The best idea
ever for building a strong team is an idea almost as old as time; Effective
Communication. However, human communication has changed over time from simple
grunting and pointing around a campfire, to electronic messages that zip around
the world at the speed of light.
Imagine you are
the coxswain (leader) of a sport rowing team, and each of your employees is one
of the rowers. If they all start rowing in different directions, or at
different times, there is going to be a lot of energy put forth, but not much
progress towards a single goal. As the leader, you are tasked with making the
necessary decisions that get everyone working within the same rhythm, and
moving in the same direction to win.
Much like the
coxswain, you have a different perspective of the rest of the team. You are the only one
who can see where they are headed, and you need to make the right calls to keep them
moving forward. This requires constant communication of where the team is, where they
are headed, and how you plan to get them there. But unlike the coxswain, your
entire team isn’t always sitting right in front of you within earshot of what
you have to say. This is where the use of the Balanced Scorecard can come into
play.
A great balanced
scorecard is able to share the entire team’s goals, and the portions of those
goals made up by the various groups, or even the contributions of individual
team members. This tool could help give you the competitive edge you need to
outperform your competition, and get a leg up in the ever-expanding global
marketplace. It communicates goals, strategy, and shows team performance so
that managers can make effective decisions and focus their time where it is
needed most (Lawson, et al, 2008).
The best part,
is that the balanced scorecard isn’t just for managers and leaders. It can
communicate this same information to everyone within an organization. Once the
culture and daily business of using a scorecard system is in place, it will be
second nature for employees to check on their team’s results throughout the
day, week, or month to see how they shape up. In doing so, employees become not
just a tool towards solving a problem or completing a goal, they become
managers of their own daily duties, and they are able to stay on track towards
what is expected of them.
The balanced scorecard
has many secondary uses as well. Managers can use it as an evaluation tool for
their team members. With specific goals communicated on a regular basis,
employees will understand how they are being evaluated. It can also be used to
create a cause and effect map of how teams are operating, and can be used to
measure progress and ability over time. By keeping data long-term, you gain the
ability to measure the same areas day over day, month over month, and year over
year in order to map trends in the market. This same information can be used to
calculate relationships between different measures that can help plot potential
future success or failure when certain conditions are met, similar to profitability,
liquidity, and valuation ratios in finance (Lawson, et al, 2008).
Additionally, with
everyone always up to date on target goals and the progress towards them, teams
are able to collaborate on results and support each other more effectively.
This means stronger synergy between departments that are able to change how
they work, or pitch in when other teams are struggling to meet their goals (Lawson, et al, 2008).
In the end,
everyone needs to be working towards the same point on the horizon, and with
strong leadership offering open channels of communication to guide them, they
are able to work more effectively as individuals, and more importantly, as a
team.
References
Lawson, R., Hatch,
T., & Desroches, D.. (2008). Scorecard best practices: design,
implementation, and evaluation. [Books24x7 version] Available from http://common.books24x7.com/toc.aspx?bookid=23364.
