“When a puppy barks, the lion does not turn around.” African proverb
The iconic feature of elite performers in business, sports, science, war and art is that they focus on important discipline rather than being distracted by trivial people. Too much reaction to market trends, competitor actions and one-time customer demands may become embedded behavior patterns in the company’s culture, causing executives to ignore the overall situation. A study by consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers found that 63% of companies said their companies did not have clear strategic guidance on where they were heading. Of those who do think their organization has a clear strategy, only 35% say this will allow them to win in the market.
In the past twenty years Strategic Thinking and Planning Workshop With the executive team to guide their strategy development, I have seen what separates the elite from the other components. Here are ten areas you can use as a list to help your executive team surpass and outperform:
1. Strategic decision-making.
The key factor in unlocking larger organizational performance is to identify who has what decisions. I started this process by leading the executive team to make a decision list to determine the highest recurring decisions, importance levels, current owners and future owners. Once decision-making power is determined, we introduce tools to trigger more effective and frequent delegations, resulting in larger Decision speed The entire organization.
2. Resource reassignment.
If your executive team only reassigns people, time, and capital every year during the planning process, you won’t operate at the elite level. The executive team should conduct thoughtful redistribution of resources every month. I developed a simple trade-off exercise that provides the executive team with a forum to discuss where, why and how to redistribute resources, and stimulate highly engaging conversations that lead to substantial changes.
3. Meeting governance.
Since the average spending more than 21 hours per week in meetings, the executive team takes a more hands-on approach to ensuring time is effective and investing it effectively. I recommend that leaders rate meetings for one month based on value and then conduct meeting reviews where each meeting’s purpose, frequency, time range, attendee list and improvement suggestions are specified. A detailed guide is provided for the checklist of leaders and participants to ensure they are used to share and take insights rather than someone who talks to individual leaders, such as the monologue they provide late-night talk shows.
4. Business model evolution.
Your business model can outline how your company creates, delivers and captures value. One of the interesting exercises I led at the strategic workshop was to determine the current state of each field and then use skills to structure the team to imagine the innovations they could potentially make in the future. It is crucial that the executive team spends time discussing the future situation of the business (transformation) rather than spending all the time working in today’s business (performance). How much time does your executive team always spend discussing the future status of your business? If it is less than 20%, your company may not appear within 10 years.
5. Competitive awareness.
Recently, I hosted a strategic workshop for an experienced executive team, where a leader commented at the end: “I learned more about our competition in 20 minutes of practice than in the last six years.” When I mentioned competitive awareness, I wasn’t talking about competitors’ products, services and geographical footprints. The focus here is on the basic elements of its competitive position in the market: core competitiveness, capabilities, activities, target customers, messaging, resource allocation and strategy. How does your executive team understand the basics of game strategy?
6. Customer value.
To determine how your executive team understands the real driving force of customer value in your business, delete the 3×5 registered name at the next meeting and ask everyone to write down the value proposition of the most important product. The value proposition should address the target customer, the main needs or work of the customer, how to meet these needs in a unique way, and the benefits of the product. Then draw your business value chain that illustrates a few major activities the company uses to provide a product value proposition. To take your business to a new profitable growth level, you need to develop value between the internal (value chain) and external (value proposition) of value.
7. Organizational consistency.
High performance occurs when executive teams deliberately align their strategy, structure, and culture. These building blocks are often developed, engraved and polished, with little realization of how they fit and support each other. I have seen organizations embark on active sales and marketing product launch activities, but have built a culture based on risk avoidance due to historical penalties. Or large change management plans swallow up a lot of time and money, but because the executive team failed to delegate decisions that should have been owned elsewhere, but because the executive team failed to delegate decisions. Combining your conversations on strategy, structure, and culture, you will prevent disconnection from ruining your progress.
8. Deliberate cooperation.
One of the greatest opportunities most organizations must significantly improve their results, requiring zero additional resources, but a little thoughtful. Each functional area has internal or external customers they serve. How often do people in these groups actively meet with these colleagues to learn about new perspectives and needs? In my experience, it is rarely intentional and most common when problems arise. The executive team should
Collaboration between the appropriate groups and individuals is consistent in order to continuously create new value.
9. Insight into accountability.
Strategy and innovation are based on insight. I define insight as learning that leads to new values. The highest-functioning executive teams create accountability from their employees, proactively sharing 3-5 insights per month, which brings new value to the business. These insights will then be shared within functions, levels and business units to create a learning flywheel that results in higher engagement, higher productivity and innovation. For example, CEO Jensen Huang demanded that the important contribution of the smash success of technology innovator NVIDIA is that leaders often share their top 5 insights into what they are doing via email.
10. Board of Directors Interaction.
Beware that the executive team spends more time for Board of Directors Meeting Instead of running a business. While the interaction between the senior team and the board is important for both groups, it will benefit from lower scripted presentations and more dynamic conversations. This allows the executive team to significantly reduce the number of hours of preparation, but instead put the proportion of the entire time much smaller to develop insight-generated questions for group discussion. Transform board presentations into conversations to maximize the expertise of both groups.
The main role of the executive team is to set the strategic direction for the business and ensure resource allocation and consistency to achieve the strategy. The ten features outlined provide a roadmap for the executive team to excel in roles. Is your team acting like the Jungle King or is it constantly rushing towards the little stuff?
Strategic thinking and planning to maximize your leadership performance
Tuesday, April 1, 2025 ET 1-4 pm
(Noon – 3pm | 10am – 1pm) Join Rich Horwath – Bestseller for The New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller Strategy – In a highly interactive 3-hour workshop to gain new knowledge, skills and tools for thinking, planning, and action.
