February 16th, 2017
Strategy AND Leadership – Upping Your Game?
In a previous blog (People are value creators – March 2016) we argued that significant value can be created if you put your people and how your organisation works at the heart of business strategy, planning and implementation and elevate it to a primary business lever. We emphasised the importance of creating a culture which allows people to be their full self, feel connected to the purpose of the organisation and as a result self-lead. They do so as they see alignment between what they do and what the organisation sets out to achieve and how what they do matters.
Interestingly enough, to achieve an organisation that is “self-led”, you need business leaders to lead effectively. When it’s done right – like all people things – it looks like nothing. Don’t be fooled, it’s not nothing and it’s not easy and getting it wrong destroys business value.
See below our 5 top tips:
- Effective leaders have a strong environmental radar and embrace Gen Z thinking (see previous blog November 2016): :
A first opportunity to up our game lays in here. Leadership is contextual and never happens in a vacuum. No-one will argue that keeping a finger on the pulse and having an effective “environmental radar” is essential to remain effective. I keep however wondering why it is that many leaders yet fall into the trap of drawing up strategies, without validating whether they would be passing the test of requirements linked to operating in a digital economy. In order to up our game, we need to adopt the thinking of Gen Z or if we know we cannot, let’s invite them to the table…literally. In 2015 they have become the majority of our workforce and ….clients. It is our accountability to be in the known and act on it. We interact with them day in day out. Let’s listen and incorporate their ideas into our game plan.
- Effective leaders are change leaders, not change managers, they approach strategic implementation as a journey, not a static plan. No-one will argue that the world is constant changing. Gartner Inc. (November, 2015), forecasts that 6.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2016, up 30 percent from 2015, and will reach 20.8 billion by 2020. The internet of things is exploding causing huge disruption and change. It brings opportunity to businesses as long as they ensure that their strategy is future proof. Effective leaders will therefore interpret the world in a more connected manner. They will adopt an abundance mind-set and ensure that everyone within their organisation adopts an enterprise wide mind-set, inspired by systems thinking.
- Effective leaders believe innovation should be part of the DNA and inherent to anything being done. They are not satisfied with process, programme or product innovation. Innovation is quoted as the lever which most executives know will make the difference if they want to remain successful and set up their organisation in a sustainable manner. Contrary to conventional wisdom, innovation leaders use recessionary times to escalate innovation efforts. 26% of companies still no have formal or no system at all in place to achieve innovation (Accenture, 2016) let alone a culture which sets them up for successful innovation to take place. Microsoft’s innovation team now actively encourages employees to get involved with three forms of innovation: product, business model, and policy. Forbes, 2015, quotes Cathy Wissink, a Senior Director at Microsoft, how the organisation went from a performance system reminiscent of Game of Thrones – with teams bringing on “sacrificial lambs” who could be easily cut come review time – to an atmosphere where senior management provides air cover to those willing to take on important innovation challenges. Since moving beyond the traditional product focus, Microsoft’s innovation efforts have taken the company in directions that were previously unthinkable.
- Effective leaders are great advocates of values. They know that “culture eats strategy for breakfast”, (Harvard) and that the living structure is so much more important to get things done than an operating model or org. chart on paper. Culture is created by great leaders who act and behave in line with the values. Values are the blue print for the leadership ethos in an organisation. Effective leaders will therefore ensure that values are not just a marketing tool but experienced by all stakeholders throughout all interactions, bringing the Employee Value Proposition to live. In an era of social media where trust and authenticity is key, stories will be shared both by customers and employees, which will either be value destroying or creating depending whether the company is acting in line with what it stands for. Effective leaders will make sure that they effectively engage all stakeholders in co-creating the values led leadership framework and align all leadership related activities achieving an empowering, accountable, self-leadership culture.
- Effective leaders know that strategy and leadership will not be impactful if approached in a sequential manner. Effective leaders are not naïve and do not hold the “pause” button for too long, accepting the strategy to be frozen for a year. You will not see them first conducting a strategy workshop and then organising a team effectiveness intervention to implement the strategic plan. They will make them dance together as it is in the rare and balanced combination of both of these disciplines that the energy of an organisation’s value rests. They are clever and will approach strategy and leadership as an opportunity to amplify the assets and potential already present in the organisation. Effective leaders will also set up a “strategic PMO” to support current internal functions and business units to monitor progress. They use this to help hold the leadership team’s “feet to the fire” for delivery of both strategic and leadership delivery measures.
Effra Consult operates as a consortium of highly experienced experts in strategy, leadership, change and innovation who a have a passion and understanding of the value the whole picture. We have regular debates on how to keep our feet on the fire and practice what we preach. We’d love to hear from you mailto:info@effraconsult.com if you like to join into the debate or want to test us with a real life example.
Sources used in this article:
- Forbes: Stephen Wunker (July 29 2015): The Little Black Book of Billionaire Secrets – 5 Strategies Big Businesses Use To Build A Culture of Innovation
- Accenture Innovation Survey, 2015.
- Gartner: website – press room November 2015