better understand the organization’s goals and strategy, too. Or, there’s not clarity on your team’s priorities.
No matter what the learnings, you’ve started an important discussion that you can continue regularly, and can form the basis of lots of celebration in the future. And what team can’t use even more celebration?
When do you plan to talk with your employees about how they fit in?
—David Grossman
Get 8 key strategies to help you lead and communicate with heart to motivate and engage your employees, drive performance and get results. Download your free copy of the eBook—8 Ways to Lead with Heart in Times of Uncertainty and Change—today.
FAQs
Line of sight starts with you as a leader motivating your employees towards a common goal by giving them a clear understanding of not only what that goal is, but also how their efforts make it a reality. To break it down to its most rudimentary or basic definition, LOS is about effective internal communication.
What is the line of sight for employees? ›
Put simply, line of sight means that employees can see the connection between their goals and the organization's goals. The benefits are many – to ensure that employee's best efforts are helping achieve the organization's goals, as well as to help them know that the work they're doing matters.
What is the line of sight at work? ›
A key component to that success is creating alignment between the organizational goals and operational plans. Line of sight refers to the direct connection between an employee's daily tasks, responsibilities, and performance with the broader objectives of the organization.
What is the line of sight in project management? ›
Understanding Line of Sight Management
It is something that requires leaders in an organization to motivate the workforce towards a common goal by explaining to employees, not just the vision but also the contribution from their efforts. While this appears to be simple to understand, it is not so simple to execute.
What is line of sight in goal management? ›
Line of Sight in Goal Management
Line of Sight is defined as goal visibility up, down and across the organization. Visibility is permissioned by role for each client's goal plan based on the business needs and culture of the company.
How do you create a line of sight for employees and shared values? ›
Line of sight starts with you as a leader motivating your employees towards a common goal by giving them a clear understanding of not only what that goal is, but also how their efforts make it a reality. To break it down to its most rudimentary or basic definition, LOS is about effective internal communication.
What is an example of a line of sight? ›
Imagine a guard atop a watchtower. His high-up position would give him an unobstructed view, or clear lines of sight across a large area. If he lit a signal fire, everyone in the area would have a clear line of sight to see the fire and raise the alarm.
What is the line of sight method? ›
The AMF “line of sight” method is a non-mnemonic, non-score-based method of airway assessment wherein the airway manager examines the airway along the line of sight as it moves over the airway and notes down all the variations from the normal.
How is line of sight determined? ›
It is a rather simple principle: In order to view an object, you must sight along a line at that object; and when you do light will come from that object to your eye along the line of sight. A luminous object emits light in a variety of directions; and an illuminated object reflects light in a variety of directions.
How do you calculate line of sight? ›
To calculate the line of sight, multiply the square root of the height by 3.57.
Line-of-sight propagation is a characteristic of electromagnetic radiation or acoustic wave propagation which means waves can only travel in a direct visual path from the source to the receiver without obstacles. Electromagnetic transmission includes light emissions traveling in a straight line.
What does your line of sight means? ›
Your line of sight is an imaginary line that stretches between your eye and the object that you are looking at. He was trying to keep out of the bird's line of sight.
What is the main line of sight? ›
Basic Perspective: Line of Sight
The line of sight is an imaginary reference line that extends straight forward, perpendicular to the viewers eye. Hold your hand up vertical and bring it to your nose. Slowly move your hand forward as far as you can without dropping it.
What is the line of sight strategy? ›
Put simply, line of sight means that employees can see the connection between their goals and the organization's goals. The benefits are many – to ensure that employee's best efforts are helping achieve the organization's goals, as well as to help them know that the work they're doing matters.
What is meant by line of sight in HR? ›
“Line of sight” is how an employee sees how their individual role fits into the bigger picture—the thread that links people, teams, and organizations.
What does line in sight mean? ›
: within someone's view : where someone can see (something or someone) I sat where I wasn't in his line of sight. also : blocking someone's view. A large pole was directly in my line of sight.
What is considered line of sight? ›
The line of sight, also known as visual axis or sightline (also sight line), is an imaginary line between a viewer/observer/spectator's eye(s) and a subject of interest, or their relative direction.
What is line of site or sight in business? ›
When employees have a clear line of sight, much like the janitor and the seamstress, they understand their company's purpose and how their work contributes to business goals. In turn, employee engagement increases, leading to stronger performance and better organizational outcomes.
What is the line of sight theory? ›
This directing of our sight in a specific direction is sometimes referred to as the line of sight. It is a rather simple principle: In order to view an object, you must sight along a line at that object; and when you do light will come from that object to your eye along the line of sight.
As a leader in these unprecedented times, it's harder than ever to stay connected with your team and help them stay engaged, motivated and productive. This free eBook provides 8 key strategies to help you drive performance and get results.Click here to get your copy.
