When teams are aligned — especially sales and marketing teams — great things can happen. One study even showed that aligned teams can close deals 67 percent more efficiently.
At your company, are your teams aligned or misaligned? If they’re misaligned, do you know how to get everyone on the same page?
If you’re curious about team alignment, from what it is and why it matters to how you can track it, keep reading. Everything you need to know is explained below.
The term “team alignment” refers to a situation in which cross-functional teams — as well as individual members of those teams — are all working toward the same vision.
With aligned teams, everyone understands each other’s individual and team goals. They also understand how their contributions connect to the company’s wider purpose and goals.
It doesn’t matter what kind of team you lead or how many employees you’re in charge of managing. You, your team members, and the company as a whole can experience the following benefits when you work on improving team alignment:
When everyone is aligned, it’s much easier for cross-team communication to take place. There’s less confusion and everyone stays in the loop about matters that help them achieve their goals.
With improved communication comes increased trust. It’s easier for members of different teams to build trust and grow their relationships when they can communicate clearly and are working toward the same goals.
When team members trust each other and can communicate clearly, they can be creative and think of innovative, out-of-the-box ideas. This can lead to better outcomes for teams and the business.
When communication issues don’t exist between teams and team members, they can accomplish their specific assignments faster and with fewer challenges. This results in them achieving their goals faster.
Highly productive and innovative teams that know how to communicate tend to perform better than misaligned teams that are constantly trying to overcome communication issues and a lack of trust.
Once you understand the difference between team alignment and misalignment, you’ll be amazed at what you notice when observing your employees.
If your teams are misaligned, you might notice the following issues:
On the other hand, aligned teams will exhibit the following:
Which set of signs sound more like descriptions of your teams?
Is everyone on the same page, or do you struggle with frequent communication errors? Are most of your goals and deadlines met, or do you constantly come up short?
As is the case with most things in the business world, team alignment tends to fluctuate over time.
Sometimes, your teams might be perfectly in sync. At other times, they might as well be on two separate planets.
This is why managers should continuously track team alignment.
The following are some specific steps you can take to keep track of team alignment:
An employee experience platform can come in very handy when tracking team alignment and identifying patterns over time. These tools make it easier for you to collect data, generate reports, and monitor trends.
Misalignment can affect all kinds of teams. However, it’s especially common among remote teams.
When everyone is working from home, it’s easy for wires to get crossed and confusion to arise. It can be particularly difficult for managers to keep track of everyone, monitor progress, and pick up on signs of misalignment before they have a chance to escalate.
Team misalignment may be common among remote teams, but it’s not inevitable or impossible to fix. The following tips can help you ensure everyone stays on the same page, regardless of where they’re working:
Be sure to regularly check in with team leaders and individual members, too. This gives you a chance to assess their needs and receive consistent feedback.
Now that you know more about the importance of team alignment, do you want to start making it more of a priority at your company?
Keep the information discussed above in mind so you can identify signs of misalignment faster and track team alignment more easily.
Need more help with team alignment? If so, Spring’s employee experience platform can help.
Get started today to easily provide employee recognition, boost employee engagement, and ensure all your employees and teams are aligned.