The Leadership Strategy: An Unmined Comstock Lode of Results

During the Second World War, Winston Churchill had a framed inscription on his desk that said, "It's not enough to say we are doing our best. We must succeed in doing what is necessary."

The world demands results. Good intentions and promises are no use to it. And one of the best ways for any leader to get results is to employ a strategy, which is a plan, method or series of actions for obtaining a goal or specific outcome. It doesn't matter what job you have or how many people you are leading, if you don't come to grips with the challenges of developing and executing strategies, you're limiting your abilities to get results.

In a sense, strategies are promissory notes, payment due upon demand. One reason for their becoming less than worthy tender is they are not backed by a Leadership Strategy.

Leadership Strategy -- have you heard of it? I bet you haven't. For one thing, it isn't taught at business schools. And for another, even in the unlikely case that you have heard of it and know what it is, you probably don't know how to make it happen.

In this article, I'll show you what a Leadership Strategy is and ways to institute it. It can be far more important than your standard business strategy.

Whereas a business strategy seeks to marshal an organization's functions around central, organizing concepts, a leadership strategy, on the other hand, seeks to obtain, organize, and direct the heartfelt commitment of the people who must carry out the business strategy.

The business strategy is the sail, the Leadership Strategy the ballast. Without a Leadership Strategy, most business strategies capsize.

To understand what a Leadership Strategy is, let's look at your past leadership activities.

Divide a single sheet of paper into two columns labeled A & B. At the top of column A write "business (or organizational) strategies". On top of column B write, "Leadership Strategies" -- in other words, what strategies were used to obtain people's heartfelt commitments to carry out the business strategies?

Think of the strategies your organization has developed during the past few years. They might be product strategies, service strategies, growth strategies, sales strategies, marketing strategies. You do not have to explain it in detail, just give each strategy a tag and write down the tag.

Did the listings in column A match the listings in column B? Were there any listings at all in column B? That gap between what was in column A and what was in column B is a killer gap. It means that the business strategies haven't been augmented by Leadership Strategies. And when that happens, results suffer.

I don't care if you lead three people, three hundred or three thousand and more. I don't care if you're in sales, you're a plant supervisor, a marketing manager or a COO, CFO or CEO. You're going to need a Leadership Strategy.

And if you don't think you need any kind of strategy, think again. Whatever job you're doing takes strategic thinking. In fact, getting in the habit of looking at whatever you do in strategic terms gives you a great advantage in your career advancement.

The roots of the word "strategy" come from two German words, the first meaning an encamped or spread out army and then second word meaning "to drive." In other words, a strategy gives direction, organization and force to an otherwise scattered organization.

Most business leaders are good a developing business strategies. They're taught how at business schools. But I'll bet that 9,999 out of 10,000 leaders don't know what a Leadership Strategy is, let alone how it fits in with a business strategy.

Leadership Strategies are not taught at business schools because such Strategies find their meaning not in abstract formulations or case studies but in what can't be taught but must be experienced, process and relationship.

And if you haven't thought of a Leadership Strategy before, start thinking about it now, because it can boost your career in many ways. Most leaders develop their strategies in bunkers, without taking into consideration those outside the bunker who have to implement it. Unwittingly, they buy into the "fallacy of automatic reciprocity" - the conviction that their devotion to the cause is automatically reciprocated by the people they lead. It's a fallacy because reciprocity is not automatic. It can't be ordered. It must be cultivated and earned.

Here, then, are five steps to developing a Leadership Strategy.

(1) Understand your business strategy. There are many books and courses on developing business strategies. I don't want to re-invent this wheel. Suffice to say you should clearly develop that strategy.

(2) Identify the dream(s) of your cause leaders.

Why do I say "dreams"? Far from being fluff, dreams are the stuff that hard, measured results are made of.

Look at it this way: Leadership is motivational or it's stumbling in the dark. The best leaders don't order people to do a job, the best leaders motivate people to want to do the job.

The trouble is the vast majority of leaders don't delve into the deep aspects of human motivation and so are unable to motivate people effectively.

Drill down through goals and aims and aspirations and ambitions and you hit the bedrock of motivation, the dream. Many leaders fail to take it into account.

Dreams are not goals and aims. Goals are the results toward which efforts are directed. The realization of a dream might contain goals, which can be stepping stones on the way to the attaining dreams. But the attainment of a goal does not necessarily result in the attainment of a dream.

For instance, Martin Luther King did not say, "I have a goal." Or "I have an aim." The power of that speech was in the "I have a dream".

Dreams are not aspirations and ambitions. Aspirations and ambitions are strong desires to achieve something. King didn't say he had an aspiration or ambition that " ....one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'" He said he had a dream.

If you are a leader speaking to people's aspirations and ambitions, you are speaking to something that motivates them, yes; but you are not necessarily tapping into the heartwood of their motivation.

After all, one might aspire or be ambitious to achieve a dream. But one's aspiration and ambition may also be connected to things of lesser importance than a dream.

