Schlagwort-Archive: Strategy

Leadership nightmare

If it is sometimes not going in the direction that you desire as a boss, in the first place the others are responsible. We assume that the ideas of the superiors are thoughtful, and meaningful in a consistent and beneficial way. The feedbacks of the colleagues create the impression that it is the right way. For any reason, however, the employees do not move in the desired direction. Actually, a nightmare for the boss.

overlap

The nightmare begins not immediately, since one explains oneself the missing momentum with lack of commitment. At a closer look you find three aspects that contribute crucially, that the forces of all unite into a common direction.

  • Expectations
    The expectations of the executives determine, above all, how strongly they are satisfied with the outcomes. Depending on character, they have negative fears or positive hopes. The expectations include the actions that should be done, the results that you eventually hold in your hands, or the consequences that result in the following. The management of expectations is difficult, since rarely, if at all, only a few people take care of documenting them comprehensibly for everybody.
  • Strategy
    The long-term initiatives describe the direction of the enterprise. The individual aspects create the crash barriers for all employees, partners and even the customers. Here you find the vision that offers a conclusive snapshot of the future. It is supported by the mission that supplies the Raison d’être. During the management of everyday tasks the critical success factors, the weighted value disciplines as well as the descriptions of the strengths, the weaknesses, the opportunities and the risks help. The long-term direction needs clear messages, so that the enterprise builds upon it. The easily understandable and well documented strategy is the steering wheel that gives the enterprise the direction.
  • Activities
    The many actions that are accomplished on all enterprise levels can only be collected and listed with very, very much effort. In larger companies, they understood that this collection is not economical. The efforts of all appear in the common results. It is only important to find the right level of detail for the description of the positions and processes.

A crucial executive task is the controlling and coordination of the interests of all involved people.

It becomes a nightmare, if the three aspects mentioned do not overlap. This minus scenario means that the leadership team formulates their strategy outside of their expectations and nobody accomplishes the expectations or the future picture. The employees make something that does not go into the desired direction. The good news is that the staff orientates themselves on each other and moves them jointly in a common direction. In this case you can forego the leaders, since their contribution does not impact at all.

The plus scenario provides in any case a way out by taking consciously care of the three aspects.

  • This starts with the attitude. Should the employees only do, what they are told? Hopefully not, since otherwise the enterprise moves into a dead end. The creative ideas of the staff are what improve the enterprise. The minimum requirement is that they act into the general direction, however with enough free space for the new things.
  • The same is valid for the expectations of the executive team. A broad positioning increases the opportunities of the company. On the one hand that comes from the different functions of work (e.g. development, production, sales). On the other hand there are the personal interests and the ambitions of the protagonists.
  • The strategy should reflect as clearly as possible the results of the alignment of all involved people.

Bottom line: The executive nightmare that results from missing adjustment can be avoided. Clearly formulated expectations make the conceptions transparent. The sophisticated plan determines the general direction. The employees develop the actual implementation of the plans and realize the new operational sequences, the flat structures and a fruitful culture.

The thing about the well

You can find again and again executives, who avoid a prescient strategy with quick actions. Or others, who consider the development of a plan as a formula that reliably predicts the future. Or even those, who hide behind incalculability, in order to evade from long-term planning. With the decision to waive basic ideas, how the future should look like, they oversee the thing about the well.

Brunnengefallen

Without forecast you move with full risk and without reference point at the edge. Interestingly only a few people seem to make themselves aware of the following aspects.

  • Steps in complete darkness
    Without the formulation of vision, mission, influence factors, the strategic direction and goals as well as the determination of the core competencies, processes and deliverables you act blindly, as if you would be on the way in a moonless night and in complete darkness. And with this, unexpected events and unconsidered influences do create road blocks that can only be overcome with a lot of effort. Nothing changes, if you are lying in the well. It is still dark.
  • At two hundred in the fog
    The illusion being faster on the way casually is not much different than believing that you advance faster, if you rush at two hundred in the fog. Isn’t it clear, that it is neither a matter of avoiding obstacles nor keeping the track? The lack of orientation even does not guarantee that you move forward instead of circling. Eventually edges emerge, from where you can fall into the well. As soon as you are in the well, fog does not matter anymore.
  • Even in the well it goes deeper
    Surprisingly the fallen people in the well have the illusion, that they can make themselves comfortable in the deep. Even in the well it goes deeper. The tightness provides no security, since it still goes further down. For this reason you have to make all possible efforts to get out of the tightness and to get back on the way of strategy.

As soon as you are in the well, the effort for the development of a strategy seems to be negligible, since now a multiple is necessary, in order to make progress. The reduced room for action and the unclear way out do not only harm the already achieved results. On the one hand you are thrown back and on the other hand you still have to develop a future. This blocks the way into the future with additional difficulties. After the case is before the case. It is only a matter of avoiding this immense extra-effort.

Bottom line: Those many arguments that speak against the development of a strategy are incommensurate with the damage that results from a lack of forecast. Particularly surprising, wells appear from nowhere. Maybe the thing with the well motivates pragmatics to create a strategy – even if it is only done to avoid the fall.