Scott Dysert admits it’s not easy.
It can be frustrating and time-consuming, but in the end, it’s a key to any successful company. The “it” he’s talking about is setting up a plan and establishing goals.
More importantly, communicating the plan and those goals from the top of the organization all the way down to the bottom.
“What we find is there is a lot of benefit to articulating what we’re doing and why to as many people as possible,” he says. “I spend a good deal of my time trying to translate the goals of the company at a high level into something that makes sense to people who are working in plants or working in marketing or sales and so forth.”
The CEO of Chromalox Inc. wants his employees to be able to take those top-level goals and tie them into their department’s specific goals at the manufacturer of industrial heating applications, which posted almost $200 million in 2008 revenue.
“When we set high-level objectives for the company, we work very hard to say, ‘OK, how do these top-level goals and objectives translate in a way that makes sense to sort of the vice-president level of the company,’” he says. “Then, how does that translate in a way that makes sense in terms of projects or activities to sort of different levels in the company.”
That includes finding a way to measure your business with objective and realistic goals that employees can relate to and then involving employees in the process of establishing a plan to reach those goals.
At the same time, you have to give direction and monitor progress, without micromanaging the organization.
“That takes a lot of work and a lot of repetition, but it pays off in the long run, because if you’re able to align the activities and the goals of the people down in the organization to what you are trying to do, your chance of success goes up,” he says.
