One of the ongoing challenges privately held business leaders face is fostering a unified financial growth vision. Too often, employees operate in a vacuum, disconnected from the financial results the company must achieve and how their roles influence those outcomes.
This disconnect leads to missed financial targets, a slowed growth trajectory, and a cultural divide between leadership and the workforce. When employees lack a sense of urgency about achieving the business’s financial priorities, leaders can feel like they have their foot on the gas pedal while those around them have theirs on the brake.
The solution lies in creating greater line of sight.
Line of sight occurs when employees understand the combination of factors that drive the company’s success and the impact their roles have on them. Line of sight means employees are clear how various elements that drive performance interrelate and influence personal and organizational rewards. When a company achieves line of sight, employees find deeper meaning in their work, driving a culture of engagement and commitment.
To attain line of sight, employers must help their people understand and embrace the connection between the following four elements:
Vision is the foundation of line of sight. Many leaders underestimate the importance of painting a clear picture of what a company needs to achieve financially and how it will lead to the fulfillment of the company’s purpose and mission. That said, employees need more than a list of revenue or profit targets; they need context that explains why these goals matter and how attaining them impacts customers, employees, communities, and beyond.
Author Simon Sinek emphasizes this concept in Start with Why, where he explains the importance of aligning people with a purpose. A clear vision answers key questions: Why does the company exist? What principles guide its culture? What will success mean for everyone involved? When employees understand and embrace these answers, they find it easier to align their efforts with the organization’s goals.
A company’s business model is how it generates and sustains revenue. Unfortunately, most employees cannot describe their company’s revenue engine or how their role impacts it. This is a leadership gap, not an employee shortcoming.
To close this gap, leaders must identify and communicate the leverage points within their business model. Leverage points are key areas where performance can drive growth. Employers must clearly link those leverage opportunities to specific roles and responsibilities. By consistently reinforcing the connection between the business model and the company’s vision, leaders empower employees to take ownership of financial outcomes.
While the business model describes how the company generates revenue, the business strategy defines how it will compete in the marketplace with that model. A well-defined strategy answers critical questions: What is our core value proposition? How do we differentiate ourselves in the market? What type of talent do we need to succeed?
Here again, employees must understand how their roles impact the business strategy. This will differ from position to position but every employee has a role. They are either directly performing marketing, sales, or customer success functions or their role otherwise facilitates the business’s ability to serve its audience.
In today’s business environment, companies must shift from hiring for positions to recruiting for roles. The best employees are not looking to fill a vacancy; they seek opportunities to have a meaningful impact. These “catalysts” are entrepreneurial-minded individuals who thrive on contributing to growth.
To attract and retain such talent, leaders must define roles with clarity and provide clear expectations. People should know what outcomes their role exists to produce (which are tied to the business model and strategy) so they can become stewards of those results. Employees must know how their contributions drive organizational outcomes, how success in their role is defined, and how their performance will be managed and measured. Without this alignment component, line of sight will be lost.
The culminating component of line of sight is the company’s rewards philosophy. Leadership must clearly define how financial value will be shared with those who help create it. Then they must help their people understand how their short and long-term earnings and wealth-building opportunities are tied to meeting the performance expectations associated with their roles.
Most companies have an incomplete compensation offering because they have not taken the time to define their pay philosophy. Earnings capabilities are largely guaranteed (salary and benefits) and short-term (annual bonuses). And most long-term wealth accumulation opportunities are in 401(k) or other qualified retirement plans. This will not help an organization achieve line of sight. Long-term value-sharing plans, executive benefits, and retirement supplements like deferred compensation are needed to provide a more complete and compelling reason for employees to align with the company’s financial goals.
Ultimately, to create line of sight, a company needs a compensation and rewards approach that aligns employees with organizational success. Consequently, they must build a growth partnership with their people and use their pay offering to define the financial part of that relationship. When employees understand the connection between the company’s vision, its business model and strategy, their roles and how they are rewarded, they are more naturally inclined to commit to the company’s growth goals.
This is why line of sight is key to building a unified financial vision for growing a company. It allows business leaders to market a compelling future to their people and make employees feel like true growth partners in the company’s success.