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Intentional Leadership — D5, W4, M10 — Strategy

Good morning and Happy Friday! It’s been kind of a soothing week here, soft rain…kind of nice, actually. The trees continue to change color, although the rains have caused a lot of leaves to fall, so we have a lot of naked trees, already!

I’ve been thinking about strategy a lot this week, as I suspect we all are, since it’s our area of focus this month. In fact, I spent some time reading about it just yesterday, as I’ve recently completed the StrengthsFinder assessment, and my strongest talent/strength is strategist. The description depicts one who quickly picks up on patterns, envisions the diverse paths one could take, quickly considers the various consequences, culling options all the while, eventually landing on the most effective path to the desired outcome.

It’s a timely concept as I have been working towards a significant transition in my life and it is coming closer…in fact, I’ll be able to share more details with you very soon. As I’m in this “wiggly” space, I am, in fact, very much in a strategizing mind-set. And, as I don’t believe in coincidence, this month’s focus on strategy has been a little more thought provoking for me than some of the other topics we’ve covered to-date.

Having reached this turning point, finally, I intend to “celebrate” this afternoon by treating myself to a scoop of Hershey’s Peanut Butter Cup ice cream (it is suspiciously nearly exactly the same as Baskin Robbins’ Peanut Butter and Chocolate…which isn’t available locally!) on my way home…and then we begin the weekend.

As usual, mine will be a mix of work and family time. I need to go back through some bookkeeping (not my strong suit and I’m learning a new system) and make some corrections. We’ve been invited to an “end of summer” party at a friend’s house. Some writing time, some resting time, and yoga. I am also looking more seriously at what’s going on the next couple of months — not just holidays but also end-of-year activities and planning for 2014.

How will you spend your weekend?

What thought have you given to the next 2-1/2 months?

Have you taken an inventory of your accomplishments and your progress-to-date towards your 2013 goals?

What can you do this weekend to prepare yourself for the week and weeks ahead?

What can you do to nurture yourself this weekend?

Who else needs your time and attention?

What have you been putting off that you just finally need to tackle?

However you spend it, I hope it’s intentional!

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Intentional Leadership — D2, W4, M10 — Strategy

How well do you know your team / organization? If you are to capitalize on your opportunities, it’s important that you know them extremely well; you need to know each person’s strengths and capabilities.

Strategies often fail during implementation because of an organization’s or team’s failure to scope the correct amount of time, capital, and talent necessary to fully embrace the opportunity.*

To avoid finding yourself in a similar situation, take some time today to think ahead…

What opportunity is in your future that you need to take advantage of?

What errors, obstacles, challenges do you envision encountering on the path to your goal? How can you minimize your chances of stumbling over any of them?

What else is going on in your organization that might cause additional challenges or restricted resources as you pursue this opportunity?

Who else needs to know your plan? What other teams/areas of your organization will be touched by this opportunity?

Whose talents do you need on your team to move strategically into this opportunity?

How soon can you meet with the necessary individuals to work through your strategy, map out some actions, and get started moving forward toward this opportunity?

*From Intentional Leadership, by Giant Impact.

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Intentional Leadership — D1, W4, M 10 — Strategy

This week, we are going to focus on how we can capitalize on opportunities.

As I sat down to write today’s blog post, I was reminded of a story I read last night about Miley Cyrus and the recent “events” in her life. I need to preface this by saying, I don’t follow her career, don’t condone her behavior, or agree with what she appears to be doing. I know enough of her life to know she is Billy Ray Cyrus’ daughter, used to be a young girl sensation as Hannah Montana, and now is apparently dead set on making herself over in a completely new image.

When I would hear some of the stories of her recent behavior (and who could have missed some of those stories?!), I thought, “Oh my goodness! She must not be thinking about what she’s doing and the potential implications and consequences of her behavior!” Frankly, I thought she was yet another public train wreck — another young person thrust into the spotlight and dysfunction that comes with that kind of celebrity when one is too immature to understand and deal with it in healthy ways. But, if the article I read last night (a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly, following her episode as host of SNL) is accurate, my initial perception of her is dead wrong.

She shared with the writer that, in fact, what she had been hoping would happen following her performance on the music awards show is exactly what is happening! She noted that while it’s clearly more than a month since the music awards show, people are still spending a lot of time and energy talking about her, her performance, the controversy, and her music. In fact, the cycle continues to churn with new stories popping up, a couple of “open letters” from Sinead O’Connor, etc…Then she appears on SNL, making fun of herself, and spoofing others in the skits, and not in a pathetic, clownish performance. She says her most recent album (dating myself, aren’t I?!) is getting lots of play…and she commented that she knew exactly what had happened to Hannah Montana, “She was murdered!”

Clearly, this last comment is her telling the world that she has deliberately shed the innocent young girl persona and is ready to take on the world in this new, very sexual and very risque new version of who she is at this time.

The result, lots of air time in a lot of forums…lots of discussion…and more opportunities for exposure. Perhaps she’s not entirely a train wreck? She sounds as if she is indeed a shrewd young woman with a plan (a strategy) propelling herself forward. This is not to say that she will be entirely successful in achieving all she dreams of; only time will tell. But, for the moment anyway, this young woman has a strategy and she is executing against it.

So how does this apply to us? As leaders, it behooves us to have a strategy clearly mapped out and to rehearse them in our minds prior to executing them. This gives us the opportunity to operate at a higher level of awareness, which, in turn, allows us to be more intentional in our words and actions as we work to propel ourselves, our teams, and our organizations forward, as well.

What opportunity is in your near future? In what ways could preparing give you every advantage as you move forward?

As Charles de Gaulle said,

You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive or else a strategy is useless!

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