As a leader, you are going to have huge challenges if you don’t make the right choices. Which kind of markets do you go into? Which kind of people do you employ? Are you going to focus on brick and mortar as a financial institution or leverage from technology, which kind of technology to deploy? What choices are you making in your business as a chief executive to move ahead? Leadership is about choices, either you choose A or B. when you choose A, it means you deliberately ignore B. The biggest challenge with mediocre leadership is trying to be…

Continuation of point 4 #5 Failure to prioritize and finance what matters most As a leader, you need to know what is in your way to effective strategy execution. There are certain things as a leader you need to get right. And alignment or having insider things speak together is very important. It is like having a car not well aligned. If you are driving through a straight road, put your hands off the stirring wheel as the car moves, if the wheels are not well aligned, the car will tend to veer off. To drive in a straight path, you must…

Continuation of point 3 #4  Lack of effective communication Ask all your top managers in a meeting to write down the top three strategic challenges to the business and how they are fixing it. Chances of getting different answers are high. And that is the diagnosis for poor strategy clarity. Turn your meetings into productive meetings. Have clear targets for each of your managers and standard reporting formats to enable reporting consistency. Poor articulation of the common target to all departments is a huge roadblock when it comes to effective strategy execution.  You have HR thinking their focus is hiring people…

Continuation of point 2 #3 Poor staffing Are your key focus areas with the right people responsible for driving them? Are there clear targets to measure progress on whether they are doing a good job or not? Are your weekly SMT meetings brainstorming meetings or are about reporting on performance against set targets in their respective scorecard performance areas? It is difficult to analyse effective staffing unless you have clear scorecard targets per pillar or strategic focus area. Most of the time, you find wrong people in the right places. For example, business leaders make a strategy, and are required…

Continuation of point 1 #2 Misalignment of structure to strategy Are you trying to fit a tight small size dress into a body of a fat baby? That is what happens when you try to fit your strategy into your existing structure. There are several reasons why business leaders fail to execute strategy. One of the biggest reasons I have found based on the so many interactions with CEO’s and other executives is the failure to align the structure to strategy. Most of the time, leaders make a document and call it ‘strategic plan.’ Anybody can do that because planning is the…

It is easy to write a document and name it strategic plan. Because planning is easy. Anyone can plan. However, very few realize their plans. Why?  The measure of an effective strategy is reflected in effective execution. Avoid the mistake most leaders make of looking at strategic planning asa SWOT analysis exercise and target setting against the balanced scorecard dimensions! Don’t limit your business potential by thinking within your vision and mission to deliver a great strategy.   The measure of an effective strategy is reflected in effective execution.   As a strategy and risk expert, I have identified the…