Alignment means that managers should explicitly seek and highlight the commonality between the company’s purpose and values and the employee’s career purpose and values. Some obvious commonality emerges naturally: both sides thrive on progress. Companies want to launch new products, grow their market share, and expand into new markets; employees want to take on new responsibilities, increase their capabilities, and yes, make more money.
In other words, both company and employee want to be on a winning team. But zoom in a bit more, and differences appear. Perhaps the employee has a side interest in early childhood education, but his tour of duty doesn’t involve that kind of work at all. He does however value autonomy and flexible work hours, which the company can accommodate. There just needs to be sufficient alignment to make the alliance durable.
— The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age by Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha, et al.