January is the time that many of us make resolutions to get healthier.  Have you made these same resolutions for your company?  Is your company healthy and aligned so that you can make 2011 your best year ever? 

Here are five key areas within your company that you can examine to see how healthy you are at the beginning of 2011.

1. Customer Promise.  What are you promising your customers, and are you sure you’re fulfilling that promise? Take a step back and see if your promise is really clear and that your employees understand the promise.  If your promise is muddled, fragmented, or confusing, now is the perfect time to clean it up.  If it’s clear already, great job!  Now you can figure out a way to see if you’re delivering on that promise. It doesn’t have to be a formal survey. Find a few key customers and get their anecdotal feedback. 

2. Business Results.  What are the key business results you’re committed to delivering that are tied to your customer promise?  Make sure your results are realistic while also providing a gap that will help you and your teams play a big game. Have you effectively communicated the results to your teams, and do they know what role they play in delivering those results? 

3. Cultural Pillars.  Your company culture is the foundation that supports everything you do.  A strong company culture can empower your teams to deliver on a common mission. A weak company culture can derail your results before you’re even out of the starting blocks. Does your company have a powerful culture that everyone is aligned behind?  The New Year is an excellent time to shape up your culture if it’s not as strong as it could be.

4. Business Functions.  If your culture is strong within your organization, each separate business function should have a clear vision for how they contribute to and support the culture and your customer promise.   January is a great time for each department to review how well they’re doing.  For example, are you hiring the right people (human resources), and are you training them (learning & development)  in how to support your brand? Are you making it as easy as possible for your customers to do business with you (operations or customer service) or have unnecessary policies and procedures gotten in the way? Sometimes the departments that don’t directly interact with customers can let themselves off the hook too easily, but they’re as accountable for delivering the customer promise as anyone else.

5. Tactics and Tools. Are the tactics and tools within your organization contributing to your customer promise and the delivery of your business results? This could include your hiring process, employment brand, product training, sales and service models, coaching and mentorship programs, and more. Everything needs to be aligned up through your organization so that messages are consistent and the customer promise is being fulfilled.

How is your company shaping up in 2011? Are you on track to make 2011 your best year ever?  Share your ideas and thoughts.

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