A dream embraces our most cherished longings. It embodies our very identity. We often won't feel fulfilled as human beings until we realize our dreams.

If leaders are avoiding people's dreams, if leaders are simply setting goals (as important as goals are), they miss the best of opportunities to help those people take ardent action to achieve great results.

I teach leaders to have their organizations get into the realm of achieving "more results faster, continually." To do so, you must first take the trouble to understand the dreams of the people you lead.

(3) Create a Shared Dream. If your vision of where you want the organization to go and their dream of where they want to go are shared, you call it a Shared Dream. Furthermore, you can't go to the next step unless you have developed a Shared Dream.

Look at it this way: The critical issue of the Leadership Strategy isn't the motivation of the leaders. As a leader, you must be motivated. If you're not motivated, you shouldn't be leading. The critical issue is: Can you transfer your motivation to the people so they are as motivated as you are?

(By the way, the Shared Dream is not "win/win". As you'll see, it's much deeper and richer relationship than the self-limiting "win/win"; for unlike "win/win", the Shared Dream is an on-going relationship process from which flow mutually beneficial expectations and solutions.)

(4) Turn the Shared Dream into a Leadership Strategy. The Leadership Strategy is the Shared Dream manifested by an action plan.

In the action plan, delineate milestones that take you to the Shared Dream. The first milestone may be a comprehensive, rigorous identification of the needs of the cause leaders and how those needs dovetail into the business strategy. (Remember, you can use this process with any number of cause leaders. Just scale it up to the number you require.)

Churchill had it right, " ... we must succeed in doing what is necessary."

And one of the best ways for any leader to get people to succeed in doing what is necessary is to combine a business strategy with a Leadership Strategy.

2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com

The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. ? and for more than 20 years has been helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious results. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free white paper: "49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results," at http://www.actionleadership.com

---

The Goals of Leadership Coaching and Partnerships

Webster's Dictionary describes a "partner" as an ally or an... Read More

The Seven Mistakes to Avoid when Organising Your Student Leadership Program

How do you measure the success of a training or... Read More

Leadership Training Seminar - What Makes A Great Leader?

At one point or another, we have all been either... Read More

What Kind of Leader Are You?

There are literally millions of words written and spoken each... Read More

Teen View of Leadership From Around the World

It has been stated that the world of tomorrow will... Read More

Effective Leaders are (#2) Technical

SET CLEAR AND REASONABLE OBJECTIVES FOR THEMSELVES AND OTHERS: Plan?... Read More

The Code of the Conference Leader

Are your meetings generally a waste of time? Do you... Read More

Career Advice for Business Leaders: Empowering Others

Many potential leaders in business sabotage themselves and their organizations... Read More

Tough Times Demand Resilient Leaders

The stock market gyrates with unpredictable and heartburning results. Icons... Read More

Managing Monsters in Meetings - Part 6, Deadlocked Discussions

Although a meeting is a vehicle for resolving differences, it... Read More

Leadership Challenges: The Walls In Our Lives

We have all experienced walls or challenges in our work... Read More

What Every Manager Should Know About How to See the Talents of Effective Leaders

An organization of any size, from the family to the... Read More

Five Steps Towards Greater Self Confidence

We watch the star athlete calmly make the final shot,... Read More

E=MC - Is It In Me?

How many times have you seen the E = MC2... Read More

Abe Lincoln: An Extraordinary Leader

Perhaps noted as one of the greatest United States presidents... Read More

Coaching a Leader

One of my favorite memories growing up as a child... Read More

The Four Laws Of Leadership (Part Two)

In Part One, I described the laws of motivation. In... Read More

Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain!

As the 'Great And Powerful Oz' once said to Dorothy,... Read More

On Being A Born Leader

"Leaders are born, not made." Right? Let me ask you... Read More

3 Cs Leaders Must Communicate!

"Of every noble work the silent part is best, Of... Read More

Who Needs Heroes?

When we were talking the other day we started to... Read More

Leadership ? Push vs. Pull?

At your next staff meeting consider leading your team through... Read More

Leadership In The Zone!

"You do not merely want to be considered just the... Read More

Choose To Become An Encourager

"...I know that the only source of happiness is within... Read More

3 Es For Leaders - Engage, Empower, Encourage!

"Enflamed with the study of learning and the admiration of... Read More

Dont be Afraid to Lead!

In most aspects of human activity, the pendulum of fashion... Read More

Three Growth Guidelines from Stephen Covey

I have been looking for answers to what it takes... Read More

Benefits of Leadership Skill Training

DESCRIPTION CMOE's Leadership Skill Training addresses a wide range of... Read More

Dont Be a Complainer

Complaining. There's room for legitimate complaining, but if you let... Read More

Elements of Timeless Leadership

Great leadership is timeless, always in vogue. The world has... Read More

The Sink Or Swim Approach To Leadership

Looking around in most corporate environments today you'll find mission,... Read More

Three Factors Of Leadership Motivation

Leaders do nothing more important than get results. But you... Read More

Wisdom From The Rock

He grew up in Brooklyn, the son of an ex-con... Read More