You might just get it, of course. What is your strategy over the next few years? Decades? Centuries? Am I crazy, you ask. No, I don’t think so. Strategy is always forward-looking, and is not so much an expression of long-term goals as a manifestation of WHO you are, WHO your organization IS. In other words, it is the current expression of vision. It is also known as the current mission, if you can accept that line of thought. Leading your organization, or even yourself, in terms of strategy formulation can be rather daunting. The main reason is that prophets have been known to be stoned over predictions that did not come to pass, and it is quite reasonable to assume that this has not changed. In order for strategy to be reasonably effective, you need to be possessed of strong leadership qualities, and I do not mean those which have been hailed as what makes for great leadership. For instance, ambition has no place in great leadership, but boldness and benevolence certainly do! Do you have great leadership qualities? Good! Name one! Still hesitating? You might need to see me, then!

This is fundamentally important because if you don’t have great leadership competencies, you might have a tendency towards leadership fallacies. One of those fallacies is wishful thinking when it comes to making strategic plans. Clarity of thought is absolutely essential. How you ensure that your plans could possibly be viable is to ask yourself “What instructions am I going to give to my people in order to be able to execute this plan?” If you can’t answer that, the drawing board is calling out for you! Don’t be afraid to return there as often as necessary. Of course, I don’t expect you to be stuck there, using it as a crutch for indecision, either! But never be afraid of going back to the drawing board! If you can answer how you are going to give instructions to your people, well, you might just have a working strategy. Don’t wait for it to be perfect, move now, and roll with the punches as you go!

So, do you know where you’re going to, do you like the things your strategy’s showing you? What are you wishing for? Do you know? When you wish for what is viable, your strategy will show it. You will only wish for what is viable when you are a strong, practical, effective leader. Otherwise your strategy will be nothing but fallacy. The execution will prove it. Either way. Do you know?

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