Advancing Marketing

Strategic Vision As An Exercise

Leadership Workshop (3 of 12) - Sharpen the Focus

Leading at Light Speed is a new leadership book by Eric Douglas detailing the 10 Quantum Leaps to build trust, spark innovation, and create a high-performing organization. Chapter 2 is all about Sharpening the Strategic Focus.

Here is an exercise that I have found to be helpful when trying to encourage people to think about the future: “Imagine yourself three years from now. Perhaps you can imagine relaxing at home, 3 years in the future, while contentedly reading an article about our company. The article talks about the remarkable success our organization has achieved. Imagine the headline and the story that accompanies the headline.

“Write down the headline and the story in your own words. In the story, describe what were the most important decisions that propelled the company to this success. Who suggested these changes? What specific things did the company do? Talk about what conflicts it had to resolve along the way.”

When people are ready, ask them to share their headlines and stories. Then ask people to share their emotional reactions: “Which stories excite you?” Second, ask them to think analytically: “What are the rationales for each vision? What is the value to our customers? What’s the benefit to the company?” Keep asking those questions and eliciting responses until people gravitate toward a well-defined vision.

Effective leaders who want to generate lasting, sustained success in their organizations need to spend a considerable amount of time and energy clarifying and communicating the strategic focus of the organization. This is the first step in building the levels of trust needed to enable people to act nimbly and quickly in the face of accelerating complexity and change.

When you assess the core values of an organization, you become more in tune with the needs and wants of your customers, shareholders, and employees, therefore ensuring success. This is true whether you’re a small company or a large one, a non-profit or a public entity. Communicating the core values creates powerful alignment across departments and divisions. This will sharpen the focus and enable people to make the correct decisions more consistently.

Building trust relies heavily on creating and addressing common values. Trust is critical and will allow the manager more freedom when evaluating decisions. In a values-driven organization, managers can delegate decisions and ask people to think for themselves. When people are set on common ground through the implementation of common performance related values, they are more likely to produce the desired results more consistently.

Aligning people around core values is the first thing that a leader should do. Common core values will ensure communication and progress.

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