How to strategically assess your year end (no complicated templates required)
So how did you do on your last strategy?
It’s a question I ask as we start the SRT process, and it’s surprising how many leaders say they don’t know, or have a varying view from their team. Most teams are fairly good at tracking plans, conducting MBRs and QBRs, and reporting on progress. But assessing the overall strategy is usually lacking.
For those that do, they often make a common mistake: only asking how well they executed the plan.
Plans are not bad, per se, but when it comes to growth strategy, we want to shift from planning to preparing mode. Seeing strategy as only a plan to implement moves us into heads down tracking more rather than heads up learning mode. It also frames us that we must deliver the set objectives and not question what we are executing.
More simply, just asking this question misses the whole point we are assessing – we want to know how well we do strategy!
As I reflect each year and at the close of the strategy cycle, I like to ask three simple, powerful questions:
Did we get it right?
Did we choose it right?
Did we do it right??
First, did we get it right? Did we call the situation correctly? When your team assessed the situation as the beginning of the cycle, did you call out the top, most critical trends? Did the beliefs you set most track during the year? How well articulated and clear were your beliefs? Did you assess the evolving situation in a clear enough way to know how to chart a course to compete and win?
How strong is your strategic scoping?
Then, did we choose it right? When you look at the set of priorities, were these the right priorities to target? Were you truly working on the true, needle moving priorities, or did some operational tactics and pet projects make their way into the list? Did you scope the top priorities correctly? Were these narrowly defined, winnable priorities, or did these become big buckets of activities?
How strong is your strategic prioritization?
And third, did you do it right? When it comes to executing these priorities, how well did you do? Were the metrics the right ones to track to, and if so, did you meet them? Did you resource your priorities with time, treasure, and talent appropriately? Did you adjust as you go?
How strong is your execution discipline?
Score yourself on a one to five on each one and call out where there are strengths and gaps. Most teams have a clear competitive advantage in one of these three areas, and a glaring weakness in another. High growth strategy is developing, executing, and innovating on strategy – make sure you are assessing the full spectrum.
