#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 keep your hands on the stirring wheel. Technology is bringing us to having driverless cars. If the car’s tyres are not aligned, you will have a problem. You must keep your hands gripped on the steering wheel, else the car will veer and you move off the road. The result may be a fatal accident.As a leader, can you keep the organization running even if you get off to a holiday? Or must always keep your hands on?
The chances of you failing as a leader can be monitored on your ability to continue having your hands on the steering wheel. If you going to continue drivinghands on, it is an indicator your car is not well aligned. What are the key critical things you have to do to complete your strategy?
A strategy isn’t complete unless it has a one page summary of your focus clearly explaining the choices you have made, structure aligned to the strategy, a work plan with clear activities to actualise the strategy, scorecard to monitor the strategy and budget to implement it.
Most of the time, execution fails because these critical tools are not present. People have uncoordinated activities. You have a consultant coming to do strategy, another doing scorecard, another supporting work plans. It is just a mixture.
Maybe by the nature of the company, it gets money from the consolidated fund. Anybody at the top can get the business going with some little profits. But is that the best the organization can make if all critical elements of strategy are well aligned. That’s a question for you.
