Leadership Series - Dont Mistake execution for strategy




Before I directly jump into the topic let me first ask you one question - what’s more important ‘Strategy’ or ‘Execution’? I think there can be a great debate to it. Most of the posts on social sites claim that both are important. Strategy is more about decision making from the choices best suited for the overall goal, whereas Execution is about defining a clear action plan for achieving or executing the agreed Strategy.

As leaders, we embrace three key elements of strategy execution to ensure success. They are:

Clarity on our vision: We all know the vision of our organization, but it’s important that we articulate it to our clients and stakeholders which helps gain client confidence. 

Define Accountability: This is an absolute essential when we work in a group. As a leader, I will need to involve right resources for the project based on skills and make people accountable for the task assigned to them to carry out the vision in our strategy.

Track progress and results: This is the most important part of strategic planning which I call ‘bridging the gap between strategy and execution’. Monitoring the execution progress is tremendously important to monitor the way to achieve the defined goal.

There are a few questions (could be more as well) that could help you avoid roadblocks  for executing strategy, but will also help you incorporate some keys which could help you bridge the gap between strategy and execution during the planning process. Ask yourself these questions:

  • What is the objective of your strategic planning process?
  • What do you want to accomplish?
  • Who all needs to be involved?
  • How can you best execute?
  • What else should you consider to achieve your objective? 

If you have answers to these questions and if you can implement them in your strategic plan, your project is bound to succeed. So I believe as a strategic leader the 10 principles that anybody should follow are:

  1. Distribute responsibility
  2. Open for information sharing
  3. Encourage but control multiple paths for raising and testing ideas
  4. Develop opportunities for experienced-based learning
  5. Readiness for transformation
  6. Find time to reflect and monitor progress
  7. Culture of learning should be an ongoing practice
  8. Acceptance to failure 

These principles represent a combination of an organizational systems and individual capabilities — you can say they are the hardware and software of transformation. I believe as a leader I should always have the ability to guide and transform my people amid societal and business challenges and disruptions and pave the way for others to follow.

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