By Bill Ringle, mentoring digital product leaders and their teams to excel.
The business landscape today is volatile and unpredictable, making the execution of strategy more crucial than ever.
A persistent issue across industries and roles is the Strategy-Execution Gap.
But what does it look like in real, everyday terms?
Let’s explore the top 5 symptoms of this challenge through common roles that I encounter in my work with senior tech leaders who want their managers to change from overwhelmed to admired leaders able to grow the business from anywhere.
The Top 5 Strategy-Execution Gaps
1. Leadership Inconsistency: A Trust Eroder
Amy, a mid-level manager in a leading SaaS firm. She is often left guessing her senior management’s direction due to frequent shifts in priorities. The inconsistency rattles her team, erodes trust, and instills fear, stalling innovation and risk-taking.
Engagement Questions: Have you ever felt like Amy, grappling with inconsistent leadership? How did it impact your strategy execution?
2. Communication Breakdown: The Strategy Execution Silencer
Meet Tom, a project lead in a multinational corporation, often left out of critical communications. As a result, Tom and his team frequently grapple with half-baked information, leading to confusion and project delays, stunting strategy execution.
Engagement Questions: Have you faced communication issues like these that leave you wondering what is committed to and what can change tomorrow? How have these instances affected team cohesion and execution?
3. From Strategy to Action: The Tough Transition
Jane is a senior manager tasked with a company-wide digital transformation project. She has a brilliant strategy, developed over months with all the right input, feedback, and nuances, but lacks a concrete roadmap to translate it into action. The result? Stalled initiatives and disillusioned team members.
Engagement Questions: Can you relate to Jane’s challenge of moving from strategy to action? What solutions worked or could have worked for you?
4. Resource Misallocation: The Silent Strategy Execution Killer
Carlos is a department head in a bustling fintech startup. Despite having a dynamic team and a solid strategy, Carlos is struggling to allocate resources effectively. His team is swamped, deadlines are missed, and the strategy remains unrealized.
Engagement Questions: Have you been in Carlos’ shoes, wrestling with resource allocation and time management? How has it impacted your strategy execution?
5. Cultural Misfit: The Strategy Execution Stifler
Emily is a creative director in a new energy manufacturing firm adding automation, robotics, and AI to processes. Her efforts to drive innovation are often thwarted by a culture that resists change and discourages risk-taking. Emily’s brilliant strategies are stifled, sadly, before execution can begin.
Engagement Questions: Have you encountered similar cultural barriers to strategy execution? How can culture be realigned to foster effective strategy execution?
Addressing these symptoms is paramount to bridge Strategy-Execution Gaps.
Each manager, leader, or team member, like those in the examples, can effect changes to better align strategy with execution.
Let’s take this conversation forward – do these scenarios resonate with your experiences? Have you observed other symptoms in your organization?