Sometimes we feel like as leaders we have to generate our own "best" ideas when in reality other people are saying some really good things. Other times we buy into others peoples ideas without any thought of our own. Both roads are dangerous. Maybe the most dangerous is waiting too long to act, hoping for total consensus or perfection.
I read this article this morning and thought it worth sharing. The writer reminds us as leaders of some simple truths to remember.
From
Inc.;
You're the boss, but you still spend too much time on the day-to-day.
Here's how to become the strategic leader your company needs.
In the beginning, there was just you and your partners. You did every
job. You coded, you met with investors, you emptied the trash and
phoned in the midnight pizza. Now you have others to do all that and
it's time for you to "be strategic."
Whatever that means.
If you find yourself resisting "being strategic," because it sounds
like a fast track to irrelevance, or vaguely like an excuse to slack
off, you're not alone. Every leader's temptation is to deal with what's
directly in front, because it always seems more urgent and concrete.
Unfortunately, if you do that, you put your company at risk. While you
concentrate on steering around potholes, you'll miss windfall
opportunities, not to mention any signals that the road you're on is
leading off a cliff.
This is a tough job, make no mistake. "We need strategic leaders!” is
a pretty constant refrain at every company, large and small. One reason
the job is so tough: no one really understands what it entails. It's
hard to be a strategic leader if you don't know what strategic leaders
are supposed to do.
After two decades of advising organizations large and small, my
colleagues and I have formed a clear idea of what's required of you in
this role. Adaptive strategic leaders — the kind who thrive in today’s
uncertain environment – do six things well:
Anticipate
Most of the focus at most companies is on what’s directly ahead. The
leaders lack “peripheral vision.” This can leave your company vulnerable
to rivals who detect and act on ambiguous signals. To anticipate well,
you must:
- Look for game-changing information at the periphery of your industry
- Search beyond the current boundaries of your business
- Build wide external networks to help you scan the horizon better
Think Critically
“Conventional wisdom” opens you to fewer raised eyebrows and second
guessing. But if you swallow every management fad, herdlike belief, and
safe opinion at face value, your company loses all competitive
advantage. Critical thinkers question everything. To master this skill
you must force yourself to:
- Reframe problems to get to the bottom of things, in terms of root causes
- Challenge current beliefs and mindsets, including your own
- Uncover hypocrisy, manipulation, and bias in organizational decisions
Interpret
Ambiguity is unsettling. Faced with it, the temptation is to reach
for a fast (and potentially wrongheaded) solution. A good strategic
leader holds steady, synthesizing information from many sources before
developing a viewpoint. To get good at this, you have to:
- Seek patterns in multiple sources of data
- Encourage others to do the same
- Question prevailing assumptions and test multiple hypotheses simultaneously
Decide
Many leaders fall prey to “analysis paralysis.” You have to develop
processes and enforce them, so that you arrive at a “good enough”
position. To do that well, you have to:
- Carefully frame the decision to get to the crux of the matter
- Balance speed, rigor, quality and agility. Leave perfection to higher powers
- Take a stand even with incomplete information and amid diverse views
Align
Total consensus is rare. A strategic leader must foster open
dialogue, build trust and engage key stakeholders, especially when views
diverge. To pull that off, you need to:
- Understand what drives other people's agendas, including what remains hidden
- Bring tough issues to the surface, even when it's uncomfortable
- Assess risk tolerance and follow through to build the necessary support
Learn
As your company grows, honest feedback is harder and harder to come
by. You have to do what you can to keep it coming. This is crucial
because success and failure--especially failure--are valuable sources of
organizational learning. Here's what you need to do:
- Encourage and exemplify honest, rigorous debriefs to extract lessons
- Shift course quickly if you realize you're off track
- Celebrate both success and (well-intentioned) failures that provide insight
Do you have what it takes?
Obviously, this is a daunting list of tasks, and frankly, no one is
born a black belt in all these different skills. But they can be taught
and whatever gaps exist in your skill set can be filled in. But for now, test your own strategic aptitude (or your
company's) with the survey at
www.decisionstrat.com.
Paul J. H. Schoemaker: Founder and Chairman,
Decision Strategies Intl. Speaker, professor, and entrepreneur. Research Director,
Mack Ctr for Technological Innovation at Wharton, where he teaches strategic decision-making. Latest book:
Brilliant Mistakes
