Strategy and communication problems

Many leaders are simply not good at communicating their business strategy to the people who will execute it.  That can be fixed with good coaching.  But when your senior managers and middle managers don’t communicate the strategy, you’ve got a serious problem.

The top leader plays the most important part in setting direction and articulating the strategy to the organization.  But it must be effectively communicated throughout the organization by managers who can apply it local challenges.

Many managers are like black holes:  they suck in all information and it never comes out again.  One of the problems is that they do not understand, or value, their roles and the responsibilities that come with managing people.  Peter Drucker wrote that when you need to improve organizational communication, don’t work on the pumping station, work on the pipes.  A lack of effective communication is a clear indication that the management development needs improvement.

Fuzzy vision problem

Early in my consulting career, I worked extensively with Wilson Sporting Goods. One day I interviewed an elderly gentleman who was the wood head designer. He worked closely with Wilson’s PGA professionals (Sam Sneed, etc.) to create custom clubs. He took a liking to me and at one point, lowering his voice and looking me in the eye said, “I want to tell you a secret.” He said, “Before each shot, the best pros visualize how they’ll hit the ball, how it will go through the air, and how it will land ending up exactly where they want it to be.”

Too many companies have uninspiring vision statements that follow a form:

“(Name of company) will be the best (nature of the business) in the world, providing world-class (product or service) to our customers.”

What’s the point of that? It lacks energy, enthusiasm and meaning, it’s uninspiring, uninteresting, indistinguishable from competitors, and worst of all, it doesn’t provide a vivid picture of the future.

A vision is a clear picture of where you want to go and how you’ll get there. It is what you are striving to accomplish. It is vitally important for two reasons: First, it is the heart of strategy. Second, done right, it is a powerful way to get your organization focused on the strategy.

How clear is your strategy – Is your management team on the same page?

Most organizations set aside time each year for the senior team to discuss strategy and develop a strategic plan. Yet, in my experience, few companies end up with a strategic plan that drives the business.  Instead, everyone goes back to doing what they were already doing.  After a couple weeks, a binder containing the strategic plan is delivered to each senior manager.  Over time, the binder migrates from the desktop to the top of the credenza, to the inside of the credenza, and eventually to a file somewhere.

Seldom is the strategy referred to.  Once I worked with a CEO who told all the senior team to lock away the binder and not communicate the strategy internally least the competition learn about it. It wasn’t close to being a stellar strategy in the first place. (You can’t make this up.)

Having a strategy is good, but if your organization doesn’t know what it is, and if you don’t implement it, there’s absolutely no value.  It’s like having a high level of intelligence, but never putting it to good use.

How clear is your strategy to your organization — the people who need to implement it?  During your next management meeting, ask each of your senior managers to state in less than 20 seconds what your business strategy is.  If you don’t hear the same message from each, then they’re not on the same page.

Get a list of my key questions to ask yourself and your team to determine how clear your strategy is to the organization, and how well it is implemented.  It’s free – just click here.