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Dr. Robert Kaplan and Dr. David Norton of Harvard Business School coined the term “balanced scorecard” to describe their approach to performance management in 1994. During the Clinton administration, Vice President Al Gore popularized this term as the leader of the National Performance Review. In the 21^st century, government agencies, private companies, and non-profit organizations use the balanced scorecard to measure organizational achievement of strategic objectives. This article uses a strategy map – part of the balanced scorecard approach – to show how the Kaplan-Norton model works for managing organizational performance.

What is a Strategy Map?

A strategy map is a diagram of connected boxes and other flowchart symbols. These pictures as well as short phrases describe an organization’s approach to strategic management. The following discussion of a strategy map is based on a sample map posted on the Value Based Management website. This map shows logical relationships between organizational values, resources, and objectives using four perspectives – the Learning and Growth Perspective, the Internal Perspective, the Customer Perspective, and the Financial Perspective.

At the base of this example of a strategy map, the Learning and Growth Perspective shows how an organization uses human capital, information capital, and organization capital to achieve goals. At the second level, the Internal Perspective demonstrates how an organization strategically manages business processes such as customer management, supply chain, and research and development to build on its Learning and Growth Perspective.

At the third level of this sample map, the Customer Perspective shows how an organization creates value for customers through customer value propositions such as price, quality, and service. At the fourth level, the Financial Perspective conveys how an organization uses financial strategies – such as cost structuring and asset utilization – to produce long-term value for shareholders.

Three Types of Resources

In the same strategy map example, three types of resources help an organization operationalize its objectives – human capital, information capital, and organization capital. These three resources focus on the knowledge owned by an organization, especially technical knowledge possessed by employees and proprietary technologies and information. This focus on resources suggests managers must define strategic objectives that help employees understand what they need to learn to perform their roles. From a manager’s perspective, a strategy map is a powerful tool for communicating an organization’s culture to direct reports. For example, a strategy map shows employees how an organization is organized and managed to achieve growth.

Strategic Objectives

A strategy map also illustrates an organization’s strategic plan. Companies can download template strategy maps and other strategy mapping software programs from websites like CNET and Active Strategy. These tools offer a way to build a strategy map and include strategic objectives where appropriate. If an organization already has a strategic plan, it is feasible to adapt a strategy map tool to fit its plan.

Strategy maps help an organization to ensure everyone focuses on the methods that will produce value for customers, shareholders, and other stakeholders. A balanced scorecard approach to strategic performance management calls for senior leadership to use a strategy map and other organizational planning documents to evaluate performance (or achievement of strategic objectives).

A dynamic management consultant instructor stands out as a professional with high ethical standards, extensive education, a proven record for transforming businesses into more efficient organizations, and an ability to communicate with colleagues. This person approaches consulting education with energy and enthusiasm, inspiring every participant to achieve results in business consulting. Don’t you want this person as your next consulting education instructor?

The key to finding a quality program with dynamic instructors is evaluating the program provider’s reputation. Assess the ability of a consulting education provider to target consultants with specific needs. To select a first-rate program and to walk away with valuable skills, look for a program that is:

* Tailored to management consultants in your field and with your level of experience. Each seminar should be specific to your needs; otherwise, you will not get the right tools to develop in your career. Select a consulting education program that will help you move from one level of management consulting to the next; for instance, look for a list of prerequisite skills and/or a target audience for each seminar.

* Structured to facilitate group communication and understanding. Some experts teach consulting education seminars without a good grasp of how to facilitate learning in small group or large group settings. If you research the reputation of each instructor, or better yet, take a training program from a provider recommended by a colleague who had a great experience, you can ensure your investment is not wasted. A great instructor will use the seminar time to help participants learn from each other and maximize their takeaways.

* Supported by online postings of program materials. A professional provider of consulting education makes it clear to prospective participants what each course will cover. Look for a schedule, a course outline, a list of course objectives, a summary of the course instructor’s background and experience, assessments, and potential uses for the course.

* Supported by follow-up consultations with an instructor. A quality consulting education provider charges a handsome some for participation, but its product is supported by ongoing support from an instructor. You make an investment in increasing your knowledge base, and your instructor helps you to understand the application of your new learning when you return to work.

The next time you attend a consulting education program, remember you may have selected a well-designed course, but you gain more from your experience by leaving work commitments behind and focusing on your learning.

It is critical to have a foundation of trust in your company in order to keep your employees from feeling apprehension and uncertainty. When times are tough, the workplace rumor mill swings into action act quickly. Team leaders and senior management need to keep communication lines open and be forthright with the work force in order to stop gossip from spreading. This article gives five strategies to help ease employee anxiety and stop the rumor mills in their tracks.

1. Be Accessible

As a senior leader, you need to be accessible and visible to your employees. It is key that, if there are problems or challenges that the company is facing, you do not wait until they have been resolved to let your employees know. It is much better to keep them posted of the how the situation is developing and what you plan to do to respond to the situation along the way. When there is uncertainty with the economy and the success of the company, it becomes even more critical to be open and available to your employees. You’re not just there to share information with the workforce, but to build trust with them along the way, and dispel rumors as they spring up.

2. Don’t Hide From Bad News

You have nothing to gain by withholding bad news from your employees — they know times are tough and that your business will have to adapt in order to survive. It will become even harder to communicate with a distrustful workforce if you try to imply that all is well when it obviously is not. The best course of action to stop rumors and gossip is to communicate openly with your employees about the changes that are planned. When employees trust you to tell them the bad news, they will stop believing office gossip and wait to hear the truth from you.

