It might surprise you

Welcome to the Strategic Leader newsletter! In each edition, I give you a perspective, resource (e.g. a tool, framework), and a recommendation (for a book, article, talk, service, or person).

If we haven’t met yet, thank you for joining me! You can learn a little more about me here , including a short film.

Offer

Before we get started, I'm really happy to share the waitlist for my brand new course called 'Leading high-stakes meetings'. It features six live workshops and plenty of resources (tips, scripts, checklists, exercises) to help you transform your impact in Board, Exco, investor, and customer meetings. You can sign up for the waitlist here and get 30% of the fee if you enrol when it's open.

Perspective

There’s a word I feel is outdated, hackneyed even: ‘change’. Especially when I hear people talk about change management. Change is a given, daily, so adding it as a descriptor doesn’t tell me much.

It also often implies a slow, cumbersome, sequential process.

The same goes for organisational culture or trust. We know that both can be damaged in a heartbeat – from a lapse in ethics or ill-chosen words – whilst we tend to think they take years to develop them.

Wrong.

You can create substantial shifts at pace. If you design them wisely and take action decisively.

This has been one of the revelations of my work with C-Suite executives and the research I’ve read.

In fact, being too structured, too deliberate in plotting the journey of change – there, I said it again – can be counterproductive. It becomes comfortable. A process we admire. And, most of all, leave to others, typically the leaders at the top and their project managers/enforcers.

Time for a change. And at pace.

Most recently, I was blown away by the eloquence and incisiveness of Prof. Frances Frei , the co-author (with Anne Morriss ) of ‘Move Fast & Fix Things’.

You can listen to our conversation here . Frances kindly said that it was the best podcast conversation she’s had, which left me speechless.

As you can tell, moving fast doesn’t mean you have to break things by being reckless. It does mean:

• Identifying the real problems you face.
• Solving for trust: learn quickly and run smart experiments.
• Making new friends: tap into other peoples’ knowledge, especially those who think differently from you.
• Telling a good story: once you have conviction in your plan, tell a story that connects the organisation’s ‘past, present, and future.’
• Going as fast as you can: empower people to execute the plan at pace.

Each of the elements represents a day in the week, leaving the weekend free (there’s a thought) from work. And it’s based on a recognition that ‘leadership is the practice of imperfect humans leading imperfect humans.’ Their focus is to get curious – and comfortable -with these imperfections.

I’m not suggesting you can transform an organisation’s purpose, positioning, performance, and prospects in a week. But I do believe you can make substantive progress in the space of days and weeks.

I’ve been practising this myself:

1. Starting with the biggest, boldest ambition and then working back from it only when it’s not possible.
2. Identifying the real problems that are holding me back, taking a cold look at myself and the situations I’m in.
3. Committing to activities or events even when I haven’t figured out whether it’s possible or not to make it (given other commitments). I did this recently with some photography for my new Strategy Shift launch, when we managed to schedule it whilst retaining my childcare responsibilities.
4. Building a team of trusted friends, collaborators, and experts who enhance and amplify what I do. People who believe in me, inspire me with their work, and challenge me firmly and honestly, not holding back.
5. Just starting and doing, aiming for a first draft – even if it’s crappy – inspired by the work of ?? Michael Bungay Stanier (in 'How to Begin').

This is what helps me to do this. It might help you too:

• Remembering when you’ve done something superb before.
• Knowing you can do it again.
• Quietening your inner critic (have a read of the last newsletter as a reminder).
• Getting a sense of perspective. Few things in business are life-threatening.
• Thinking about your frustration and disappointment if you let things fester (when you know you could do something about them).

Try this yourself:

• Invite people to call out the biggest problems.
• Focus meetings on surfacing bold ideas and making hard decisions.
• Shake up your schedule – shorter meetings,
• Empower people to make decisions (yes, I’m going to keep mentioning this).
• Change course when you learn something that challenges one of your assumptions.

It might feel uncomfortable at first. That’s why you need to keep your friends close and your personal resilience strong. But momentum feels liberating, refreshing, doesn’t it?

What will you focus on and when will you start?

Resource

You might have seen some short films I created that represent scenarios I’ve faced in my previous leadership roles and clients have faced in their day-to-day interactions. I call out the dilemma and then offer some tips. You can see them here in these YouTube shorts.

I’ve captured the tips in a booklet that I’m sharing with you first, with a hint about my new brand for the keen-eyed readers. You can download it here .

Recommendation

I was already busy. But the invitation to this unveiling intrigued me. I said yes immediately. When I turned up, I realised many other friends did too.

She introduced her work, as an artist would, explaining her motivation and aspiration. I was hooked already. This was somebody trying something new, bold, even when she didn’t need to, I thought – she is highly accomplished, experienced, and with a great reputation. And that’s exactly why she did it. Duh. To experiment, challenge herself. Say something meaningful.

Then watched and laughed as each of these animations told a (short) story of an all-too-familiar workplace scenario – and what to do about it.

There were vivid flashes of creativity – the music that accompanies it, the use of personal touches, and more – and cleverness, in showing the role the creator, Liz Kislik , plays as the trusted coach. I came away feeling happier, inspired to work out how I will challenge myself. At pace.

If you’re looking for some inspiration either because you face a difficult workplace situation or because want to explore new ways of expressing your ideas, do check out Liz’s work here

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Thank you for reading this edition of the Strategic Leader newsletter. I hope you found it insightful and useful. Here are some ways to access further perspectives, tips, and resources:

• Follow me on LinkedIn to join the conversation on my posts, and ring the bell????on the right hand side of my name to receive my new posts.
• Subscribe to my Strategic Leader newsletter.
• Take my Extraordinary Essentials test to assess how you stack up against six characteristics of strategic leaders.
• Check out my services for strategic leaders.