Many strategies are overvalued because they undervalue people.
Strategies and plans are often built assuming they will be executed by cross-functional colleagues who are already aligned and capable of collaborating with one another.
Few managers tell the exec team as they pitch their plan: “We could deliver the product sooner if we were operating seamlessly across the business.”
Equally rare are the executives who ask their direct reports: “Does your team have the ability to align with cross-functional colleagues so you can deliver this plan on budget and on time?”
Which means strategies are doomed for the graveyard even before they’re launched.
Differentiate Your Leadership
As you pitch your plans, demonstrate that you value your strategy by outlining how you’ll connect cross-functional colleagues to execute the strategy.
In fact, you can further differentiate your leadership this way: Rather than waiting for a plan to be rolled out and then creating necessary alignment (that’s classic change management), instead be diligent in developing the discipline of deep alignment on a daily basis even before plans are made or changed.
Here are three steps to do this:
- Ensure every team member is clear on a few, specific values and behaviors that are non-negotiable in their demonstration.
- Go beyond agreeing to a shared objective. (That’s the easy part.) Make certain that the tasks of each colleague are coordinated and synchronized across the enterprise.
- Set the expectation that colleagues activate the best in one another (rather than de-activating).
Align early. Align often. Then align again.
Hat Tip: M.S.
