If you’ve ever worked in an organization or on a team that got caught up in the quest to create a new market you know that the experience is all consuming and exhilarating. I offer a number of leadership and management suggestions that might prove helpful on your own journey of market creation.
Saying “No” to new projects and “No More” to projects in process are difficult for the best of firms and impossible for organizations without a clear strategy and the supporting processes. The participants in strategy-starved organizations have no context for decision-making and unless that context is created, are destined to founder and likely sink while the crew focuses on constantly rearranging the deck chairs.
Armed with the context of strategy, project portfolio management is still a difficult task requiring unceasing commitment from the executives and constant vigilance at the project management level. If you are currently running around with a deckchair in your hands, it’s time for you to look at the captain and officers and start asking the strategic questions.
Leading is more than just being the person in charge. It’s about selecting and developing talent, providing direction and motivation, creating the effective working environment and providing consistent and timely feedback on performance. The “direction and motivation” component comes directly from the leader’s understanding of the firm’s strategic environment (market forces, competitors, customers) as well as the direction and strategies (goals/actions) that have been selected by an organization’s management. Strategy is context that gives meaning and purpose to individual roles and group activities and goals.
It’s critical for leaders to recognize that organizations that broadly understand their strategy and employees that specifically understand how their activities and decisions impact strategy execution are going to defeat less-enlightened competitors. Strategy is not an abstract concept reserved for the deep-thought thinking sessions of senior leaders. Strategy is a powerful leadership tool to engage the hearts and minds of associates and to fuel performance.
Organizations that learn to work in “Strategy Bursts” are able to learn, adapt and refine their strategic activities faster than more plodding competitors, but this new style requires learning and internalizing a new approach to strategy management and execution. For many leaders and executives, succeeding with this new model requires letting go of old strategy habits and biases.
Strategy is a healthy mix of art and science. Unfortunately, too many organizations approach strategy as if were alchemy. Adding formal project management practices to the strategy program increases the “science” component and improves a firm’s chances of success for a successful initiative as well as for sustaining of an on-going, healthy program.
he Strategy-Fueled Leader is someone you want to work for and someone that you want to become. Working for one of these individuals is like existing in an alternate professional universe. If you are fortunate enough to connect with this type of leader early in your career, you are in for a remarkable education that will shape you for the rest of your professional (and even personal) life. Catch one later in life, and expect to find yourself reborn professionally, with a renewed sense of focus and purpose. If you are not fortunate enough to find one as a mentor, its up to you to make a difference in your organization by developing the habits, approaches and thinking of this powerful leader.
I had a horrible consultant’s dream the other night, where I found myself shouted down in a planning session when I had the temerity to suggest that the “g” word was suspiciously absent from the prioritized corporate action-list.
“Growth is an outcome!” one person shouted. “We need to fix the plumbing and growth will come our way!” shouted another. “Growth is not our issue,” hollered a third person who I had observed arriving just after the financial review showcased what can only be described as reverse growth. “Death to the growth zealot,” shouted a fourth baring his teeth.” I remember looking at the door and mentally calculating whether I would win the footrace to the exit should that be necessary. Fortunately, my alarm clock went off and I breathed easier until I remembered that I was facilitating a discussion about growth in two hours. I immediately broke out in a sweat. Fortunately for me, the group was much less “Lord of the Flies-like” than the team in my dream. I did however maintain an unobstructed view to the door at all times.
A good friend that knows my passion for all things leadership, recently switched jobs and offered some comments on the nature of his dozen or so interviews. I paraphrase:
“My leadership skills, experience or approach were not discussed during any of the interviews.”
I was shocked.
“None of the top executives that I spoke with singled out and discussed leadership or people development during discussions about their business and strategy.”
I started to get depressed.
And: “Nope, it wasn’t covered with the recruiters either.”
I had a headache.
What gives?
s a strategy consultant, I see clients wrestle with the exercise of creation or articulation of a “Vision” for their business on a regular basis. In some environments, the exercise of clarifying or creating a vision is motivating and galvanizing, and for others it is futility personified. My question for the day: How important is it for an organization to have a shared vision–a view as to what the future desired state of the organization will look like?
