Do You Need a More Proactive Corporate Strategy?

Challenging Times Often Require a More Proactive Corporate Strategy
Does your leadership team tend to focus on the immediate issues in front of them (a reactive corporate strategy) or do they pause and look for new opportunities (a proactive corporate strategy)? Our leadership simulation assessment data tells us that leaders need to do both.

A proactive corporate strategy is required to effectively rethink current and future strategic scenarios.  A more reactive and cautious strategic approach is needed to mitigate immediate threats and bring some stability to your plans.  But what is the right balance?

What the Research Says
Regardless of your level of strategic proactivity, your strategy must be clear enough, believable enough, and implementable enough in the eyes of those responsible for implementing it.  Our organizational alignment research found that strategic clarity accounts for 31% of the difference between high and low performing teams.  It also found that leadership teams should at least consider a few bold moves at their annual strategy retreats to best leverage unforeseen and unpredictable opportunities.

3 Leadership Lenses to Have a More Proactive Corporate Strategy
High performing leadership teams adopt a leadership mindset to compete in the future.  Low performing leadership teams try to simply survive today’s fires.   Here are three different leadership lenses to help create a more proactive corporate strategy:

1. Forward Thinking Lens
   Top leaders make the time to focus on how potential market shifts will affect their business. They thoroughly analyze the current situation, confer with a variety of internal and external stakeholders, and keep an eye out for trends that will give them a competitive edge.They ask forward thinking strategic questions like:

   – Are we customer focused enough to know what matters most to our ideal target customers?
   – Do we organizationally monitor marketplace signals that present strategic options we can act on?
   – Do we test different strategic scenarios to better mitigate risk and prepare for future opportunities?

2. Organizational Alignment Lens
   Corporate strategies must go through people and culture to be successfully implemented. Once strategic opportunities are identified, leaders must invest the time and effort to fully align their culture and their people to the new strategic direction.  Otherwise, you will not have the organizational commitment or resilience required to see it through.Aligned organizations ask questions like:

   – Can our leadership team make decisions and fully commit to new strategic directions?
   – Do enough key stakeholders have a growth mindset?
   – Are we organizationally agile enough to shift resources as opportunities and threats emerge?

3. Change Execution Lens
   It’s not enough to conceive and commit to a path forward. Change management consulting experts know that you must have the change mindsets and capabilities to execute opportunities with speed and follow-through. Change leaders must design business practices and organizational structures to support desired outcomes.Some questions that help prepare the organization for effective implementation are:

   – Is the business case for change clear enough, urgent enough, and agreed-to enough by those most affected by change?
   – Is the vision for change compelling enough to rally the troops?
   – Do we have enough organizational agility and financial strength to make moves quickly enough?

The Bottom Line
Does your leadership team need to do more than just hold steady during challenging times? If you think forward, prepare the business to leverage opportunities as they emerge, and adopt a more aggressive corporate strategy, you can lead in your marketplace even when things get tough.

To learn more about better strategy execution, download 3 Big Mistakes to Avoid When Cascading Your Corporate Strategy