The weakest link

Our meeting ended with an agreement to a follow-up strategic planning session at her office. One of her primary concerns revolved around the fact that she could not understand why her business trajectory was not providing the necessary results as projected – even though she invested heavily in the proposals offered by various strategists.

I arrived at her office, on the designated date for the follow-up, and at the specified time allotted, and was greeted by the unfriendliest and unprofessional looking security officer, whose primary responsibility was to manage the access into the building. This was the first face of the organisation.

After the security officer grunted and allowed access into the building, I was then met with an equally hostile and ill-tempered reception officer whose grunts matched those of the security officer.

The receptionist, who found it increasingly difficult to part ways with her half-eaten sandwich, found it necessary to speak with her mouth half filled, whilst begrudgingly advising me that she didn’t have any information about any meeting, and that “She was not able with no stress this hour of the day”. This was the second face of the organisation.

By this time, I needed to proceed no further in accurately diagnosing part of the root cause of her corporate issues. This chief executive, like many other persons who are genuinely passionate about their organisations, understood the importance of training and development for the movement of her organisation; however, that training and development stopped at the level of management.

The development thread did not reach the very faces of the organisation that more often than not, were tasked with making the first impressions. Many persons do not see the immediate need to ensure that a focussed development approach must be infused throughout the length and breadth of the organization, and not solely at the management or leadership levels. It is always important to remember that your organisation’s best PR practitioners are your employees. They can evangelize in your favour, or can become your worst nightmare – even in the face of rebranding, remodelling, management adjustments etc. Your employees must understand and buy-in to your vision, whilst becoming practitioners of your organisational mantra.

My experience simply walking into this organisation, could have been any one’s experience, a potential client, an existing client, a potential investor, and the point-of-contact experiences would colour the next steps. I emphasise that it is imperative for all employees to understand and appreciate the leadership vision, as this must also be viewed as an investment in the overall organisation. All employees must be viewed as assets to the organisation – and not simply support staff to the management or the leadership.

When employees are treated as a valued stakeholder group, the value added to the organisation is boundless, and invaluable. It is always advisable to experience life on the side of the employee, walk the shop floors, arrive unexpectedly, experience the work patterns and the work flow, ten times out of ten, I am positive the experience will provide the necessary impetus to understand where the loop holes exist, what improvement can be made, and many times, would provide a clear picture of certain issues management may never have understood or may not have been aware of.

The employee population should not become the weakest link to your organisation, as these kinks could become the difference between achieving organizational targets or organisational setbacks.

The CEO with whom I met, granted permission to use her story, as she did in fact conduct a personal audit, and has undertaken a significant experiential training upgrade of all staff.