Leaders like to get things done and a bias for action often distinguishes great leaders from the merely good. But action has to age well. Wasting resources tomorrow untangling the negative consequences of action we take today negates any advantage we might have gained from acting quickly.
This is why strategy is the art of leadership.
Strategy requires talent to make good choices at all levels of the organisation: owners choosing the right grand strategy; leaders converting this into missions; talent identifying options; and together deciding how to make the moves they’ve chosen. Each needs to rise to the level of strategic thinking to make better choices.
Once choices have been made, the leader coordinates the various lines of action. This isn’t simple — if done right — as talent demands freedom to discover better ways, while leaders need to continually cultivate awareness of what’s coming over the horizon next. But done right, this is the shortest path to success.
Communication
The art of strategy rests on communication. This is not about motivating talks about inspiring visions — though there is a time and place, and sometimes a need, for those too. Great communication is about connecting the three directions of strategic thinking that the leader sits at the intersections of:
Leaders are the key conduit in every organisation, but must not become a single point of failure. They must ensure information flows through the levels — both ways. Because the quality of thinking and action in an organisation depends on how well information flows through it.
Continual loops
We also have to recognise the role chance plays in events — a force more powerful than any plan we can create. While strategy provides guidance it must also be flexible to allow talent to take advantage of unexpected opportunities — without which we rarely achieve anything extraordinary.
Action generates information, which is converted into the better choices that drives more effective action. New insights into better ways of doing things — or better things to do — must feed back into the Hierarchy of Strategic Thinking without delay, enabling us to refine our missions or create new, more impactful ones.
This is how leaders achieve that most difficult of tasks — anticipating what’s going to change next, identifying critical leverage points, and learning how to exploit conditions more effectively than rivals.
Conclusion
The Hierarchy of Strategy Thinking is not a call to centralise power in the hands of a few. Nor its opposite — opening up decision-making to a vote. Both of these have been widely tried and, arguably, widely failed.
The aim is to help leaders recognise that choices need to be made at multiple levels and they can’t make all of these themselves. Involving talent at the right levels trains them to think and act strategically — resulting in action that captures opportunities and shapes the landscape to our advantage.
My modest hope is the Hierarchy of Strategy Thinking provides you some guidance for doing this.
If you’d like to think and act strategically in your organisation explore more here: https://powermaps.net
This is why strategy is the art of leadership.
Strategy requires talent to make good choices at all levels of the organisation: owners choosing the right grand strategy; leaders converting this into missions; talent identifying options; and together deciding how to make the moves they’ve chosen. Each needs to rise to the level of strategic thinking to make better choices.
Once choices have been made, the leader coordinates the various lines of action. This isn’t simple — if done right — as talent demands freedom to discover better ways, while leaders need to continually cultivate awareness of what’s coming over the horizon next. But done right, this is the shortest path to success.
Communication
The art of strategy rests on communication. This is not about motivating talks about inspiring visions — though there is a time and place, and sometimes a need, for those too. Great communication is about connecting the three directions of strategic thinking that the leader sits at the intersections of:
- Upwards towards the owner — whose vision the business strategy must satisfy
- Sideways towards our environment — to the users we must delight and rivals we must outplay
- Downwards towards talent — equipping them to make better daily choices that bring success.
Leaders are the key conduit in every organisation, but must not become a single point of failure. They must ensure information flows through the levels — both ways. Because the quality of thinking and action in an organisation depends on how well information flows through it.
Continual loops
We also have to recognise the role chance plays in events — a force more powerful than any plan we can create. While strategy provides guidance it must also be flexible to allow talent to take advantage of unexpected opportunities — without which we rarely achieve anything extraordinary.
Action generates information, which is converted into the better choices that drives more effective action. New insights into better ways of doing things — or better things to do — must feed back into the Hierarchy of Strategic Thinking without delay, enabling us to refine our missions or create new, more impactful ones.
This is how leaders achieve that most difficult of tasks — anticipating what’s going to change next, identifying critical leverage points, and learning how to exploit conditions more effectively than rivals.
Conclusion
The Hierarchy of Strategy Thinking is not a call to centralise power in the hands of a few. Nor its opposite — opening up decision-making to a vote. Both of these have been widely tried and, arguably, widely failed.
The aim is to help leaders recognise that choices need to be made at multiple levels and they can’t make all of these themselves. Involving talent at the right levels trains them to think and act strategically — resulting in action that captures opportunities and shapes the landscape to our advantage.
My modest hope is the Hierarchy of Strategy Thinking provides you some guidance for doing this.
If you’d like to think and act strategically in your organisation explore more here: https://powermaps.net
