Strategy
Creating a strategy and aligning commitment to it is the responsibility of the leadership team.
Do your people understand the strategy, trust your competence and intent have clear objectives and therefore carry out your plan of action?
Whether we have been running executive workshops, management programmes or conducting multi level sales research calls we have heard this statement repeated with surprising frequency “I don’t understand our strategy”.
“ The further we go into an organisation we will meet skilled, intelligent people who are not only unable to see the relevance of the strategy to their own day to day activities, but feel “ I am are not being managed in a way that helps me improve my performance”.
The above are practical, observable examples of “content” and “context”, terms often used in the copious volumes published on the theory of strategy”.
Content means ensuring that everyone is on the same page, with a clear understanding of the direction, objectives and plans for the organization. In our experience we have found that leadership teams are often not reading the same book!
Context describes the environment in which people are working. Ideally it is a culture of honesty, cohesion and trust, as well as high levels of confidence in their leaders’ credibility, competence and care for the workforce.
On a leadership continuum we refer to the above context behaviors as Achievement and Support, the alternative being Command and Control. Performance can be delivered from both approaches, but when asked the vast majority of people we have worked with prefer the former which delivers performance with satisfaction
Strategies that differentiate a company and create Value and Innovation are not developed easily. We have seen executives and managers work hard to identify opportunities, find new ways to compete and ensure they have the resources they need. However, in our experience, it is usually focus and execution that make or break a strategy.
Factors that influence the ability to execute strategy
An extensive survey* found a range of factors that effect an organisations ability to execute strategy. The top ten are:
- Customer Needs and Demands
- Workforce Capability
- Technology
- Internal Creativity and Innovation
- Alignment
- Culture
- Leadership
- Management Practices
*AMA/HRI
In Brief
Creating a strategy and aligning commitment to it is the responsibility of the leadership team
Do your people understand the strategy, trust your competence and intent, have clear objectives and the skills and competencies to carry out your plan of action?
We have developed a range of elegant Performance Systems that focus on providing solutions within these key factors in terms of:
Leadership Development,
Sales Force Effectiveness,
Interpersonal Behavioural Flexibility
Alignment and Commitment to Company Strategy
We continue to be amazed by the desire of individuals to feel valued and make a contribution to a “group”. Leaders throughout an organisation can improve their chances of achieving corporate goals, both for individual satisfaction and for the benefit of the business by finding ways to bring the strategy alive for their people.
Make your strategy can come alive for every employee.