Your strategy is only as good as your skills
The following contribution comes from the Boston Consulting Group website, which defines itself as follows: Boston Consulting Group bridges the gap between ambition and results. We collaborate with organizations around the world to generate transformative impact and lead this new era.
We are in an era of unprecedented change and disruption, driven by technology, marked by complexity, where change is amplified at scale. To lead, companies need a partner that can bridge the gap between ambition and results. BCG is ready for this moment. We bring strategic clarity, based on more than 60 years of deep industry knowledge, to ensure leaders make the right decisions. We combine this with applied AI, developed and managed by our professionals, working side-by-side with their teams to generate transformative impact at scale. The result? Increased profitability, capability transfer, and lasting change. We are BCG.
The authors are Sagar Goel and Orsolya Kovács-Ondrejkovic
Sagar Goel is Managing Director and Partner at BCG Henderson Institute – Global Leader in Market Research
Singapore, and Orsolya Kovács-Ondrejkovic is Partner and Associate Director at Zurich.
Why Deskless Workers Are Leaving and How to Win Them Back
Employment and Skills Trends
Workforce Strategy
Corporate leaders often say, “Our people are our greatest asset.” But when it comes to ensuring that this asset is fully prepared and empowered, improving employee skills is clearly not a priority.
Although leading companies invest up to 1.5% of their annual budgets in training and skills development—a figure comparable to what many companies allocate to transformation or IT programs—their executives do not treat skills development with the same importance as other objectives. Our research shows that few companies link skills development to their strategy or report on their skills management as they do with other important assets.
This lack of prioritization threatens to become an existential problem at both the individual and macroeconomic levels.
The World Economic Forum has estimated that 50% of the world’s population needs new skills to meet the changing demand driven by new technologies. By 2030, this figure could reach 90%. Failure to meet the demand for new skills could cost up to $15 trillion in lost GDP. Governments have a critical role to play in closing the projected skills gaps, but companies also have an essential role to play, and it is in their best interest to embrace their responsibility.
The Current State of Skills Development
To assess the current state of skills development, we examined the annual reports and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reports of 88 leading companies selected from the Fortune 50 list of the largest U.S. companies and the 50 “Best Places to Work.” We analyzed how these companies describe their skills development initiatives and the key performance indicators (KPIs) they report. We combined this data with our own experience working closely with senior executives around the world on learning and skills development. Our findings suggest that companies need to pay much more attention to fostering skills development, tracking its outcomes, and enhancing its role and visibility within the organization. (See figure.)
Your strategy is only as good as your skills
Skills development is not a priority. Of the company reports we analyzed, 20% made no mention of learning or skills development, and in many others, the topic was only briefly addressed in a generic paragraph about human resources or social responsibility. The importance given to skills today is comparable to the attention given to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) some 15 years ago. Currently, it is not uncommon for a company to dedicate between three and five pages to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), including details on measurement, commitments and employee testimonials.
Many companies don’t pay enough attention to skills development, even though it’s in their best interest.
In our experience, senior managers also don’t give enough importance to skills development internally. In a 2020 BCG study of the learning capabilities of 120 large global companies, only 15% said they gave corporate learning the high priority it deserves.
Skills are not linked to corporate strategy. The same BCG study shows that fewer than 15% of leaders believe that learning is a core part of their company’s overall business strategy. For most organizations today, skills development is seen as a human resources initiative rather than being closely integrated with corporate strategy. Only 24% of corporate reports place skills development efforts within the context of corporate strategy, and those that do describe these efforts simply and qualitatively, usually addressing strategic priorities and referencing skills development in that context. Only a handful of companies report having a structured process for anticipating skills gaps based on the company’s business needs.
The information companies provide about the outcomes of their skills development programs is limited. While they discuss the process they follow to train their employees, few disclose the actual results. Four out of five companies report process metrics related to training, such as hours delivered or the number of attendees. However, these figures provide very little insight into the actual results. Here is a typical example (adapted) from our research: “In 2021, we implemented 56 new programs… [We issued] more than 24,800 certifications and delivered nearly 350,000 hours of training.” Meanwhile, only 4% of companies report on the results of their skills development programs in terms of business outcomes (such as increased productivity or the implementation of a new tool at work) or talent-related outcomes (such as increased employee engagement or the employability of participants).
Skills development is often described as an expense.
