The scoring system is clear and well-known by all players and spectators. Imagine if someone took away the goal or point posts. There would be a riot until they were returned. Without the goal and point posts the players would not know what to do or where to aim. Too many organisations have not communicated clear strategies and goals to their employees. They need to put back their goal and point posts so their employees know where to aim.

Some recent research of Insync Surveys showed that only 54 per cent of the employees of the highest performance organisations stated that they could easily refer to a list of the organisation's goals when they need to. The figure for low-performance organisations is only 24 per cent. Further, only 57 per cent of the employees stated that they understand how their role contributes to the organisation's long-term goals and strategies. For something that is so fundamental to get right this is not good enough.

Habit 2 in my book, titled, 7 Business Habits That Drive High Performance, is the setting of clear strategies and goals. The book is based on ground-breaking research involving more than 100,000 employees from about 200 organisations. It revealed the seven things that are the biggest differentiators between high-performance and low-performance organisations.

Most strategic plans comprise dozens, sometimes hundreds, of pages. A discipline that many organisations adopt is to summarise their vision, strategy and main organisation goals on a single page. If you cannot convert your strategy to a single page and if you cannot explain it simply and clearly, it will not get traction in your organisation. The process of reducing your strategy to a page with your leadership team and others will help add clarity and focus to what is really important. You should then communicate that to all your employees.

It is important to keep your main goals to a minimum. As the old saying goes "if everything is important then nothing is important".

Most organisations spend millions of dollars developing and communicating important messages to their potential customers. These millions are spent on branding, imagery and creating one-liners that will excite and grab the attention of potential customers. Yet very few organisations spend much money or effort attempting to develop and communicate their strategy and main goals to the people required to execute them. This is a big mistake. Organisations should continually seek new ways, new techniques, and new communication mediums to spread their main messages internally. The investment will be well worth it.

Having set and communicated clear organisation goals it shouldn't be too difficult for managers to agree on goals for those who report to them and align those goals to the organisation's goals. It's important that the goal-setting process for employees be a two-way discussion and not just a demand or direction from the top. Employees who have input into setting their personal goals as well as the goals of their team are far more likely to buy-in with a desire to achieve or exceed them.

Setting clear strategies and goals and linking those to individual employee's roles and goals is one of the main driversof employee engagement. And increasing employee engagement is crucial to providing a better place to work, to reduce employee turnover, to increase productivity, customer engagement and loyalty along with organisation performance.

So put the goal posts back.

Nicholas S. Barnett is a director, business leader and strategist, and is chief executive of Insync Surveys. He is also the author of the new book, 7 Business Habits That Drive High Performance. Visit insyncsurveys.com.au.