Leading the Pack

As a leader ultimately you must achieve a thriving and financially successful organization. Much has been written about the value of strategy. More recently there has been a renewed recognition that success comes from execution, with your ability to execute relying on your culture. This is where speed, execution and self assurance live. An organization’s biggest strategic challenge isn’t strategic thinking, it’s strategic acting.

The most common approach to the shift from strategy to execution is communication, though it often is not enough. Strategic communication often is focussed on knowing something different, but strategic execution is about doing something different, it is a people problem. You need to align the right poeple, with the right structure, and the right leadership. The goal is to have every part of the organization aligned on those activities that have the highest impact to achieving the organizations goals.

Careful attention must be paid to working with each individual to create an understanding of the goals of the organization, clearly defining their specific role in the success of the business, answering for each employee what reward or recognition they receive if we are successful, and to invite each employee to freely express how they believe we can change to achieve the goals of the organization. This is the work of leadership, to define who we are and why it matters.