Every invest­ment, hir­ing deci­sion, and project should sup­port your over­all strat­egy. Remem­ber that every busi­ness and every leader will face obsta­cles. Your prepa­ra­tion and con­vic­tion are what make the difference.

At the same time, if the mar­ket envi­ron­ment or cus­tomer require­ments dra­mat­i­cally change, your strat­egy needs to be reeval­u­ated. These new fac­tors may even prompt an adjust­ment to your strategy.

It takes courage to stay the course. It also takes courage to make crit­i­cal changes. An effec­tive leader can dis­cern which kind of courage is required.

Con­fi­dence in Your Strategy

Strate­gies should not be oblig­a­tory exer­cises cre­ated only to col­lect dust on the shelf until the next annual meet­ing. Strate­gies are meant to be used every day.

A thought­ful strat­egy can pro­vide clear direc­tion for the exe­cu­tion of oper­a­tional plans. When it is con­sis­tent with the vision for the com­pany, your strat­egy pro­vides direc­tion for accom­plish­ing mean­ing­ful goals and exe­cut­ing a spe­cific busi­ness plan.

Well con­ceived strate­gies should not be quickly aban­doned, even when the going gets tough or if per­for­mance appears to be slipping.

When oth­ers are scram­bling to adopt the lat­est idea, good lead­ers must often have the courage to stand by their long term strate­gies. They under­stand that the issue may not be strat­egy at all, but rather inef­fec­tive or incon­sis­tent execution.

First, Exam­ine Execution

Every indus­try has per­for­mance mea­sures that are used to com­pare results between com­pa­nies or to estab­lish inter­nal norms. Under­stand the trends. Dig into the details. Get under­neath these mea­sures to see where spe­cific weak­nesses exist.

Weak results may be iso­lated to spe­cific busi­ness units, geo­graphic areas, or indi­vid­u­als. These areas can then be com­pared with areas where expected results ARE being achieved. Exam­ine what’s dri­ving per­for­mance in these areas, and what fac­tors are dif­fer­ent than the under­per­form­ing areas.

To more fully under­stand issues with exe­cu­tion, talk to the peo­ple who do the work. Get into the trenches and see what is really hap­pen­ing where the “rub­ber meets the road.” Be care­ful to dis­tin­guish excuses from real fac­tors. Com­pare what you’re see­ing and hear­ing with the data to get a com­plete picture.

If there are per­for­mance issues, address them quickly. Larger shifts in strat­egy may not be required when indi­vid­ual areas are improved.

Reassess What’s Changed

It is pos­si­ble that the issues impact­ing per­for­mance are the result of unan­tic­i­pated changes in the busi­ness or com­pet­i­tive envi­ron­ment. The source of the prob­lem may not be inter­nal, but the solu­tions must come from change within.

What are the cur­rent indus­try chal­lenges? Is every­one in the indus­try fac­ing the same issues? What’s dif­fer­ent now than when you cre­ated your strat­egy? What actions should be taken to get back on track?

In times like this, there may be ele­ments of the strat­egy that need to be changed or adjusted.

You needn’t throw out the entire strat­egy just because one part of it isn’t work­ing. Be spe­cific, and have a detailed plan for imple­men­ta­tion. Think through the impact on costs and rev­enue before mov­ing forward.

Con­firm What Needs to be Done

Lead­er­ship often requires mak­ing dif­fi­cult deci­sions with the facts avail­able. Your best deci­sions will be made when you take the time to under­stand the situation.

Once you deter­mine that strate­gic changes are indeed required, act quickly and boldly. Develop a plan to get back on track, with clear account­abil­i­ties and time­frames. Be clear and specific.

As you move for­ward, more infor­ma­tion may become known. Con­tinue to mod­ify your actions when nec­es­sary. Com­mu­ni­cate clearly and often so every­one on the team is pulling together.

Move Ahead Courageously

Your strat­egy is much like a ship. It takes hard work and fre­quent eval­u­a­tion to stay on course. When your course is set cor­rectly, stick with it. But when storms or obsta­cles – or even poor nav­i­ga­tion – find you headed in the wrong direc­tion, it’s impor­tant to set your­self aright so you don’t miss your des­ti­na­tion: the achieve­ment of your vision.

Con­vic­tion and courage are needed, whether you need to stay the course or make a sig­nif­i­cant mid­course correction.

The clock is tick­ing. The facts have been reviewed, input received, the pros and cons weighed. All of this took pre­cious time, even if every­one moved as quickly as pos­si­ble. It’s time to make the deci­sion, and move on.

Lead­ers must have the courage to change when their orig­i­nal strat­egy is no longer viable, and to stay the course amid dis­trac­tion. Keep an eye on your vision, and you’ll know what to do.

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Tags: Change, Courage, Decision Making, Strategy

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