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Aligning Personal Success and Organizational Success

By Michael Milian

Leaders must lead their people into success. Employees not only promote success for the organization, but also success for themselves. Employees that experience a high degree of personal success coupled with organizational success are motivated and motivate other employees that observe them. Both personal and organizational success must align in order for the organization and the employees to experience the greatest amount of success. A good tool to determine the level of alignment of each employee is a matrix that visually represents the relationship of each employee with personal and organizational success.

Alignment

Personal alignment with the objectives and goals of the organization creates motivation and promotes productivity. Every employee is personally successful and promotes the success of the organization to some degree. The alignment matrix visually represents employee positions in relation to personal success and organizational success.

Alignment Matrix

Every employee aligns to some degree with his or her own success and organizational success. Their position lies within the four quadrants of the matrix. Either they possess high personal success and high organizational success, placing them in the champion quadrant or they possess other combinations of the two variables of personal and organizational success, which places them somewhere else in the matrix. The matrix is a tool for managers and leaders to understand where their employees lie and develop a strategy to move them from whatever quadrant they presently occupy, to the desired quadrant. The most desirable quadrant is the champion quadrant. This quadrant is a win-win quadrant that balances the success of the employee with the success of the organization. Leaders must identify and understand the position of employees and actively lead them into the proper quadrant by exploiting their strengths and training to their areas for improvement.

Personal Success

Personal success is success experienced by employees. Personal success includes raises, moving up in the company, and success experienced in employees' personal lives. Personal success can also include educational opportunities and training opportunities. Personal success is a relative term that indicates how successful a person is, based on the perception of the person and of others. Perception being reality, the perceived success of an employee is a matter of perspective. Personal success is any activity or result that appears as successful to the employee or other employees in the organization. Although relative, the concept of personal success is not that difficult to perceive and identify.

Organizational Success

Organizational success is behavior that promotes the objectives, mission, and goals of the organization. Employee contribution to organizational success is the actions and behavior that employees exhibit resulting in the success of the organization. Employee contribution to organizational success requires more than just a cursory glance. The concept of employee contribution to organizational success requires in-depth analysis and engagement by leaders. Any leader looking for a quick fix and a cursory solution to questions is bound for trouble.

Casualty

Casualties are not the employees that experience personal success, nor do they promote the success of the organization. Casualties are the employees that promote negativity, whether it is intended or unintended. Just by existing in the casualty quadrant, other employees observe their experiences in the organization and wonder if they could be next. Those in the casualty quadrant must first understand why it is that they are not experiencing success and managers must understand why it is that they are not promoting the success of the organization. It may be that the lack of personal success is causing the lack of organizational promotion. The task of the leader or manager is to analyze these issues and determine how to move this person from the casualty quadrant to the champion quadrant.

Martyr

Martyrs are employees that promote the company and sacrifice themselves in the process. It is tempting as managers and leaders to allow this behavior, but it is a fallacy to fall into this trap. The martyr, although good for the organization in the short term, will inevitably cause negativity and reduce morale. The reason for this is the lack of concern for self in organizational matter. Other employees will see the success the organization gains from these employees and then see that they are not experiencing personal success. This observation will lead employees to think that the organization will exhaust the usefulness of an employee and then allow them to fall on their own sword. Managers and leader who allow martyrs to remain in this quadrant are hurting them and the accolades afforded by the martyr are short lived. Leaders and managers must assist martyrs into the champion quadrant. Martyrs are relatively easy to lead into the champion quadrant. They already know the proper behavior in order to promote the success of the organization; leaders must only show them how to promote their own success. Martyrs, when led to the champion box, become some of the strongest champions. They eat, sleep, breathe, and live loyalty to the organization. Leaving a martyr to his or her own demise is the loss of a potential super champion.

Mercenary

Mercenaries enjoy success but do not promote success for the organization. These employees have determined how to become successful without helping the organization. They will typically do whatever it takes to enjoy success no matter how detrimental it is to the organization. They are out for themselves. They know how to be successful. Leaders must identify these traits before they create too much negativity in the organization. When other employees observe a mercenary experiencing so much success without promoting the success of the organization, it creates an environment where only the strong survive. Mercenaries, unchecked will create more mercenaries. Without guidance, mercenaries will destroy the morale and productivity of an organization. Everyone wants to be successful and no employee wants to work in an environment of distrust and backstabbing. Mercenaries are not bad people, unless they are unwilling to move into the champion quadrant. Mercenaries are used to succeeding on their own and are probably the hardest to lead into the champion quadrant. Mercenaries are generally very motivated and possess great ingenuity. The key is to identify these traits and lead them toward alignment with the goals of the organization. Leaders must show the mercenary how to align their personal success with that of the organization. Mercenaries can also be quite useful in showing martyrs how to become successful. Mercenaries can become some of the best motivators and leaders in the organization once guided to the champion box.

Champion

Champions are the employees that balance personal success and organizational success. These are the employees sought after to promote motivation and productivity. They are the champions of the organization. They may not possess the most ingenuity or motivation, but their success and emulation of behavior that creates championship motivates and promotes productivity through the organization. Leaders and managers must ensure champions remain champions and do not fall into one of the other boxes. The role of the leader is to identify champions and help them continue to be champions. Leaders must also train champions to impart their behavior to others. Guiding the champions to further success guarantees success for them and the organization. The champion box is a win-win box and highly coveted.

Balance

It is important to balance the attention, from a leadership aspect, paid to each of the quadrants of employee alignment. It is tempting to allow champions to go about their business and continue to promote success for themselves and the organization. It is also tempting to allow martyrs to continue to promote success for the organization. Both of these temptations are traps of complacency. It is important to attend to the employees in each of the four quadrants. The key is to attend to them as it relates to their position needs to move them to the desired quadrant. It is also tempting to determine that employees in the casualty quadrant are problem employees. This is not always the case. Leaders must analyze employees in this quadrant to determine if there is a way to move them to a desired quadrant or if they are truly just problem employees.

The key is to balance attention to each type of employee and handle them on a case-by-case basis. This requires that leaders actively communicate and interact with employees to determine the best course of action. The alignment matrix is a leadership tool to help leaders identify an approximate alignment for each employee and understand where they need to go.

Alignment is crucial to the success of an organization. Leaders must identify how well employees align with the objectives and goals of the organization while promoting their own success. In order for employees to truly experience success and thereby provide the organization with success, they must align personal success and organizational success. Leaders must guide all of the employees depending upon where they currently fall within the alignment scheme. The leadership involvement must balance concentration, neither neglecting casualties, martyrs, mercenaries, nor champions. There is no easy and cursory solution to leadership situations. Leaders must actively engage the employees to move them into the champion quadrant and solidify success for themselves and the organization. When personal and organizational success aligns, organizations and leaders experience phenomenal success.

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