Mike Russell

Annual strategic planning is coming up for many companies.

Beware! A good strategic plan isn’t a guarantee of success.

Far from it.

A good strategy will underperform – or even fail – if the organization’s culture, people, and processes don’t support it or believe in it.

Don’t guess about the ability of your culture, people, and processes to support your strategy.

Our short assessment can help you pinpoint areas to focus and areas that will sabotage your plan.

Now is the time to run the assessment, so you have results in time for planning.

Find out how to get the information you need – contact us to discuss with no obligation.

Only 59% of junior employees feel that their top brass embodies their company’s “leadership mindset”
(according to a recent report https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/juniors-execs-see-leadership-gap-6427234/)

Does this report describe your situation?

“Do as I say and not as I do” does not breed trust in anyone.

Nor does it promote “do as I say” in lower level leaders … just the opposite! Lower leaders will usually emulate upper leaders and do as they do. After all, the higher leaders made it to that level, so doing as they do would appear to be the path to greater success.

Distrust then increases as more leaders behave differently from the supposedly ideal company leadership behavior.

Two key questions:

❓ How do you know if the report describes your situation?
Usually there is a disconnect between what higher-level leaders believe is happening and what is actually happening. It’s common but curable.

❓ Do you care?
Meaning … are you willing to:
a) find out the real situation?
b) make changes to align your behavior with the stated “leadership mindset”?

If you don’t care, then don’t waste everyone’s time (including yours!) with coaching or consulting.

If you do care, be aware that any coaching/consulting will NOT work with a “done for you” approach. The best approach is “done with you” since behavior change cannot be done for you … only you can do that.

DIY (do it yourself) leadership behavior change can work, but is usually much more difficult because:

🔎 People are less likely to respond to questions and surveys from you (why you don’t always get accurate information) compared to from someone outside the organization.

👁 It’s hard for you to “see” your own behavior accurately.

We have organizational assessments to help with this, as well as experienced coaches. An introductory coaching session is free with no further obligation.

It took me too long to understand a key underlying point across several of Sahil Bloom’s learnings from being in an entrepreneurs retreat (https://lnkd.in/eCrWAFEQ).

Trying to be “solo” as an entrepreneur – or leader for that matter – is wrong for most everyone. Getting perspective and feedback from outside your current thinking is critical.

I think there is also a broader view of his first key learning: “Freedom is the real goal. Once you’ve achieved a certain level of financial success, everything becomes about a quest for freedom.”

The quest for freedom is available for everyone, regardless of financial level. Everyone has some degrees of freedom, even if less so due to tight finances.

It’s rare to achieve greater success, whether financial or otherwise, if you don’t understand and seek freedom – ability to make your own decisions – where you can now. Why? Because that is where you can make the changes that enable more freedom – and success – in the future.

Waiting for the ability to seek “freedom” later is almost certain to guarantee you won’t get it.

This is especially true for leaders.

Jeff Panning laid out in a recent article a lot of good change impact factors to consider when managing a project.

There is one important point in his discussion that needs expansion.

Jeff noted “Decision: is a change management workstream required for your project?”

My take on that is it is more of a rhetorical question … I think the answer is always “yes” and to consider factors like he suggests.

The reason?

A project – by its very nature – is *intended* to produce change of some sort.

How you deal with that change is a major factor in whether or not your project succeeds or not.

Change management may not be a big “workstream” unto itself … but there should always be change elements in planning and execution.

And, as colleague Thomas Meloche has been writing about lately, organizational change almost always involves politics. This makes change management even more critical.

Ignore change and politics at your project’s peril 😉

Every leader has a number of issues to deal with and, sometimes, struggle with.

This does not make someone a “bad” leader … if a leader doesn’t have issues to handle at least sometimes, they are probably no longer needed and can move on.

The key question: is working an issue on your own the possible or best way to resolve it?

If on your own works, fine. Don’t be “guilted” into having a coach for everything by all the coach marketing you see, or have a coach just for appearances (unless needed for political reasons :-).

For those issues that are better addressed with independent perspective or require help getting past a stubborn roadblock, find a coach.

Group roundtables/masterminds can work too, if there is enough trust. Groups also typically work best when paired with 1-1 coaching in addition to group sessions.

If you want to find out more about coaching or a group approach, contact me to discuss your situation. We don’t require year-long or longer commitments … just enough time initially to help you work through your current issue(s). You can decide to continue after that if you wish.

P.S. Coaches can especially help with personal “head trash” and self-inflicted roadblocks in addition to organizational issues.