68. Are you an Operator or a Strategist?

I once worked with a cleaner who helped his factory achieve great success.

He used a pattern of cleaning across a factory that targeted the critical hygiene areas and times of day when they were accessible.

The factory shined thanks to him. Visitors remarked on it and Quality was helped by it.

People felt good working there.

He had a strategy.

He was a strategic cleaner.

If a cleaner can be strategic, shouldn’t you be if you’re a leader?

The idea some leaders are “operational” while others are “strategic” is a myth.

“Leadership” and “strategy” can’t be separated.

Regardless of the size of your team, or the complexity of the tasks they face, (or even whether you have a team!), your strategy helps define your leadership.

Whether you have a formal “Strategy” or not.

Strategy is a mysterious term for many but should be simple.

Strategy is a planned pattern of actions and behaviors designed to achieve an outcome in an uncertain environment.

A list of targets or tasks or projects isn’t strategy. A strategy has a pattern.

A set of priorities without a clear objective isn’t a strategy. A strategy has an outcome.

A fixed plan isn’t a strategy. A strategy acknowledges and adapts to uncertainty.

A strategy has to be simple enough to be understood and complex enough to adapt to changing circumstances.

What will you focus on?

When?

What will you choose not to do?

When? Forever, or for a time?

What are your priorities?

In what order?

1,2,3…

What might go wrong?

What is going wrong?

These are all leadership tasks that can’t be delegated.

strategy…is a planned pattern of actions and behaviors designed to achieve an outcome in an uncertain environment.

If you delegate strategy you’re delegating your leadership.

If you don’t have a strategy you’re an unguided leader.

It will show in the results of your team.

Maybe you’re not a leader?

My friend the cleaner didn’t know he had a strategy.

He just adopted a pattern and knew why he did things that way.

When things interfered with his tasks he knew how to get back on track because he knew his objectives.

And he had detailed knowledge about what he was doing.

Strategy is hard to set without detailed knowledge, because it’s in the details that uncertainty lurks.

If you can’t see the details you can’t see the threats.

Without strategy we just react to what we see today.

Are you an operator or a strategist?

Or both?

Do you think about patterns, actions, objectives and uncertainty naturally and incessantly?

Are your actions informed by the combination of the current situation with the strategy you’ve set?

Whether your strategy is well articulated or not, you need one.

It’s part of what makes you a leader.

“Strategy without Tactics is the slowest route to Victory.

Tactics without Strategy is the noise before defeat”.

Sun Tzu