Despite its clear importance and the significant budgets allocated to it, most leaders consider it simply an expense, similar to equipment maintenance. Only 36% of companies report on the financial resources they allocate to skills development, and those that do mostly view it as a cost and rarely as an investment—or more specifically, an investment in future capabilities. The expenditure is significant: the companies surveyed allocated between 0.5% and 1.5% of their annual budget to skills development, an average of $150 million per year, and often much more. It is not uncommon to find learning and development budgets of $300 million or even $400 million. But as long as these budgets are considered costs, this spending is likely to be a lower priority than other investments. As the human resources director of a global industrial goods company told us, “When there’s pressure on costs, the first thing to be cut is the learning and development budget. How can we expect the company to maintain results when key resources—that is, people—don’t have the skills to deliver them?”
Improving Skills Development
Companies must ramp up their skills development efforts, starting with reframe it as a strategic priority. As the former head of human resources at a major automotive company noted, “Investors, regulators, and employees are all interested in how a company ensures the skills of its workforce remain current. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, people-related issues have been taken much more seriously, and it’s only a matter of time before skills development gains the strategic importance it deserves.”
Our research and customer experience suggest five practical strategies for boosting the importance of skills development within your organization.
Start with a strong strategic intent. Every company needs a plan to develop the skills necessary to deliver its business strategy. They also need to take steps to reassure investors and other stakeholders that they have such a plan. This doesn’t have to be a complex HR plan; it can begin with a clear explanation from senior management of how skills development efforts align with the company’s key strategic priorities. For example, the German insurer Allianz states in its 2021 sustainability report that “digitalization and automation will transform the composition of the future workforce, with the disappearance of some job profiles, the emergence of new profiles and capabilities, and considerable changes in existing profiles and skills. This will require significant retraining and reskilling initiatives to prepare the workforce for the future. Our main objective will be to develop digital, data, and agile working skills. Skills such as cybersecurity, communication, and human resources will also be essential.” Allianz also reports on what this ambition means in quantitative terms: “3,155 full-time employees recruited and retrained in strategically relevant talent segments across Allianz’s operating entities in 2021 (2021 plan: 2,177).”
Consider the driving force behind skills development
Companies should consider skills development like any other investment. The World Economic Forum recommends “treating investment in human capital the same way we treat investment in natural resources, particularly oil. … Investment in the workforce could be capitalized and recognized on the balance sheet.” As our analysis shows, this is not common practice today. Reclassifying balance sheet categories can be difficult, but companies can allocate a specific budget to strategic skills development and measure their spending. This sends employees a clear message that the company is investing in them. For example, Bosch has announced it will invest €2 billion in reskilling its employees in anticipation of the automotive industry’s transition to electric vehicles. Amazon plans to invest $1.2 billion to provide 300,000 employees with access to training and development programs.
Prioritize results over process
Public disclosure can be a powerful motivator, but only if it focuses on the right metrics. By shifting the reported results from «number of employees trained» to «business and talent outcomes achieved,» companies can generate a greater impact and keep the organization focused on investments in skills development. Business outcomes can be measured at multiple levels, such as the application of learning on the job (Did employees use the new technology? Did they demonstrate new skills?) or achievement metrics (faster or more cost-effective production or increased sales). Outcome evaluation should also focus on how the learning enhances participants’ skills, capabilities, engagement, and employability.
To achieve the greatest impact, companies should report on the results of skills development, not the process.
Take AT&T, for example. Their March 2022 ESG report describes the impact of their new Real-Time Training program: “We identified who needs training and when, as well as the training solution most likely to generate the greatest improvement in each employee’s key performance indicators (KPIs). In 2021, approximately 1,950 employees received real-time tutorial recommendations, resulting in approximately 4,300 new customers and about $4.5 million in additional annual revenue.”
In addition to tracking business outcomes, AT&T also monitors the impact of training on participating talent. According to the company’s March 2022 ESG Summary, “Our metrics show that those who participate in our training and development initiatives are:
– more likely to receive a higher performance rating at year-end
– more likely to receive a higher recognition award at year-end
– more likely to be promoted to a similar role
– less likely to leave the company.”
Many companies avoid quantifying results because the process can be complex, but as the experience of a large North American retail chain demonstrates, it doesn’t have to be a complex problem-solving exercise.
The company conducted a pilot program with a test group and a control group to demonstrate the commercial viability of its leadership development program for frontline staff before implementing it organization-wide.
The pilot program showed a 150 basis point increase in sales
in the test group stores compared to the control group. Other companies use existing or easily obtainable data, such as information from learning management systems or self-reported training results. When data on outcomes is unavailable, companies can at least share success stories or present case studies on the impact of skills development.
Inspire commitment, not mere compliance.
