The gap between leadership expectations and support simply blows my mind. Most leaders rise to their positions through deep subject matter expertise. If their organizations are forward-thinking, they may also invest in leadership development to help them grow into their roles. But when it comes to strategy, arguably one of the most critical leadership skills, […]
If you’re reading this, the chances are that you’ve found yourself in a position where you’re expected to be involved in strategy either for the entire organisation or the department where your responsibility lies – and you feel a little out of your depth. I’d like to reassure you that you are not alone. Many
Strategy isn’t a job – but you need the Skill Read Post »
For decades, the saying went: “No one ever got fired for hiring McKinsey or BCG.” These firms, and others like them, represented the gold standard for corporate strategy. But recently, a seismic shift is shaking this narrative. A top executive I know of was recently unceremoniously removed by their board—not for incompetence or malfeasance, but
If You Hire Big Consulting to Design Your Strategy, You Might As Well Be Fired Read Post »
One of the surest ways to burn money is to invest in a culture initiative. Culture often gets treated as something that can be improved with workshops and by by hanging up posters reminding people of company values. But in reality, culture is not something you can directly build. It’s an output—a reflection of how
How Leaders Shape Culture without the Fluff Read Post »
When it comes to designing strategy, I see two approaches collide. Vision-driven strategy versus problem-driven strategy. Vision-driven strategy starts with describing a desired status quo, at some point in the future, for example 3-5 years from now. Problem-driven strategy, on the other hand, aims to define and address the biggest immediate hurdle to overcome to
Problem vs vision: what you should ground your strategy in Read Post »
I challenge you to play a game of buzzword bingo with me. Take out a pen and paper and write down the first ten positively attributed potential organizational values you can think of. I will do the same. Next, check out websites of organizations or brands you regularly interact with. Read their value statements. The
All you Need is Love – Values that Work Read Post »
When you’ve been around long enough, you see patterns in behavior, individual and organizational. And you hear people say things, and repeat them again and again, sometimes really stupid things. When I say ‘stupid’, I mean misinformed, shortsighted, and simple plain wrong things that people hear and then repeat. Often they perpetuate fads and myths
10 uncomfortable truths every leader should read Read Post »
If you ask 10 CEOs whether they’d like their business to have a winning strategy, you’d probably get 11 “yes” responses. Everyone wants their business to lead with a great strategy, of course. Chances are that out of those same 10 CEOs, the majority would start strategy at the wrong end: the strategy itself. Yes,
What effective team development looks like – and what you should avoid Read Post »
Executive Leadership Teams (ELTs) often find it challenging to shift gears, from day-to-day operations to long-term strategy. This brings a number of challenges, the most obvious ones is that the No.1 ELT responsibility is shaping strategy and culture. No-one else can take this job off their plates. Here are the main reasons behind this struggle
Why ELTs struggle to focus on strategy and how to overcome It Read Post »
Why do strategies fail? Apart from making wrong choices, one topic stands out: failure to engage teams and help them understand a new strategy. Strategy communication is so crucial, yet few companies truly nail it. Before you can link individual roles, responsibilities, and targets to the strategy, people need to understand what the strategy means
Aligning Employees on Strategy – The Art of Strategic Dialogues Read Post »
“Here we go again.” This was my initial thought when a client was reluctant to establish structures for strategy implementation. I had seen similar hesitation before – and the negative consequences of lacking strategy governance. Neglecting governance – reasons vary, see below – is a bad idea. Without strategy governance, leaders and staff often get distracted
Avoiding the Tyranny of the Urgent – The Power of Strategy Governance Read Post »
Think about strategy conversations as a seed. And think about your team environment as soil. If the seed falls on toxic or infertile soil, and nothing will grow from it, but weeds. Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith conceptualized the team performance curve, a J-shaped graph, illustrating five levels of teamwork. Unless you become at least
Great Teams Create Great Strategy. But Most Teams aren’t Teams. Read Post »
A couple of days ago, I posed this question to my LinkedIn network. There was a flood of responses that unveiled the essence of strategy in its various forms, partly inspired by thought leaders. Here’s a breakdown of the collective wisdom, highlighting some of the most interesting perspectives: Maximum Force at Weakest Point: Pinpointing vulnerabilities
What the Heck is a Strategy anyway? Read Post »
When a client had just completed a merger, they were shooting for the top spot in the market. While the physical aspects of the merger, such as housing and IT, went well, the cultural merger was dragging behind. The company struggled to overhaul work procedures and create a general work philosophy across all units. As
The Hardest Thing to get Right – How to Solve Your Communication Issue Read Post »
When it comes to designing strategy, I often see two approaches collide. Vision-driven strategy versus problem-driven strategy. Vision-driven strategy starts with describing a desired status quo, at some point in the future, for example 3-5 years from now. Problem-driven strategy, on the other hand, aims to define and address the biggest immediate hurdle to overcome
Vision or no Vision – The Art of Storytelling in Strategy Read Post »
The blind pursuit of productivity has led to an epidemic of corporate gaslighting. At the heart of this lies a fundamental flaw: when leaders fail to define a clear business strategy they react to the negative consequences with a Pavlovian response: they prescribe training for employees. Conflicting Priorities and the Tyranny of the Urgent Most
Blaming Employees – The Corporate Gaslighting Epidemic Read Post »
A business strategy typically addresses a mid-term time horizon, often three to five years. Here’s the issue: the shorter the timeframe, the less likely will your strategy create real competitive advantage. Winning in your market requires you to look beyond the immediate strategy cycle. To define the big bets. Foresight involves understanding longer-term developments beyond
Defining the Big Bets – The Power of Strategic Foresight Read Post »
The first leadership job typically comes to a person because they are great at what they do. And because they master their subject, someone thinks the expert would make a great leader, teaching others how to do it. That someone often doesn’t understand much about leadership in the first place. Subject matter expertise has little
From Time Teller to Clock Builder – How I Failed to Lead and Started Over Read Post »
Developing effective leaders is a critical component of any successful organization. But simply training individuals in leadership skills doesn’t cut it. For maximum impact – and return on investment – development programs must be integrated with an organization’s business strategy. 15% Improvement in Organizational Performance Organizations that link leadership development to their business goals see
How Strategic Leadership Development Creates RoI Read Post »
The environment in which we design strategy matters more than leaders often realize. The leadership culture, and the wider business culture, dictate the nature of strategy, and its chances of success. In this article, I introduce you to the Culture Continuum, and I describe why good business strategy can only be cultivated in a people-centric
Dog Eat Dog and Tree Huggers: Why the Wrong Environments Can’t Create Good Strategy Read Post »
