What’s the difference between a strategy session with your team…and hanging holiday lights around your home? Both leave you susceptible of falling from perilous heights. Both can provide extreme shock from over-amplification. And both can present the sensation of being in a tangled mess.
The difference between the two? You choose to hang holiday lights. You have to have strategy sessions. (Or at least, you’d better.)
But most people only think strategy alignment at the beginning of a new period, be it fiscal or calendar. Instead of waiting to lead when the New Year begins, inspired leaders also lead before colleagues go out the door. (Bringing closure = acceleration in the New Year.)
Safely hang the holiday lights with your team in the coming weeks by asking these questions:
1) In what important ways did we deliver on our purpose in 2011? What strategies were we most effective at executing?
2) What are some of the most important lessons learned in 2011 that we will apply in 2012? How?
3) As a team, what did we discover or reinforce as our greatest strengths in strategy execution?
4) When we return in 2012, what will be our greatest priorities?
5) As we look to 2012, what are we most passionate about delivering – and why?
6) As we consider executing on our 2012 strategies, what do we want to do more of, better, or differently as a team?
These questions are crafted using the method highlighted in our forth-coming book, Degrees of Strength – The Innovative Technique to Accelerate Greatness. They are a reminder that leadership doesn’t have to be as bewildering as the rats-nest of lights found in the holiday storage closet; leadership can be as rewarding as you believe it should be.
