8 Selling the Vision
If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you…
Advice Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum gave to Alice in Through the Looking
Glass by Lewis Carroll
Learning Outcomes
With today’s rapidly changing influences on organisations, why should anyone follow
another if they have little idea of where they are going? This companion webpage
supports the chapter that looks at how to sell the vision of the future for the
organisation, attract people to a values driven business, harnessing the passion in
individuals for doing meaningful work in the context of motivating them. It has been
written to cover particular elements of the National Occupational Standards for
Management and Leadership (Providing Direction – Units 6, 8, 9, and 11) and it
covers many of the requirements of the Chartered Management Institute’s Diploma in
Management compulsory Unit C43 – Planning to meet Customer Requirements (in
respect of stakeholders) and also to ‘meet stakeholder requirements’ of the optional
Unit O44 Managing Marketing Activities.
The ‘Centre for Leadership Studies–Europe’ Model
CLS-Europe developed a model to assist managers in defining the necessary facets of
the ‘complete leader’. It can be considered a ‘steering wheel’ that managers need to
hold to drive the organisation forward. This is shown in Figure 8.1 and has three main
‘spokes’.
Motivation, Ability & Confidence Building in People
©
A R Mackay (2007)
Figure 8.1 The Centre for Leadership Studies ‘Complete Leader’ Model.
Measuring the value of the workforce
The value of the workforce is potentially the greatest differentiating source of
strategic advantage, the biggest component of most future investment and the
organisation’s greatest potential asset. It needs to be measured for three key reasons:

Demonstrate the value of the workforce in achieving strategic business success.

To manage the workforce and other related investments.
Motivation, Ability & Confidence Building in People
©
A R Mackay (2007)

Corporate governance and information provision following recommendations
from the Department of Trade and Industry for the Operating and Financial
Review (OFR) sections of annual reports, effective from April 20051.
The following are suggested as the key principles for measuring workforce value:
Measure what makes a difference. The CMI research found that managers’ views
on which factors have the greatest impact on organisational performance are often
different from the limited measures actually done. ‘Employee attitudes’ were
considered to have the biggest impact followed by training and productivity, yet few
were actually measuring these things. While employee costs are measured, it will
have a limited impact on performance – pay is only a basic factor in motivation and
performance at work. If improved organisational performance is about, say, getting
clients back in through the door, measure which front line team gives clients the most
desire to do just that.
Integrate measures and actions into the business processes. Ideally, appropriate
measures should flow automatically from relevant business processes or technology.
Outsourcing organisations can provide relevant information in order to demonstrate
the achievement of Key Performance Indicators (KPI). The author’s organisation has
been able to provide such objectivity for a range of businesses. In a professional
service firm, it is not enough to calculate fees billed per individual – which employee
has the most positive effect on enhancing the firm’s reputation?
Identify clear links between measures and strategy. In its simplest terms, any
organisation is a collection of people working towards a common goal. The strategic
goals can only be achieved if the organisation has the right people in place with the
right motivation, ability, and confidence to perform. Therefore, the human resource
functions need to be planned and managed in order for this to happen; workforce
measures should reflect progress towards achievement of that plan.
Align measures to specific business activity. This is easy if one has a modest
organisation working in one sector or market. However, in multi-divisional or multicountry organisations, while one overall approach might offer a top-to-bottom
balanced scorecard of measures, there is a need to ensure measures add value to that
particular setting.
Ensure measures remain dynamic. In highly turbulent markets, the measures need
to keep pace with the changing dynamics of the situation evaluating the different
activities that add value to the bottom line. While reducing employee turnover may be
important at one stage of an organisation’s growth, it will be important to revisit the
measure to ensure that it is still a key value driver.
Keep the measures simple to clarify. What is being measured and what managers
think needs measuring is vastly different. In the CMI study, cost and headcount of the
workforce was measured by around 90 per cent of respondents, yet less than half
measured employee productivity and only around 40 per cent measured fair pay.
Simple, relatively easy to collect measures often provide better management
information and drive action more effectively than more complex but less
understandable measures. Moreover, measures are there to be used, not simply
collected – there should be no measures without analysis and no analysis without
action.
Motivation, Ability & Confidence Building in People
©
A R Mackay (2007)
Measure value to the business – not just legal compliance. While legal compliance
is essential, the emphasis should be on the value of the measures to help manage the
organisation more effectively. If management information is collected that helps
monitor and manage the organisation more effectively, then compliance tends to
follow. Key performance indicators offer value to management decision-making –
measures purely for compliance add little.
Among the areas for evaluation that add value would include the following:
 Communication skills
 Service / client awareness
 Team work
 Management skills – coaching / leadership
 Creativity / innovation
 Marketing effectiveness
 Drive / self motivation
 Work ethic – how hard and how smart
 Planning and organising
 Business maintenance and development
8.1.1.1
The balanced scorecard
Broad objectives need to be refined into definite goals with specific measures of
attainment if they are going to provide clear incentives for performance. In the past,
these measures have been too focused on financial results. Today, management needs
a broader perspective that incorporates the interests of the various stakeholders and
requirements for achieving long-term competitiveness.
For most businesses, the diverse objectives can be incorporated into four perspectives:

