Have you set your leadership intentions for 2024 yet? If you haven’t and you don’t know where to begin, have a read at last week’s blog and take a moment to reflect and set the tone for the 12 months ahead.
It’s very important that you know your intentions for this year, as it will help you be more focused and aligned with your goals in everything you do; whether that be in your personal life or professional career. And as you step into a new phase of your leadership journey, a question often arises: What truly defines success — sheer luck or relentless hard work? It’s a contemplation that often fuels discussions and debates, leading us to explore the intricate dynamics between dedication and fortune, which is why we’ll be talking about SUCCESS starting this week and in the next week or so to fully understand the essence of success. This is the first of the series, more exciting and valuable lessons ahead.
The Power of Strategy: Making Hard Work Easy in Middle Management
In the hustle and bustle of your role, it’s easy to become entangled in the daily grind. However, true success often lies in strategic moves rather than relentless toil. And in implementing a strategy, remember that you are a star player!
“A strategy, even a great one, doesn’t implement itself.”
– Joroen De Flander, Author of the Strategy Execution Heroes and The Execution Shortcut
However, as Hrebiniak, Expert in Management Strategy and instrumental in the making of the courses on the subject for the MBA at Wharton, said, “If a strategy is not effectively implemented, no business strategy will be successful, but where the development and formulation of strategy is difficult, the implementation and execution of strategy is even more so.”
A good strategy alone does not ensure a company’s success. As the leader, you have to be an effective communicator between the upper management and your team. It’s the fourth habit of a high performing Middle Manager that I’ve shared in my previous blog. You need to be able to communicate the organisation’s strategy and goals to your team, as well as communicate your team’s achievements and challenges up to senior leaders.
Middle Managers who improve their communication skills and become even more effective communicators will also find their confidence and influence amplify. The CONFIDENCE Program™: Middle Managers Mastermind can help you and/or your management team, boost your self confidence and leadership for greater business success. Find out more here.
To effectively implement a strategic plan, make sure you do the following:
1. Determine the main purpose of the plan and communicate it with the team
What’s the purpose of the plan? Why is it important for the success of the organisation? These are just some of the many questions you should determine first before communicating a strategic plan to your team. Make an outline of the organisation’s goals and objectives to make sure that your team can fully understand them and work with you towards achieving them. Be clear about the timelines too, as it will help you and your team come up with ways to get things done in an efficient and timely manner.
Additionally, don’t overwhelm your team with too much information. Break the session into multiple meetings. That way nothing will be lost and forgotten at the same time, you can focus and discuss what’s needed first and the rest can follow.
According to CONDECO, a workspace scheduling company, people’s attention span only last between 10-18 minutes in a meeting. So, think about your planning session, can it be broken down into multiple meetings?
2. Be clear about each team member’s roles and responsibilities
Assign roles and delegate responsibilities. This will help you and your team achieve your goals efficiently and effectively, while making use of the time wisely. When everyone in the team knows their responsibilities, they can focus their attention towards it so that by the time you have your next meeting, they can report their progress to you and the team. In contrary to having everyone do bits and pieces of anything, they will most likely get confused in the process and in the end, they won’t feel they achieved much.
3. Listen to everyone’s opinions and suggestions
In implementing a strategic plan, think about your people’s opinions too. Don’t assume that they are all agreeing with you and that they understand what you’re trying to achieve right away. Give them a chance to speak up and tell you what’s on their mind. They could have much better plans to improve your strategy, so let them talk and be sure to listen. Take this short course on how to Be a Better Listener and improve your listening skills. Click here.
Now that you know the goals and objectives and you’ve communicated them very well to your team at the same time, everyone knows their roles and responsibilities and you’ve listened and improved the strategy based on your team’s suggestions, the implementation of the plan won’t be that complicated anymore as you’ve made sure that it’s clear on everyone what needed to be done moving forward. If you need further help and support on this, please let me know. I’d be delighted to.
Next week, I’ll share more about success focusing on ‘Seizing Opportunities: Recognising and Creating Luck.’
