Sustaining Strategic Momentum

Sustaining Strategic Momentum
Sustaining strategic momentum is a leadership function. In
our last two-part article, Essentials for Successfully
Implementing Your Strategic Plan, we mentioned what leaders
do.

"Leaders have a vision. They build a small group of people
who share that vision. They have the ability to articulate
that vision and to build buy-in from others. Then they
implement the vision and the small group of people they
have gathered can move mountains and make many, many things
happen in an organization."

Your most important role as leader of an organization is
strategy. The best way to sustain the momentum you created
by following the guidelines of the Essentials for
Successfully Implementing Your Strategic Plan is to
continue to deploy the small group of people who share the
vision and are engaged in helping you implement it. If they
have taken their leadership role seriously, they will have
engaged a group of people who share the vision and who are
energized to implement the strategies needed to reach that
vision. So the amount of strategic momentum you can attain
will be directly proportionate to the amount of energy and
attention to strategy that is applied by those key
individuals who share the strategic vision.

Think of this group of key individuals who share the
strategic vision as strategic channels throughout the
organization. Those who share your passion should be kept
in the know about what's going on strategically, how it
affects them, and how it affects the people they work with.
Your role in this effort is to be constantly in front,
leading the way. As we said in the last article, you can't
over-communicate the vision; neither can you
over-communicate the strategy you are employing to achieve
the vision.

The biggest enemy of strategic momentum is distraction.
Early in my change management career, one of my mentors
taught me that leaders need to be relentless and boring in
communicating their vision and strategic direction. It is
critical that you stay on track and focused because your
ability to stay focused and keep your team focused will
directly impact the amount and quality of the results you
achieve.

According to Edgar Schein, in his book, Organizational
Culture andLeadership, what you focus on as a leader is
what the people you lead will focus on. Let us say, for
example, you have written your plan, outlined your
strategies, started building momentum, and the corporate
office sends you a new program that is strategic at a
higher level which you are expected to implement or you
encounter a barrier you didn't anticipate in executing your
defined strategy. This is a monumental strategic leadership
opportunity for you. This is the time to bring your
strategy team together. If the potential distraction is a
program in support of higher level corporate strategy, your
task is to evaluate the new program and look for ways the
new program or process integrates with your strategy. If
applicable, incorporate it with one of your existing
strategic initiatives or develop and implement an
initiative to integrate the new process or program into
your strategic plan. If the potential distraction is an
unexpected barrier, bring your strategic team back together
to devise a strategy to either overcome or circumvent the
strategy. Then deploy people and resources in the same
manner as you are implementing the rest of your strategic
plan. It is now part of your strategic plan and you can
lead accordingly.

As your strategic leaders work with the strategic
initiatives, there are some questions they should be asking
at all levels of the organization:
1. How will this support our vision of the future?
2. How closely does what we are doing or planning to do fit
our strategy?
3. Is this the most efficient and effective way to reach
our strategic goal(s)?
4. Are we leveraging our strengths and organizational
capabilities to have the greatest impact on strategic
achievement?
5. Is this a temporary support to help us implement change
and/or is it designed to become a permanent part of our
strategic direction? If it is temporary, how will we
determine when it has served its purpose? If it is designed
to be permanent, how does it integrate with other systems
and/or processes to complete the vision?

As the leader with the vision for the future, it is your
role within the organization to step out and build and
maintain the momentum to implement the strategies that will
achieve the vision. You must communicate ' in fact, you
must over-communicate — the vision and the strategies to
the point of boredom to every level of the organization to
maintain focus, to incorporate new strategic goals and
modifications necessary to keep all eyes on the vision and
to keep everyone working with energy and enthusiasm toward
achieving the vision. By having your strategic leadership
team consistently and constantly asking questions that keep
the focus of all in the organization on the vision your
organization can build and maintain the momentum that will
result in strategic success.

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About Gayla Hodges
Gayla Hodges is the President Change Agents, Inc., a
company that specializes in energizing workforces to
achieve strategic goals. She coaches executives and
managers on leading corporate change, facilitating the
development and implementation of organizational
effectiveness strategies. For more information, visit
http://www.changeagentsinc.com or call 623-362-3876.