3. Emphasize Personal Communication

All too often, leaders communicate bad news via e-mails and memos. While personal communication takes more time, it is key to the continued productivity of your employees, which is a core priority. Research has shown that face-to-face or voice-to-voice conversations build up trust in a relationship and also improve the clarity of your message. You may find yourself stumped by a question that you didn’t expect, but don’t worry. Employees don’t expect you to know all the answers, but have real appreciation for your effort at keeping them part of the process by talking directly to them.

4. Listen

Face-to-face communication is two-way, which is a massive advantage. You will often find that your employees have great ideas that can help you, but listening doesn’t have to be about finding answers. Your employees will be motivated by the knowledge that their ideas and feelings are valued, and it can help them engage with the business and with you.

5. Acknowledge the Unknowns

Talk as honestly as you can about what you do know and what you don’t. They will understand that you don’t know all the answers yet, and will trust you more and understand the situation better by being told where the uncertainties lie. It is not productive to promise things you can’t yet deliver, it is better to discuss the chances and prospects for success.

Communication is the bedrock of good management practice, and the only way to get the best out of your workforce. Regardless of the company’s situation, make it a goal to always communicate openly, truthfully, and frankly.

Wendy Mack is a professional advisor, trainer, and author with a focus in leading and communicating change. Contact Wendy at, or Download her free e-book, Transforming Anxiety into Energy at www.WendyMack.com.

Inspired by a recent poll to find the most attractive employers which was dominated by management consultancy, Guardian Careers is running a live webchat on the sector.

To explore the management consultancy role and industry, a panel of experts working within the sector, including professionals working at some of the companies that topped the poll, recruitment specialists Top-Consultant.com and the Management Consultancies Association will be online tomorrow, Jan 27, 1pm to 4pm ready to take your questions.

Please use this opportunity to find out more about these tops firms and the careers of those working within them as well as to discuss the issues facing the sector and its employees.

The discussion is now open for advance questions: http://tinyurl.com/y9lpouj

Between December 2007, the official start of the current recession, and June 2009 more than 40,000 U.S. organizations held layoffs in an effort to reduce costs, increase profits, and improve shareholder value. Unfortunately, studies over the past two decades have shown that most of the time layoff initiatives rarely actually achieve those objectives. Instead, these studies have reported time and again that less than 50% of the companies using downsizing as a cost cutting and profit increasing measure actually achieve that objective; in fact approximately 25% actually realize a decline in their overall profitability.

Why don’t layoffs produce the returns executives hope they will? It’s the people factor.  Employees are emotionally and psychologically traumatized by layoffs. At the very point in time when employees must be fully functioning and able to take over the tasks of those who were laid off, they are unnerved, frightened and skeptical. Those qualities are not what a company needs to be successful.

My colleague, Deanna Banks, Ph.D. and I spent the past six months studying what leaders can do to re-energize their workforce after layoffs. We found that certain types of leaders are more successful than others at enabling staff to recuperate from the damage that layoffs cause.

What Not to Do

As we interviewed employees from companies that had layoffs, we often heard stories of management teams that took action to stifle any expression of emotion. One employee even reported that the staff was forbidden from gathering in coffee break areas, hallways or offices. Rather than understanding and dealing with the outrage their people are feeling, some leaders simply want people to get over it, now. They say “Just accept it and move on.”

The truth is that when emotion grips people, they simply can’t move on. It is critical they are provided the liberty to share their concerns and work through the emotions they are feeling. If management tries to rush this process and stifle the concerns the employees are expressing, the situation will only become more turbulent.

What To Do

Whenever a layoff takes place, everyone involved is forced into a state of disruptive change. Most researchers agree that people’s emotional responses to change follow a fairly predictable pattern.

If people on your team are suffering through emotional reactions to layoffs, you can’t force them to skip ahead. You may be over it and ready to forge ahead, but your staff won’t support you in those efforts until they are ready. Your job, rather than to push for progress sooner than they are able, is to help them progress at their own pace through the change process.

Interestingly, we discovered that the best strategy for helping employees recover from layoffs is one where the manager actually matches his or her actions to the emotions employees are experiencing. This does not mean mirroring the employee’s emotion (for example responding to anger with anger). Instead, the manager should try to understand what emotional need the employee needs met based on their behavior, and attempting to meet that need so that the employee can continue the healing process.

In our research, we found that successful leaders:

1.  Reduce shock by increasing communication.
2.  Respond to anger by expressing concern.
3.  Address anxiety by emphasizing clarity.
4.  Reduce grief and hopelessness by using supporting behaviors.

Employees who are emotionally supported are likely to be able to refocus on their job and maintain commitment to it. They will look to you as their manager for direction rather than feeling suspicious and sad. Rather than ending up stalled creatively, they will be more able to take control of their emotions and begin producing and taking necessary risks.

While there’s no panacea for recovering from a layoff, how the layoff is approached, how employees who are let go are treated, and how the surviving workforce is supported go a long way to determining the organization’s future success and viability.

Wendy Mack is a professional advisor, trainer, and author with a focus in leading and communicating change. Contact Wendy at, or Download her free e-book, Transforming Anxiety into Energy at www.WendyMack.com