You’ve got what you need for success—strong leadership skills, a defined business strategy, annual goals, and a promising leadership team. So, why aren’t things working?
Chances are your leadership team isn’t thinking like a team. This can be for a variety of reasons. Sometimes people end up siloed, focusing on their team and deliverables only. Other times, teams end up with barriers between company veterans and new hires. Or maybe, you’re leading a newly formed team created after a company reorganization or layoff.
Whatever is going on, what you need is a leadership strategy.
What is a leadership strategy?
Separate from your business strategy, a leadership strategy defines the purpose of a leadership team. It sets the collective priorities as a team, short term and long term, and defines how to accomplish them.
Your business strategy defines your business goals. Your leadership strategy defines what you as a leadership team are focused on and need to do. It’s not about the company or the larger org—it’s about you as leaders.
4 Reasons You Need a Leadership Strategy
It Defines Your Leadership Strategy Goals
As team, it’s important that everyone is on the same page about what they should be doing for the short term and the long term. How is the leadership team driving the success of the business? For example, should they be prioritizing increasing revenue or investing in technology? Is employee retention critical, or reducing overhead, or leading the team through a company restructuring?
When you define leadership goals, people have an anchor for their decisions. They can make trade-offs and work across teams. Once the goals are defined, a leadership team can effectively work together to ensure everyone’s work in the organization is aligned.
Create Team Alignment
Can you imagine what it would be like to be on a team that is aligned? Creating a leadership strategy is something every leadership team should be considering doing annually or biennially. It should also be revisited if 30% or more of the leadership has changed due to departures or new hires.
Many leaders mistake the business strategy for the leadership strategy. This means that many leadership teams aren’t actually aligned. This can cause conflict, result in poor decision making, and create misunderstandings. It’s this lack of alignment that prevents talented leadership teams from being as effective as they should be.
As you define your strategy, it’s important that everyone’s voice is heard and that they are brought into the decision-making process. Diverse perspectives give clarity to words, and force necessary conversations and decisions. The leadership team also creates a shared language with each other that allows them to cut to the heart of a matter more quickly.
It Fosters Open Communication
One of the major reasons to regularly take dedicated time to develop a leadership strategy is to improve communication. We are all guilty of making assumptions, but assuming that our leadership strategy is aligned can be costly.
Teams will often think they’re in agreement because they have an understanding of the business goals. However, being in agreement about the destination doesn’t mean that everyone is planning on getting there the same way. One team member might be planning to drive, another to take their bicycle, and another a helicopter. You have agreement on the destination, but without communication, your strategies might end up clashing.
It Builds Trust and Collaboration
As teams work towards business goals, there are bound to be conflicts. This isn’t a bad thing—strong organizations are made up of people with different experiences and approaches. Taking the time to connect and discuss leadership strategy builds understanding within the team. This understanding strengthens working relationships, creates trust, and makes space for collaboration.
Strong teams aren’t teams without conflict—they are teams that are able to work through conflict. Using differing opinions to spur dialogue helps teams make better business decisions. By working through different opinions as you build your leadership strategy, your team builds understanding of each other.
Bonus Tip
If you’re thinking, “All of this sounds great, but the team won’t listen to me”, you need to bring in a neutral party. Having an existing leader or team member drive these strategy sessions can bring difficult social constructs or baggage. Some team members might be reluctant to voice opinions, and others will dominate the conversation. If it’s led by the team’s leader, team members might default to their preferences.
Having a neutral third party lead these sessions sets everyone on a level playing field. They drive the conversation and provide guidance. A good session leader will push the group to improve their strategy statements while ensuring they are specific, relevant, and aspirational. They’ll also ensure the strategy is completed in a day, and there are clear follow-up items to action it.
Cadence has done dozens and dozens of these sessions with top leaders internationally, and of course we’d be happy to help if you need. Please reach out and we’ll start the conversation.
