Strategic alignment across your consulting firm leads to more benefits than just keeping everyone on the same page. It helps you achieve better business results for both your company and clients, as it keeps teams focused on projects that move the organization forward and maximize your impact.
However, research from Harvard Business Review found that actual strategic alignment is two to three times lower than leaders and employees perceive it to be. Using tools like workforce management software can help you clearly map every project to an overarching goal and maintain real-time transparency on goal progress.
Here, we cover the benefits of strategic alignment, concrete steps you can take to develop it, and how using workforce management tools like coAmplifi can significantly simplify the process.
The Benefits of Aligning Your Consulting Projects With Larger Team Goals
The true value within your consulting firm comes from projects and results that help propel you toward your strategic goals. The best projects are the ones that create direct pathways toward your company’s mission and vision and help you get there faster.
However, these projects also come with many business benefits along the way. Strategic alignment of projects and goals can lead to reduced costs and greater efficiency through:
- Optimized resource allocation
- Improved collaboration and focus
- A higher likelihood of successful project completion
- Better decision-making when evaluating project proposals
- An enhanced sense of purpose and motivation on an individual level, as team members can easily see how their day-to-day work impacts their company’s success
A more motivated team can also lead to better service and greater client satisfaction, which affects reputation and referrals.
How to Align Team Objectives with Company Projects
Creating strategic alignment between goals and projects doesn’t need to be an intensive process. Here are a few critical steps your firm can take to guide you in the right direction.
1. Clearly define your goals
It’s hard to compare project proposals against goals that are ambiguous or unclear. Take a look back at your company goals and make sure they’re SMART goals, meaning they’re specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Do this at both the organizational and individual level, and make these descriptions available for all to see.
2. Identify project objectives and KPIs
For each proposed project, determine which objectives directly contribute to getting you closer to your goals. Create clear key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be used to measure success against your goals.
3. Involve key stakeholders
Be sure to engage relevant stakeholders in the goal-setting process so that you have buy-in and are all aligned. Team members are more likely to feel committed to goals when they feel like they have a voice.
4. Review progress often
As you move along within each project’s timeline, set a regular cadence to check in on project progress as it relates to your goals and make adjustments as needed. Project circumstances and priorities can change, so it’s important to remain flexible.
5. Maintain transparency and communication
Clearly communicate the link between each project and your firm’s goals to your consulting teams to keep everyone aligned and connected to the bigger picture. Explain why your firm has agreed to take on each project as you bring it on board to demonstrate the firm’s decision-making strategy.
How coAmplifi Can Help Your Consulting Business See Better Results
A large part of strategic alignment success stems from transparency, which means creating a single source of truth that’s updated in real time and can be accessed by anyone in your firm.
coAmplifi is a workforce management software that combines project management, goal tracking, business analytics, communication and collaboration tools, and resource management all in one platform so there’s never any confusion about where to go to find the most up-to-date information.
A few unique ways coAmplifi can improve strategic alignment for consulting firms include:
- Ensuring team members are working within their skill set and feel a sense of purpose by aligning their tasks with their job descriptions
- Using built-in business analytics to measure project KPIs against firm KPIs
- Maintaining clarity with business goals transparently laid out and tracked in real-time for all to see
- Increasing accountability through clear task management, individual progress bars, and deadlines
- Tracking all projects and goals in the same place
These tools can help you avoid silos within your firm that can become disconnected from the company’s overarching strategy. Everyone sees the same information, leaving little room for misinterpretation.
Achieve Better Outcomes Through Strategic Alignment With coAmplifi
coAmplifi simplifies an otherwise ambiguous process that can keep your consulting firm from reaching its full potential.
By implementing these transparency and tracking tools that can scale alongside your business, you’ll be able to reach your goals faster, improve employee engagement, and propel client happiness. Schedule your demo now!
