#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 and sending them to different departments they think needs a person. You have a main point where the organization should be looking but people are moving in different ways. People have not known about it. They have something else. You call them for a meeting to discuss about what is critical tothe business, they won’t come in time. They think what they are doing is the most important.
At the end of the day, something which matters most to the business is not given the much needed attention. Finance is also aiming in a different direction. 80 per cent of their effort isn’t something in the company strategy. Sales is thinking about something different not aligned to the strategy focus areas. They don’t know how what they do fits into the overall company strategic objectives.
Only the CEO is the vision bearer. Only he knows what matters most to the business. The company is a divided house. Every other body doesn’t know where the company is heading. Poor communication becomes a big challenge in executing strategy.
Consider a team of people who have gone for mountain climbing. But you fail to communicate clearly the rendezvous point to meet, and the time of the meeting. Chances of going in different directions on different days are high. That is what happens to the business when the leader does not clearly communicate the strategy.
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