Leadership in Strategic Planning
- hwilner
- Jun 3, 2024
- 2 min read
Today, I want to explain a leader's role in strategic planning. Sometimes leaders aren't quite sure where they fit in the planning process, or they're not sure how to align their team to start reaching the goals that they want them to reach.
The role of leadership in Strategic Planning is typically a senior-level Executive who understands that there is misalignment on the team. This shows up in quite a few different ways, but typically it's when an organization is
Not meeting business objectives
KPI's or Key Performance Indicators are falling behind
The organization has stagnated (no or slow growth)
Not able to set new goals or agree on team goals
It is the leader's job to bring the team together, to initiate an event where the team can get RE-ALIGNED. It's also the leader's job to determine if utilizing a facilitator will enhance the outcome.
I'd like to share a relevant story about the most recent client that reached out. He called me when he was fed up with the organization's stagnation. He recognized that the company's intellectual property, their IP, their innovative products, and their evolving market position should be yielding higher results.
After our first meeting, we identified clearly what the two major issues that he and his team were dealing with.
The first challenge was lack of Organizational Clarity.
The second was lack of Strategic Goals that everybody was bought into.
I knew this company would benefit most from a process developed by Patrick Lencioni called "The Advantage", which quickly and efficiently defines the core of an organization and helps to determine the direction the team should go based on their current situation.
In one month, we were able to put together an event that organized his leadership team and these brilliant individuals worked together to define the essence and core of their business and to collectively agree to a singular focus while understanding each department's responsibilities. At the end of our one day offsite meeting, each department head could clearly define the company's focus their culture and their single organizational goal.
As a side note, this information is consolidated on a one sheet called the "playbook", which makes it easy to reference and to create consistency across a very matrixed organization.
Strategic Planning was exactly what this company needed. And in this case, they utilize the skill of an expert facilitator.
Not all strategy meetings will require facilitation. However, the benefits to leaders can be pretty impressive.
Enlisting the support of an unbiased confident who understands the exact needs your organization has, can quickly deliver a program that ensures participation, Buy-In and will drive the outcomes that you need.
As a leader, whether you're a Vice President, a Director, or a Manager, if your business or business unit isn't producing the results that you expect, it is your responsibility to realign the focus of your team.
This could mean an all hands meeting to communicate the goals or values of your company -yet again- or a facilitated meeting to clear the air and bring new collaborative approaches.
I want you to know that I am an available sounding board and I would love to discuss any challenges that you or your team are going through.
Please reach out anytime!
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