“One thing we’ve talked a lot about, even in the first leadership meeting, was, what’s the purpose of our leadership team? The framework we came up with is the notion that our purpose is to bring clarity, alignment, and intensity. Satya Nadella, Microsoft Corporation CEO
The Big Concept.
It is common for businesses to want to do everything, to pursue all good opportunities—it is a tempting thought. There are so many opportunities out there. One of them has to hit, right? CEO’s can, through sheer will (and sometimes force), push their people pretty hard to do everything on ‘the list’. The effect of not making the hard choices on how to focus resources became clear during a recent strategy meeting our firm led. While reviewing the top three priorities his team had just thoughtfully selected for the coming year, the divisional executive stopped everyone dead in their tracks when he referenced the twelve ideas on the list that were not selected and said “there is no reason we can’t do those as well.” The faces on the Zoom screen went blank in disbelief. With that statement, all chance of successful execution of the vital few priorities went out the window. The team was confused and unclear as to how they could resource all the initiatives and still be successful. In order to grow and succeed in this current climate, it is more important than ever to move together on common objectives with intention and purpose. Staying focused on priorities that align with your purpose, communicating clearly and frequently, and making intentional choices are essential elements to the pursuit of winning
in this environment. Alignment on the intentional and focused priorities is key to multiplying the force and velocity of your strategy.
Start with your Purpose. As discussed earlier in our series, clarity of purpose is essential to charting the path forward into the new normal. While it is important to evaluate the current climate and dynamic, this data needs to be filtered through a set of “core” beliefs, which include purpose, without which you have an untethered set of actions. These beliefs form the basis for vetting opportunities. Having a clear and consistent purpose is the north star for those in your organization and can inspire others to act. Remember, purpose is the “why” behind the “what” you do. Julie Sweet, the new CEO of Accenture recently said: “You can’t expect leaders and people to be intentional, take the steps that are needed, and be a part of making progress if you’re not willing to be transparent about where [you] are and where [you] want to go.”
Practice Tip: Invest some time with your leadership team to review your Core Beliefs, Values and Purpose. Often, new team members may not understand their origin and it provides an opportunity for alignment and ambassadorship.
Be Intentional in your Choices. Times of transition can be strenuous. Think of going and playing a sport you haven’t played since childhood—your muscles become sore from lack of use. Therefore, we are not inclined to pick up a new sport every day. It is fatiguing. However, you can continue to build new muscle memory if you continue to work the muscles of one sport regularly, with intention. Transition is also a great time to forge a new path for your organization if the conditions merit change. In our past article on creativity, we discussed the ability to look beyond current reality and start to chart a course for the future. The key is that the course should be set intentionally, which means that actions should be linked in a way that ‘connects the dots’ between vision, purpose, and action. When we start to pursue all opportunities, without rigorous evaluation, resources can unnecessarily be depleted. Worse yet, the organization may continue down a path that does not relate to its purpose, other strategic activities–resulting in waste and confusion. Opportunities are like sugar addiction—we start to need the rush of the opportunity to keep things going, rather than exercising restraint and selecting the best option, which may have delayed gratification. Like an excess of sugar, which burns energy too quickly, you are left with nothing to show for the opportunities you pursued because ‘they were there’ (except maybe an organization that is bloated and regretful).
Practice Tip: Agree as a team how you want to vet new opportunities, and if you change those vetting opportunities, ensure there is a sound basis for doing so. For larger opportunities, set up a “red-team/blue-team” activity, where you have folks argue multiple sides of an issue. This can bring rigor to your process and help avoid group think.
Stay Focused. A close cousin to intentional choice is focus, preferably on the vital few. It’s better to go deep on a few things that you’ve deemed credible opportunities than to chase everything that you deem viable and hope that one of them sticks (also known as the ‘Spaghetti on the Wall Strategy’). This focus breeds alignment and leverage. Selecting the vital few is a product of team alignment, with healthy conflict, commitment, accountability, and attention to results. The tough work of leaders is to decide what to say ‘no’ to. The collective wisdom of the team is important to select these focused priorities, and then to have an execution and accountability process that helps take them over the finish line. Aim for initiatives that have a 3-year horizon, 1-year horizon, and shorter bursts of activities. Your organization will begin to understand the focus as it sees the connectivity of your actions and it will create speed and reduce friction.
Practice Tip: One way to decide upon the vital few priorities is to agree on a tentative list of activities that meet your vetting criteria, then take those activities and start to think through the resources (talent, money, time) associated with their execution. Armed with this information, you should then have a robust discussion and cut the list further, until you have no more than 3-5 initiatives for the year. Then, cascade and align the activities throughout your organization, to get the force multiplier effect of alignment.
Communicate . . . and Repeat. As we hear from sports announcers, this is the ‘money shot’. Communication creates the clarity and alignment essential to force multiplication. It is the easiest and hardest task of leadership, as it requires clear and powerful messaging along with frequency. . . and yes, redundancy and time. Communication is ‘easy’, because it is the most available and low-cost tool in a leader’s toolkit, yet it is ‘difficult’ because leaders often fail to plan for the time and thought it takes to message the direction of the organization to all employees and stakeholders. They often think that a single at-bat can do the trick. It is easy to forget that it may have taken leaders weeks, if not months, to gain clarity on the path forward–yet they expect others to have a full understanding of the direction after announcement or newsletter article. It is imperative to allow time for reflection and digestion of the messages and to account for differences in learning styles. Therefore, use as many means as possible to communicate the messages: videos, town halls, employee portals, emails, and the like. If you haven’t communicated a message at least seven times, it is not sufficient.
Practice Tip: Remember that communication is not a one-way street. Take the time to engage and listen to feedback on your new direction and make adjustments if necessary. The world is changing quickly, and companies must adapt and grow with the changed circumstances.
Throughout this series, we have covered a set of four essentials to help leaders build their organizations of tomorrow. From checking anxiety at the door, to embracing creativity and an ownership mindset, and concluding with being intentional and aligned, our focus has been on seeing the world ahead through a new set of lenses. It is time to capture the opportunities available to us all and use it to grow your leaders, your team, and your results. We hope you continue to share your best practices—please reach out to us at info@trinitasadvisors.com and let us know how you are progressing!