Employee and Business Alignment

In a recent Cutter Consortium post Vince Kellen explores what happens when employees are, and are not, aligned with their roles.

I've personally struggled with roles that weren't feeding my goals and passions. The post got me thinking about the larger picture where coworkers are struggling as well.

Some interesting points:

...I have seen all sorts of misalignments between bag A (personal skills, personal ambition and passion, level of effort) and bag B (current work role, future role I would like, my role in society and in this company overall). My sense is that these misalignments are endemic in all work places and are part of the human condition. I also know and have seen, however, that when a personally aligned team is aligned well in the organization, big things happen. These individuals and these teams tend to share a common attribute: a whole lot of heart. They are capable of giving more — much, much more.

When someone knows well what they are legitimately good at and what they can truly excel at, and when they are deeply passionate about all of this, watch out: anything can happen. These individuals work better and faster, produce better results, and, better still, because of their confidence, tend to work well with others. These people are often the glue that holds the place together. As others around them spin a bit out of control in misalignment or, worse, bust apart like a sliced golf ball, they tend to be a calming influence. These aligned people are intrinsically motivated and, like a gyroscope, stand on their own, more easily absorbing the slings and arrows of outrageous fortunes.