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Scaling a high-growth startup is this strange balance of preparing for the future while at the same time recognizing that no matter how much you prepare, sh*t is inevitably going to hit the fan.
We understand this sentiment more than most as founders and leaders of fast-growing companies. We feel the constant ebb and flow of success and failure - of wins and losses - that permeate our organizations on an almost daily basis.
This feeling does not go unnoticed. Our people teams, investors, and families all understand that aligning on a mission of success and a vision of a new world is more important than anything when building that rocketship to Mars.
Organizational and team alignment is so essential to every fill-in-the-blank startup ending with -ly, -ify, -io." From Patton and the Battle of the Bulge, Rugby's famous All Blacks to your favorite tech unicorn, alignment is the lifeblood of every successful team ever created.
"Organizational alignment is the glue to performance excellence. It's the absolute compatibility between paths, both strategic (goals, objectives, and activities) and cultural (values, practices, and behaviors). Successful strategy implementation can't happen without execution, which requires an invested organization."
We all strive for team alignment when leading any organization, from how you win and lose to how you act and react - alignment is the stuff of winners.
A lack of alignment, my friends, is how you end up with a workplace riddled with burnout, mental breakdowns, low morale, and a level of work toxicity that could give a group of back-stabbing 7th-grade girls a run for their money.
It is a factor in almost every battle ever lost in history to every down-round/CEO ousted event you've read about in TechCrunch this past year.
It's important.
As mentioned in almost every blog ever written by LEON, understanding where your team is today and how best to support them is the future of work.
Much like burnout and mental health and D&I and grit, it's essential to understand how a decrease in a performance-related issue such as alignment will impact company growth.
Hence the reason for the Accord-inspired Playbook called: Recognize and super-power team success!
Life at high-growth startups inevitably comes with very high highs and the lowest of lows.
Crossing major milestones can feel super rewarding at the moment, and like you've moved mountains to get to a new level.
But, every leap forward comes with more significant, more formidable problems to solve, especially when it comes to sales and hitting big revenue goals!
With this in mind, Rich Ross, a founder at Accord, recently experimented with adding a weekly "recognition" all-hands where Accordions give shoutouts based on a shared value.
Startup life is hard whether you're a rep, founder, or sales leader.
Use this alignment Playbook to ensure your team knows they have people to lean on during the ups and downs. (and that you're also there for them)!
When it comes to an understanding of when to implement this Accord Playbook, there is one question you must ask yourself.
In the context of Accord, they built this Playbook to improve alignment and recognition right when a struggling team may need it.
In the world of LEON, this Playbook would be considered a Support Playbook.
Read more about Support Playbooks.
Check out the demo below to see how easy it is to find and start a Playbook with your super-powered team!
Use this Playbook, or find an even better Playbook in the Playbook Library that works best for your team.
You can search, start, set due dates, customize and send it to your team right through LEON.
And even better, you can use our weekly check-in feature to understand which teams need help and how best to support them.
Get started with LEON today.