The starting point for leaders to ensure tight connections between strategy, organization and talent is learning how to use the Shockproof Lenses. These lenses provide a kind of super-sensing capability that makes it possible to keep the critical connections among strategy, organization and talent in place. We looked at The Systems Lens  in our last blog entry. Today we take a closer look at The Value Lens.

The “Value” Lens makes it possible for leaders to see, prioritize and act on the real, underlying and primary sources of value; leaders are able to use their understanding of business strategy to defeat the “tyranny of the urgent” and focus instead on those things that are most important to creating long-term value.

When leaders use the Value Lens to interpret what is going on around them, they become highly effective at prioritizing the initiatives and investments that will have the greatest impact on the business. Consider the leaders you know who wish their bottom line would grow, or that their leadership team would be more committed and accountable. Maybe you know a leader who wished they could get all the distracting activities and day to day fire fighting under control to focus on what they know they should be doing to create value. Many leaders are passionate; the problem is that good intentions don’t automatically translate into results. This is as true in the workplace in the pursuit of profits, as it is in life in the pursuit of goals like lower body fat or athletic prowess. Without a clear understanding of what it will take to get to the desired outcome, and without an accompanying realignment of activities and resources to support the goal, most of us don’t stand much of a chance of reaching any of our more challenging objectives, at work or at home.

The flip side is that staying focused on those activities that are in alignment with our priorities is the quickest route to the finish line. Leaders may have great ideas, team members might talk at length about the possibilities for greater revenue generation, suggestion boxes might overflow with employee hopes and dreams for a better business. But, at the end of the day, if leaders are not harnessing this energy and steering it in the right direction all too often employees drift aimlessly, making occasional attempts to hit a moving target, never quite sure of how their day to day efforts and contributions count for the business.

Three Focal Points of the Value Lens

Leaders who see through the value lens:

Focus attention on the true drivers of value and revise strategies and tactics as the business evolves.

• Keep the primary value drivers for the business at the core of all activities, constantly reinforcing the linkages between effort and results.
• Discontinue/abandon activities and initiatives that are not directly linked to achieving priorities and creating value.

Create clear connections between day-to-day activities and value creation.

• Clarify what’s most important to the business and help people figure out how their day-today work contributes to success.
• Recognize when people’s efforts are focused on areas of lower priority and ask questions or make suggestions that help them to redirect their contributions.

Measure value beyond financial results and consider how a business impacts employees, customers, communities and the environment.

• Drive financial and operating results while considering social responsibility and the broader environmental context
• Help people understand the tradeoffs inherent in any plan that balances competing priorities.

This is an excerpt from Chapter VII
 of Shockproof: How to Hardwire Your Business for Lasting Success (Deb Jacobs Hamby, Garrett Sheridan and Juan Pablo Gonzáles)

This is part 2 of our Leadership Lens series.

Part 1: The Systems Lens