{"id":3922,"date":"2023-05-02T12:10:20","date_gmt":"2023-05-02T10:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/out-of-line-how-to-tell-if-your-business-is-misaligned-or-on-the-right-track\/"},"modified":"2024-07-19T11:25:55","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T09:25:55","slug":"out-of-line-how-to-tell-if-your-business-is-misaligned-or-on-the-right-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/out-of-line-how-to-tell-if-your-business-is-misaligned-or-on-the-right-track\/","title":{"rendered":"Out of line \u2013 how to tell if your business is misaligned or on the right track – ‘The Wyseway’ series review 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

They may sound like jargon, but vertical and horizontal alignment are really important factors to get right if you want your business to flourish.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a founder whose company\u2019s off to a kicking start, it\u2019s easy to be swept along on the tide of success in a buzz of excitement and energy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Your small loyal team feels the same, excited to be playing a part in these waves of growth. Then one day something changes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You can\u2019t pinpoint the what, why, when, where or how it happened; you just know that all you did this week was solve problems and firefight your way through and now you think about it, it was like that last week too. And the week before.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"SofiaYou\u2019ve been so focused on maintaining those initial waves of <\/span>business growth<\/span><\/a>, that now it\u2019s all about spinning plates and trying to meet the demand you and your team have created.<\/span><\/p>\n

And plate-spinning leads to the same outcome every time \u2013 exhaustion and demotivation, traits that do nothing to help grow the business. How can you be strategic when you feel like a drained battery?<\/span><\/p>\n

Back into line through the honesty lens<\/b><\/h2>\n

This is such a familiar pattern that we see time and again in our work with female entrepreneurs. It\u2019s called misalignment and is the point at which the fun is sucked out of everything.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When your long hours are powered by alignment to what you truly love and believe, as they are at the beginning, you feel energised. The blood, sweat and tears are part of the challenge.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Misalignment <\/span><\/a>is the opposite of alignment. It\u2019s when an area of your business isn\u2019t functioning as it should, and is having a domino effect on everything else.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In our book The Wyseway, we show you how to identify this using proven tools that work. We depict a fictional character called <\/span>Sofia<\/span><\/a>,<\/span> a founder who\u2019s so focused on increasing sales that her mind has been taken off her purpose. Her company feels chaotic, everything sounds like it\u2019s important and she often doesn\u2019t realise that she has projects and people with contradictory goals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Wyseway outlines the steps to rediscover alignment, balance and joy, and to avoid plate-spinning. More importantly, it will help you get your team on side and motivated once more.<\/span><\/p>\n

It starts by taking a long hard look at your business through an honesty lens.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alignment and purpose: bedfellows in business success<\/b><\/h2>\n

First, let\u2019s understand what alignment is and its relationship to purpose. It\u2019s the concept of having different elements in agreement or alliance – <\/span>working together<\/span><\/a> towards a shared purpose.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Purpose underpins alignment and vice versa. When purpose is clear enough so everyone understands it, alignment follows. We talk about two important areas that require alignment:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The four areas of growth (drivers) as set out in the Powerball (see below), and\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. The organisational capabilities that support each business growth phase.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Sofia <\/span><\/a>has forgotten that the power of her people was instrumental to her first waves of business growth. As her company has grown she hasn\u2019t changed the internal structures and processes other than to add more sales and marketing people in a haphazard way.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Her long-standing employees, who know her product inside out, feel overlooked and undervalued. Their own workload has increased to meet demand and they\u2019re starting to feel demoralised.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Power down problems with the Powerball\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

    The Powerball is a tool that we developed to help entrepreneurs find alignment. It lists the four areas or \u2018growth drivers\u2019 for business success: team, business, customers and purpose. You need to aim for two kinds of alignment:<\/span><\/p>\n