The Uncommon Strategic Leadership Model works with 5 Realms of Alignment: Mission, Vision, Strategy, Execution and Performance. The Strategy Realm is often the trickiest. It’s where ethereal vision meets cold hard reality. It’s where what looks good on paper doesn’t translate to production. It’s where the rubber meets the road.
It’s also where leaders get stuck between communicating what will be and managing what is. It truly is a tough place to be. Here are five steps to laying out real strategy:
- Envision: What does success look like? Describe with as much detail as you can.
- Goal set: By when do you want to achieve it?
- Plan: How far along towards that goal will you need to be at the half-way mark? Describe with as much detail as you can.
- Plan some more: How far along will you need to be at the quarter-way mark? Describe with as much detail as you can.
- Panic: How far behind are you right this second if that’s what you need to achieve in that short a time.
Congratulations, you have an actual strategy!
The thing with strategy is, once you put the metrics in, $#@t gets real quick. If you aren’t panicked, you probably don’t have a strategy. If only some of you are panicked, you probably don’t have alignment.