Measurement is essential, but numbers alone won’t drive new behaviors. Senior managers, not just those in HR, must emphasize the importance and urgency of skills development for everyone, including themselves. Leaders can encourage participation by sharing stories of their own skills development experiences. For example, a professional services firm began implementing its strategic «skills enhancement» program by asking senior managers to participate in training programs and then share their experiences with their teams. Corporate communication channels can showcase examples of «skills heroes» who make successful career transitions or create real business value by developing new skills in areas such as data analytics or agile work methodologies.
Incorporate Skills Development into the Daily Agenda
Leaders don’t need to wait for investor days or quarterly strategic reviews to emphasize the importance of skills development. They can instill a culture of lifelong learning in their organizations through simple, regular reinforcement. For example, they can make it a practice to ask, “What would we like to learn as a team and individually?” at the start of new tasks and encourage team members to identify newly acquired skills during weekly meetings.
Two Clear Trends
Companies can count on two trends: the importance of a skilled and competent workforce will only increase, and the lifespan of critical skills, especially those related to advanced technology, will continue to shorten. Successful companies of the future will not only invest in human capital but will also dedicate the same effort and attention to tracking and reporting on skills development as they do to investing in financial or tangible assets.
The authors would like to thank Laura W. Geller, Executive Editor of
Why Your Business Strategy Needs a Purpose and Why You Need a Solid Strategy from the Start
The following contribution comes from the Brueckmann portal, which describes itself as follows: Alex Brueckmann, an internationally renowned business strategy facilitator and part-time strategy director, is the president and CEO of Brueckmann Strategy Consultants Ltd.
He leads our team of carefully selected strategy facilitators and executive development experts.
Based on 9EOI™, we help our clients design and implement strategies that are integrated with their company’s culture and leadership. We focus on strategy AND how to make it effective in the real world.
Our clients are medium-sized and large organizations. We support them on every continent and in dozens of industries.
We understand the challenges that traditional consultants can present. That’s why we don’t come across as know-it-alls or lecture you on what to do or how to run your business.
Instead, think of us as the facilitators who create the right environment for a real strategy to be built. We handle the process, while you own the results at every stage.
Author: Alex Brueckmann
My first encounter with strategy as a discipline was in business school, and I found it incredibly boring. It was taught with little business context and had no visible connection to my life. For me, at that time, strategy was reduced to theoretical frameworks disconnected from the outside world. However, shortly after graduating, this perception changed rapidly, and I realized how conscious leadership and strategy are interconnected, and how both are essential ingredients for business success.
Past success is the enemy of your strategy
I began my career in an industry that was, and still is, under pressure: high-volume printing. Mail-order catalogs, magazines, direct marketing. I soon realized that strategy was, in fact, a fascinating field; it just needed a strong connection to reality to come to life—that is, a specific industry, a corporate context, people, and culture.
The company had a history of great financial success, and this success had become its worst enemy. For years, both management and staff had clung to a glorious past where everyone had enjoyed a golden age. The problem was that those times were over, and the corporate culture was incredibly resistant to change; holding the line and waiting for better times seemed to be the «strategy» of many. With new media opening up exciting opportunities for e-commerce and publishing in the 2000s, the demand for catalogs and magazines by mail had declined rapidly. None of the leaders had experienced anything like this in their careers. Up until then, change had occurred in small doses, within the area of expertise of those in charge; change was usually gradual. The printing industry, like many others, now needed to undergo rapid transformation. But with their eyes fixed on the past and without a defined business strategy, the entire management team seemed paralyzed.
After decades of reaping the rewards without a real need for strategy, shareholders now demanded swift and bold action to turn the company around and stem the financial bleeding. This opened up a vast playing field for the new CEO and his management team. With the support of a global management consultancy, the company developed a solid strategy, but ultimately it was too late. The company had missed the opportunity to design a future-proof strategy. The inevitable happened: shareholders lost patience, and the company was restructured.
Your strategy needs a purpose.
The good news is that there are many examples of successful companies that don’t settle. If you’ve read this far, you’re probably interested in strategy or, more generally, concerned about the future. This might include your family, your career, the people you lead, the clients you serve, your sports club, your environmental campaign, or the church you support in your free time. And strategy is precisely that: caring about the future. If you care about your family’s future, you’ll find the best way to provide for them. If you care about the future of the environment, you’ll find ways to reduce your personal carbon footprint. And if you care about the future of the community you live in, you’ll invest your free time in working to create a better place to live.