Financial perspective – meeting the objectives of shareholders.

Customer perspective – meeting customer needs in highly competitive markets.

Operational perspective – achieving the key levers that drive performance
excellence.

Internal perspective – meeting the expectations and building up the capabilities
of employees whose skills determine the company’s future.
The specific goals will depend upon the nature of the organisation: its industry,
manufacturing configuration, service parameters, offering best value, type of
customers and the market dynamics. The balanced scorecard has the advantage of
avoiding overloading managers with information but giving them the multiple
perspectives essential for the strategic development of the organisation.
Below are some suggested measures that managers might employ to evaluate their
organisation’s performance against the four key perspectives.
Motivation, Ability & Confidence Building in People
©
A R Mackay (2007)
Financial perspective – meeting the objectives of shareholders.
Goals
Survive
Succeed
Prosper
Recognition
Measures
cash flow
quarterly profits
return on shareholder funds
share price
Customer perspective – meeting the needs of customers in highly competitive
markets.
Goals
Satisfaction
Responsiveness
Loyalty
Market Share
Measures
customer surveys
on-time deliveries
repurchases
audit of share growth
Operational perspective – achieving on the key levers which drive performance
excellence.
Goals
Technological
Manufacturing excellence
Time-to-market
Quality
Measures
competitive benchmarking
productivity
benchmarking
customer returns, waste
Internal perspective – meeting the expectations and building up the capabilities of
employees whose skills determine the company’s future.
Goals
Employees
Internal Growth
Innovation
Personnel development
Measures
attitude surveys
career progression, sales growth
number of new products
employee effectiveness
Summary
In this chapter you have:

Seen the three equivalent spokes you need on your wheel to drive the business
forward – vision, measures, and culture.

Explored your role and responsibilities in relation to the mission, aims, and
objectives of your organisation.

Seen the fundamental importance of setting a clear vision for your organisation.

Explored measurements of your business from the value of the workforce to the
balanced scorecard.

Been introduced to the concept of the ‘psychological contract’.

Seen how to enact the manager’s role in managing the culture of the organisation.
Motivation, Ability & Confidence Building in People
©
A R Mackay (2007)

Been introduced to how to develop a values-driven strategy for the business.
Questions
1.
Explore the questions raised in the CLS-Europe complete leader model, Sections
12.1.1, 2, & 3 – how does your organisation, or one that you are familiar with,
fare?
2.
List some of the expectations that an employee may have of their employer and
that the employer may have of the employee.
3.
What might an organisation do when selecting new staff and when the new
recruits join the organisation to assist with developing a two way understanding
of the psychological contract?
4.
Evaluate the balanced score card – how well does your organisation, or one that
you are familiar with, match up to having balanced measures of performance?
Further Reading
In addition to the referenced works:
Antonakis, John. Canciolo, Anna, T. and Sternberg, Robert, J. The Nature of
Leadership Sage Publications (2004)
1
Accounting for People: http://www.accountngforpeople.gov.uk/,
OFR: http://www.dti.gov.uk/cld/financialreview.htm
Motivation, Ability & Confidence Building in People
©
A R Mackay (2007)