Clear strategy makes your executive team, a team

We were talking with potential new clients last week about coaching for their executive team and one of their challenges around alignment is not having a clear strategy.  The team is also struggling to build trust, work cohesively and create a shared vision with clearly defined priorities. The lack of clarity around strategy is leading to the executives each pursuing their own independent strategies for their business functional areas and contradicting one another causing confusion in the teams below around consistent direction for the organization. Without a clear strategy, this team is unable to come together as a team.

Effective leadership teams and strategy go together and each strengthens the other.  It’s hard to be a team working together towards the same future without clarity of purpose, priorities and how we define and measure success. To have your team truly operate as team vs a working group, its essential that the team also has clear vision they are working together to achieve.

Here are six ways your strategy can also help strengthen your leadership team:

Build more trust

Trust is the foundation of effective leadership teams. Development of a strategy and setting priorities requires a team to come together, debate perspectives and finally commit to a shared vision of their future.  When executed well this process brings out courage within the team, share vulnerably and ultimately build more trust across the team.

Take more risk

Setting priorities help us be clear on what’s important right now despite other things being noble and worthy.  These can be hard choices that require risk taking.  Executives especially in large corporations are reluctant to propose and advocate for risky projects.  Strategy planning is a fantastic opportunity to use the collective strength of the executive team to assess and take risk in batches.

Connect to their inner passion

Clarity of purpose connects our emotions and passion for the work we are doing to get to our goals and North Star faster and easier together. It helps us all row in the same direction with more energy.  It gives the team a purpose.

Increase confidence

Building a strategy with input from across the executive team not only builds clarity but also buy-in and commitment to the plan.  This mindset of confidence in the plan improves communication with all stakeholders including the board, staff, customers and suppliers.

Avoid a bias towards solving small, incremental problems

The absence of strategy keeps us in a reactive mode – solving the problems that come our way rather than taking command of what’s important and making important choices (even amongst bad choices) to move forward.

Increase team resilience

Having a clear sense of purpose and direction enables the team to take a punch and help them navigate volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.

Team clarity is a key outcome of strategy development

Strategy starts with understanding where we are today and where we want to be in the future.  The dialogue across the team in discovering, creating and prioritizing strategy not only brings a clear plan for the future it builds a foundation for team alignment and trust.  While the output of strategic plans include visions statements, one page plans and other strategy documents the team alliance that results is what makes your team, a team.