strategy Archives - Excellerate Associates

Leadership, Strategy, and Alignment

July 25, 2019 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

Many business owners today know that their company should be aligned. They also know that their infrastructure should be arranged to support the company’s purpose, including their organizational processes, team resources, and business management systems.

While business owners know that their company should be aligned, research suggests that more than 35% of organizations operate without a strategy. And, only 14% of employees understand the organization’s strategy and their role in it. Research also indicates that more than half of employees are unengaged.

You may have put time and energy in developing your company’s foundational pieces, like your company’s Contribution in the World, Vision, Mission, and Purpose. That’s a good start, but how are these important declarations represented daily throughout your company? How does each position align with the Company’s goals? What are the accountability systems in place to demonstrate these declarations in action?

To achieve alignment and performance, what matters is how all of the pieces of alignment work together. In working with our Excelleration Mentoring Clients, the biggest chasm we often resolve is aligning the company’s strategy and goals with each team member’s position with the company’s goals.

Aligned companies have a better chance at winning in today’s business environment. To win, leaders must also align and implement accountability systems. Often alignment and accountability systems are missing; so, when scaling, leaders are confronted by multiple hurdles to actualizing their goals.

As a business leader, you may work on your goals, but how are the goals for each member of your team directly related and measured with the company’s goals? It takes a concerted effort to align your organization. When you do, the clarity and accountability that comes from it builds focus, engages your team and customers, and a actualizes a contribution in the world that is unmatched.

P.S. With each moment, you have an opportunity to express yourself, provide leadership, and make a powerful contribution in the world. I invite you to expand your natural ability to lead and experience the difference you can make by participating in our upcoming workshop, Wired to Win! Your Path to Passion, Purpose and, Profit on August 22-23, 2019. TELL ME MORE.

Leadership: A Strategy is Only As Good As It’s Execution

April 18, 2019 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

At the end of the day, a strategy is only as good as its execution. One of the most difficult challenges to implementing a strategy is consistent execution of the action plan that materializes the strategy.

You know the drill. You’re excited about the strategy, you engage your team in the exciting new future, and collaborate with them on their part of the plan.

Everyone talks about what they’re going to do. Steps are taken. You get caught up into the tasks. With each meeting, you review the day-to-day urgency of the moment.

Then, one day it hits you.

Wait! What’s the delay? How did the team get so off track?

Your immediate knee-jerk reaction may be to throw your hands up in frustration or wonder what to do next. Instead, consider asking questions to get back on track:

1. Do you have a strategy? Do you consistently communicate the strategy? Is the strategy in alignment with your company’s Contribution in the World? A strategy is designed to achieve a major or overall aim. Many leaders think they have a strategy when in fact they merely have goals.

2. Have you translated that strategy into identified goals, objectives, and action plans? If your team is not meeting their goals, as the leader, you may want to look into your own life. First, ask yourself if you’re fulfilling on areas that you promised. When you fully honor your own goals, watch as it creates a ripple effect with your team. Second, ask yourself if you are putting in what it takes for your team to generate the results. You might just find something is missing, like a new approach, communication, training, or a process.

3. In what ways have you aligned and operationalized that plan? Do you have a consistent process to meet with your team, measure performance to plan, and remove barriers to success? Communicating your action plans only once does not bring a goal into existence. Consistent communication about the metrics, promises, expectations, and desired future is key to delivering performance. Additionally, along the way, make sure to check in to see if the activities align with the company’s Contribution in the World. Without alignment and action consistent with your Contribution, it’s just metrics and meaningless meetings.

4. Does your team have the skills to execute the plan? Just because the team has their goals, they may be missing the skills to achieve them, like how to:

-Reverse engineer a project.
-Tackle a big project by breaking down the project and creating action steps and timelines with their team.
-Prioritize important and urgent matters.
-Effectively use an existence system so they make progress on what they promised and are responsible for.

As a leader, you might just find the answer to generating a high performance team and achieving your strategy is actually a question.

How Is What You’re Doing Getting You Closer to Your Goals?

December 8, 2011 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

Over and over again, I’ve seen how business owners try tactics that are costing them not only the ability to get new clients (and the money that goes along with it) but their reputation. Often times, they don’t realize that they are even making mistakes. They believe that they are just working hard. What they do know is that they don’t have the sales or the number of clients they were expecting.

The comments I commonly hear, even from the most seasoned business owners are, “Lisa, if only I could just learn how to convert prospects to clients,” “If only I had my website…” or “If only I had my brochures done”. Then, after they implement these tactics and are unsuccessful, they just figure it’s the economy, maybe they’re having an off year, or assume nobody has any money. I see hard-working entrepreneurs making excuses and it breaks my heart.

These same business owners are trying desperately to execute tactics, but they are missing the point that it’s their approach that prohibits them from making powerful progress. What they are doing is taking a bits-and-pieces approach with each tactic working in isolation from the other.

How do you know if you’re taking a bits-and-pieces approach?

You spent countless hours getting your website up and running and discovered it did absolutely nothing for you, doesn’t connect you with your preferred client, and isn’t set up to capture prospects.
You think you need brochures but you’re not sure why and you spent a lot of money on a high-gloss marketing leaflet that people just toss in the basket anyway.
You spend more time prospecting than you do working with your clients and are frustrated because you know you have it in you to make more money and make a difference in your client’s lives. Worse yet, you don’t have any idea of how to pre-qualify them before you even talk with them.

What to do?

Acknowledge that you might be implementing your tactics without a strategy. When you implement tactics without having an overall plan, it’s like getting in your car to drive somewhere, but you don’t know where you’re going. Instead, take time to map out how you will get from where you are to your desired goals.

Each and every action or tactic should be mapped to an overall objective and every objective to one of the three to five goals you intend to meet each year. When you take a more strategic approach, you will grow your business with less effort, spend productive hours with your ideal clients, better determine where to invest your marketing dollars, and relish in the sheer joy that you are converting more prospects into paying clients.

To make your 2012 your best year ever, join us for a free training call, How to Double Your Income Making 2012 Your Best Year Ever (and avoid costly marketing mistakes for good). Register now.

Get Your Free eBook: Elevate and Expand Your Brand

Your immediate knee-jerk reaction may be to throw your hands up in frustration or wonder what to do next. Instead, consider asking questions to get back on track:

Get Your Free eBook:
Elevate and Expand Your Brand