Unfortunately, concern isn’t always a driving force in the business world, and I’m not suggesting that all business strategies have a noble or altruistic component. Just look around to quickly identify organizations with questionable strategies in unethical sectors. And we’ll also find the gems: companies with a purpose so powerful that it provides meaning and direction to leaders, employees, and shareholders alike. To avoid falling into the trap of marketing grandiose but unfounded purpose statements, purpose needs strategy. And vice versa.
This is where strategy and purpose converge.
One cannot exist sustainably without the other. Strategy is a plan to reach a desired future state. Purpose is the organization’s reason for being; it’s its social legitimacy and goes far beyond generating profits for the company and its employees. To paraphrase Steve Jobs, it’s the mark we leave, which, hopefully, contributes to a better world. Without purpose, strategy can quickly go off the rails and focus primarily on maximizing profits. Famous examples of failed strategies in recent years include car manufacturers, banks, and sports organizations. And purpose without strategy? Well, at least there are good intentions, and you might even achieve them to some extent, but that would be pure luck.
Conscious Leaders Create Stronger Strategies
Creating and implementing a purposeful strategy means taking the reins and shaping the future; it’s about conscious decisions, about direction. Without direction, we can quickly lose our way and begin to drift. It’s like boarding any old train leaving the main station and hoping for the best when we arrive. In hindsight, that’s how the shareholders and management of the company I worked for seemed to have run the organization for many years. And, after a belated effort, its ultimate fate was the closure of facilities, leaving thousands of people and their families unemployed and in distress. Not having a strategy is irresponsible and unethical. It’s like gambling with borrowed money and the jobs of those who work for you. In the end, the casino wins.
Now, imagine for a moment that management had implemented a strategy at the right time, while the company was enjoying its good times. Now imagine that they had backed that strategy with a meaningful purpose that emotionally connected with the workforce. It seems likely that, instead of simply maximizing profits, the company could have created real value, beyond money, for its employees and the surrounding communities. Purpose is an essential element of culture and identity, and it can help you and your employees navigate the challenging times of change. If leaders truly embrace their responsibility, they create the space where their organizations develop strategies that go beyond money and merely managing the status quo. Forward-thinking strategies provide answers to the most pressing questions of the industry in which they operate, the company they represent, and the people they lead. Only in this way will they be able to unite their team and unleash the creativity and sense of belonging essential to facing future challenges. This is what ethical, purposeful, and conscious leaders do to secure the future of those they lead and those they serve. And this holds true regardless of your position in the organization. Take the initiative and start exploring!
Why Even a Bad Strategy Is Worth Implementing Well
The following contribution comes from the INSEAD website, which describes itself as follows: As one of the world’s leading and largest graduate business schools, INSEAD offers its participants a truly global educational experience. With campuses in Europe (France), Asia (Singapore), the Middle East (Abu Dhabi), and North America (San Francisco), and partnerships with top-tier institutions, INSEAD’s business education and research spans the globe. Our 165 renowned professors from 42 countries inspire more than 1,500 students in our undergraduate and doctoral programs. In addition, more than 11,000 executives participate each year in INSEAD’s executive education programs.
Author: Phanish Puranam, Roland Berger Professor of Strategy and Organizational Design at INSEAD
Even a flawed strategy can be implemented effectively and lead to the discovery of better ones.
When the project to create the first version of Apple’s Graphing Calculator software was canceled in 1993, independent software developers Ron Avitzur and Greg Robbins paid little heed. In an act of innovation and rebellion that has since become legendary, they used their Apple ID credentials to gain unauthorized access to the campus, working late into the night for six months without pay until the project was finished. Ten years after its completion, the Graphing Calculator software had been installed on approximately 20 million computers.
This is a compelling example of what organizational researchers call «bottom-up exploration»: employee deviations from official strategy that sometimes yield enormous benefits for companies. Apple isn’t the only Silicon Valley company that has benefited from allowing its staff to follow their intuition: Google, for example, allows its employees to dedicate 20% of their time to personal projects related to the company—a policy that gave rise to Google News, AdSense, and Gmail.
But, knowing the benefits of these deviations from strategy, as well as the reality that top management strategies are rarely perfect, is it wise for managers to place so much emphasis on their effective implementation? In a recent article, “Explaining the Implementation Imperative: Why Effective Implementation Can Be Useful Even with a Bad Strategy,” forthcoming in the Strategic Management Journal, my co-author Eucman Lee (a PhD candidate at London Business School) and I develop a theory that explains why actively pursuing effective implementation can, in fact, be very wise. By effectiveness in strategy implementation, I mean the degree to which an organization’s actions align with its strategic intentions. Thus, a company pursuing a low-cost strategy can be said to have successfully implemented it if its costs decrease relative to those of its competitors; whether or not this generates high profits depends on the suitability of the low-cost strategy in that particular industry.
