STRATEGY IS NOT THE KEY TO LEADERSHIP SUCCESS
"For every leader, strategy is the key to success." [William Cohen]
This is the sub-heading of Part 1 of legendary Strategy and Management Guru, William Cohen's book "The Art of the Strategist." It caught my attention curiously and unearthed an earlier thought which seem in the antipodes with it. And it is from another equally inspiring business leader of this century: Lawrence Bossidy.
Bossidy said: "Philosophers are people “who are good strategists, but don’t have the capability to translate that strategy into action.”
Again, Larry Bossidy said, "I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies. "
My simple objective here is to show that having a good strategy is not just enough. Of what benefit is a good strategy without execution? Actually, it requires a bit more than a good strategy to lead and accomplish goals or vision, whether personal or organizational.
Three key areas to address the mind to besides good [strategy]:
- Implementation
? The People Factor
? Other Ancillary Resources
Again, according to Bossidy, "Execution is the missing link between aspirations and results."
WHAT IS STRATEGY?
Strategy is a plan or method for attaining a specific goal or result. Question is: Can any plan execute itself? This is my inference of Larry Bossidy's statement in the execution missing link quote above. It's exactly the same thought with regards to creativity and innovation. Creativity is just about ideas. For all you care, strategy's nothing different from a well thought out idea on paper. Without the execution of those wonderful ideas, innovation will remain a fantasy. This is my argument against just strategy being the key to leadership success.
Let's X-ray the three keys mentioned earlier.
- Implementation is another strong key point in the mix. After a strategy [the what], or an idea has been well thought out, streamlined and documented, the next point to focus on is [the how]. How do we go about implementing this strategy? This is where the strategy itself begins to make any reasonable sense: the point of taking your plan beyond thoughts or paper; the point of acting, the point of execution. And as Randall Rothernberg said, "action is where the action is - so much so that the recently retired chairman & CEO of Honeywell International Inc. felt compelled to spend a portion of his last years in management teaching the business world about it."
- The People Factor
According to Richard Branson, "take care of your people and they will take care of the business." They will drive your processes, commit to meeting your brand promise to the customer and strive for the attainment of your vision. You must align your people with goals to provide promised results.
Not just anybody qualifies to perform or achieve this laudable and noble objective. It's the role of only a select few who know what the deal is; the few who are driven by the belief that they have an appointment with value and who commit to it. These go beyond just mere staff; they operate in the realm of intrapreneur. They own and hold their own in the business. It is their life for that of the business. They operate the me-to-we wheel of collaboration in the workplace.
- Other Ancillary Resources
This is the combination of the management of other key resources of production towards the attainment of common business objectives. Again, these are people driven. They are able to first self-lead & self-manage, and this extends to time, money, and every other resources at their disposal aimed at bringing value for final outcomes [the end result], to the customer.
Without people, there are no strategies in the first place. A well-crafted plan or strategy without an equally well laid out implementation to be executed by an engaged team of committed men, will amount to nothing. How could Hannibal, the Carthaginian general, achieve that historic victory in 216 BC fighting with a mere 20,000 Force against a well-trained and well-armed 72,000 Roman Army if his strategy was not executed by a fearless and driven army whose objective was not necessarily to die for their country [Carthage] but to see that the enemies [Romans]died for theirs. And that exactly was what they achieved - vanquished their opponents [the Romans].
In sum, Dwight Eisenhower said, "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." Thus, strategy is good, but implementation is better but how do you implement without having the right team in place? This is it. Strategy is nothing without execution and this involves a lot of intricate processes that require skilled management of resources.