--- title: Why Is Gaining Business Alignment So Difficult? description: What is business alignment? Why is it so critical? How can you fix the issue at your company? image: https://www.advantexe.com/hubfs/Blogs/business-alignment-gaining.jpg --- [![logo-advantexe-150.png](https://www.advantexe.com/hs-fs/hubfs/logo-advantexe-150.png?width=150&height=123&name=logo-advantexe-150.png "logo-advantexe-150.png")](https://www.advantexe.com) ![blog-banner-2022](https://www.advantexe.com/hs-fs/hubfs/blog-banner-2022.png?width=973&name=blog-banner-2022.png "blog-banner-2022") ### The Advantexe Advisor Blog - providing a deep and applicable understanding of the system of business. # Why Is Gaining Business Alignment So Difficult? By Robert Brodo | Sep 12, 2017 8:08:19 AM | [![Share on Facebook](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/facebook-24x24.png)](http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Fwhy-is-gaining-business-alignment-so-difficult%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dfacebook) [![Share on LinkedIn](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/linkedin-24x24.png)](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Fwhy-is-gaining-business-alignment-so-difficult%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dlinkedin) [![Share on Twitter](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/twitter-24x24.png)](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Fwhy-is-gaining-business-alignment-so-difficult%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dtwitter&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Fwhy-is-gaining-business-alignment-so-difficult%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dtwitter&source=tweetbutton&text=Why%20Is%20Gaining%20Business%20Alignment%20So%20Difficult%3F) [![Share on Pinterest](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/pinterest-24x24.png)](http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Fwhy-is-gaining-business-alignment-so-difficult%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dpinterest&media=) [![Share on Email](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/email-24x24.png)](mailto:?subject=Check%20out%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Fwhy-is-gaining-business-alignment-so-difficult%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Demail%20&body=Check%20out%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Fwhy-is-gaining-business-alignment-so-difficult%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Demail) Last week I conducted a [Business Leadership workshop](https://www.advantexe.com/business-leadership-development-programs) for a group of high performing leaders at an industry association leadership development conference.  In preparation for our session, we asked participants to fill out a survey of their top leadership challenges for the balance of the year. The #1 identified challenge, with almost 35% of the vote, was “gaining alignment.” As a result, we built ![business-alignment-gaining.jpg](https://www.advantexe.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Blogs/business-alignment-gaining.jpg?width=252&height=240&name=business-alignment-gaining.jpg)the topic into the session for discussion, learning, and application.  This blog shares the ideas and output of the session and provides three practical answers of how to fix it the issue. **What do we mean by “alignment?”** Alignment is ensuring that everyone in your company, in your business, and on your team understands the overall business strategy and the unique value proposition you are offering to your customers and prioritizes their resources, work effort, and tasks together to achieve the execution of the strategy.  It also means your direct reports are pushing business alignment down in the organization and across the organization. If your people are not aligned and supporting the strategy, then unfortunately there are only three reasons why not: 1. You are not doing the best job leading alignment 2. Your people aren’t listening or engaged on the right things 3. A combination of one and two **What you can do to create and lead alignment** **Step One: Make Sure Everyone Knows the Strategy and Value Proposition** According to a recent [Forbes article](https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkotter/2013/07/09/heres-why-ceo-strategies-fall-on-deaf-ears/#794ebfd13663), most business employees don’t understand the strategy of their own business.  I know this sounds simple, but the most important thing you can do as a leader in pursuit of creating alignment is training all employees of the foundations of [business strategy](https://www.advantexe.com/blog/the-biggest-mistake-leaders-make-in-executing-strategy).  As the old saying goes, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”  If you are not constantly training and communicating your strategy and value proposition it is impossible for your employees to prioritize that actions, resources, and tasks.  Send people to training, provide books, encourage them to go to graduate school. **Step Two: Hold People Accountable for Prioritizing their Activities around Sustainable Alignment** Once your people truly understand your strategy, hold them accountable for prioritizing everything they do around creating sustainable alignment.  Check in with them at least once a week and ask them their priorities and then review what they said their priorities were against what they actually accomplished.  If they are doing a great job, reward them; if they aren’t doing a great job then you must have the leadership courage to provide the coaching and feedback needed to get them back on track. **Step Three: Create Metrics that Reward Sustainable Alignment** The most effective way of leading sustained alignment is to identify the right metrics of alignment and then reward people for achievement.  Metrics should include the top 2 achievements that represent the value proposition.  For example: - [Customer Intimacy](https://www.advantexe.com/blog/7-powerful-tips-of-flawless-customer-intimacy-execution) – Customer Satisfaction Scores and Customer Service / Net Promoter Scores - [Operational Excellence](https://www.advantexe.com/blog/defining-and-developing-operational-excellence-in-2016-and-beyond) – Lowest cost structures in peer group and lowest prices in market - [Product Leadership](https://www.advantexe.com/blog/a-product-leadership-go-to-market-marketing-framework) – Number of new products launched and quality of product scores In summary, creating sustainable business alignment is one of the hardest things leaders have to do.  The secret to success is making sure everyone knows your strategy (and how to [execute ](https://www.advantexe.com/blog/strategy-execution-four-critical-things-all-employees-need-to-know)it), are holding people accountable for prioritizing their decisions in support of alignment, and are providing the rewards that recognize sustainable alignment. [![Why Business Acumen Matters ](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/1153922/ef562d5a-acb6-45df-86ae-098c09e7fcc0.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/1153922/ef562d5a-acb6-45df-86ae-098c09e7fcc0) ![Robert Brodo](https://www.advantexe.com/hubfs/Blogs/rob-brodo-author.png) **About The Author** Robert Brodo is co-founder of Advantexe. He has more than 20 years of training and business simulation experience. [**](https://www.advantexe.com) [**](https://twitter.com/robrodo) [**](https://www.linkedin.com/pub/rob-brodo/0/334/574) COMMENTS ### SUBSCRIBE VIA EMAIL ### About Advantexe Advantexe is a gold medal winning training and performance improvement organization specializing in the development and delivery of interactive learning journeys using computer-based business simulations as the catalyst for learning and change in the areas of: Business Acumen, Business Leadership, and Strategic Business Selling learning solutions. 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