This week, it was a real pleasure to be interviewed for the Vantage HR Influencers podcast by Susmita Sarma. I’m super excited to share it with you when it becomes available later this month.
Susmita and I talked about Strategic Leadership – what it is and how it plays a role in driving business performance.
It was great timing, because this week also happens to be the first week of my business quarter – a week where my team and I spend a half day checking in with our business plan. We review achievements for the quarter, track progress against targets, reflect on our target market, and reset new priorities for the quarter ahead – both as a team and as individuals. I’m now entering Q3 of my business plan – and in the next Q (1st week November) – we will be resetting our goals and plans for the 2022 year.
As it happens – we also spend two days immersed in a quarterly online conference run by the immeasurable Thought Leaders Business School (my professional home) – charging us up with new energy, ideas and enthusiasm for the quarter ahead.
That’s three days per quarter – solely devoted to learning, planning and connecting as a team. Twelve days a year.
This we do every year, like clockwork, in the first week of each quarter. Everything else in my calendar is planned around these touchpoints.
These processes also happen to be things I talk about, train and embed with my clients and their organisations. These processes are the drivers of growth, productivity and satisfaction for all of us, regardless of the size of our businesses.
Strategic leadership is an intangible concept – but what strategic leadership actually is about is a set of habits and practices for harnessing the collective intelligence of teams to align on a plan and execute with confidence.
Unless you create moments in your annual cycle to reflect, reset and reprioritise, it just doesn’t happen. Teams wait for “the right moment” when they are no longer busy, or when they have a bit of “clear air”. Being busy is a sign of a healthy, growing business. It won’t stay that way unless people reflect on what is driving that growth and focus their priorities and efforts in the right direction.
Susmita asked me today, as a strategic leader, what are the most critical decisions one can make?
So, don’t waste energy – adopt the habits and practices of a strategic leader and watch your team and business thrive.