Strategy Implementation
The fundamental characteristic of strategy implementation that we focus on in our research is the separation between beliefs and actions; that is, in the typical company, those who conceive and refine strategies are generally not those who implement them. To study the consequences of this separation in detail, we developed an agent-based model, essentially a computer program that replicates the logic of interaction between individuals, allowing us to project what will likely occur in numerous interactions and under a wide variety of circumstances.
Our model included a manager and a subordinate, programmed to seek the highest possible profit
by choosing among various options through trial and error, similar to a gambler at a multi-armed slot machine. In each period, the manager chose a strategy, instructed the subordinate on what to do, the subordinate implemented it according to their understanding, a performance result was obtained, and subsequently, the manager modified their perception of the strategy’s value based on the observed performance. We applied the model over numerous periods, incorporating different types of features that correspond to the real world, such as communication errors and exploration of ideas from both top-down and bottom-up.
Improving Subordinate Effectiveness
Under various conditions,
we found that it was generally a good idea to improve the effectiveness of subordinate implementation, even when the strategy chosen by the manager wasn’t necessarily the best from the outset.
Learning from Failure is Success
Upon analyzing the model in detail, we discovered two main reasons for this phenomenon. First, poor implementation makes it difficult for companies to learn from both failure and success. When a strategy produces undesirable results, how can leaders know if the problem lies with the strategy itself or with all the deviations that arise from a lack of effective implementation? If the outcome was good, how can we know if it was truly due to the strategy? This could lead a CEO to make unfortunate decisions based on a misinterpretation of the result.
Second, the organization as a whole benefits from learning better strategies through some deviations from the current strategy. However, beyond a certain point, these aberrations become detrimental because they prevent the organization from reaping the value of the good strategies discovered. Any communication gap between managers and employees automatically fosters some divergence, and senior management’s attempts to find new strategies also generate deviations over time. Furthermore, deviations stemming from imperfect implementation raise the level of deviation to harmful levels.
What you see is what you get.
Our results also suggest that companies should not only continue investing in improving their strategy implementation but also focus on refining how they measure its effectiveness. In fact, a manager who accurately observes, listens, and interprets the effectiveness of the implementation can be a more valuable asset than an eloquent speaker in the boardroom who knows how to communicate the strategy effectively.
Why? The communicated strategy may not be the best, and deviations resulting from misinterpretation may be harmless.
However, an inattentive manager can introduce biases or misperceptions about the actions that actually drive current performance. In fact, insightful managers who can measure the effectiveness of implementation are the most likely to help companies capitalize on innovations that emerge from grassroots exploration. Potential breakthroughs that occasionally arise when employees (consciously or unconsciously) deviate from the company’s strategy are unlikely to be replicated, let alone disseminated as best practices, without management intervention.
Implementation and Strategic Innovation
Managers instinctively know that good implementation is important, but too often they consider it as important as the strategy it serves. In fact, it should be considered an adaptive mechanism in itself, not just a way to align subordinates, but an essential tool for detecting and correcting flaws in the current strategy and finding better ones. Our research strongly suggests that spending money to improve implementation is not only a sound investment for companies as a standard business practice, but could also be considered an investment in innovation. In this sense, strategy implementation is undoubtedly more important than strategy formulation.
5 Reasons Why Employees Benefit from Strategy Involvement
The following contribution comes from the Cascade portal, which describes itself as follows: What brought us into existence?
Have you ever found yourself in a room with a group of executives planning a «strategy,» knowing deep down that it will never amount to more than a few PowerPoint presentations (and, hopefully, some Excel spreadsheets)? If you reluctantly agreed, you’ll understand why we had to create Cascade.
This article is by Tefi Alonso, the content manager.
Focusing on Strategy Execution Benefits Employees
Strategies aren’t abstract ideas that only interest a select few; they are concrete action plans that people implement in their daily work.
Focusing on strategy execution means involving your team in strategic processes. These processes include developing, evaluating, and implementing your strategic plan.
Conceptual and imposed strategies are a thing of the past. Experience-based and co-creation strategies are the way forward. And in co-creation, context takes precedence over content.
Here are some specific ways your employees’ participation in strategic processes benefits execution:
Why do employees benefit from strategy execution?
- Because they understand the big picture
And their role in it.
Ultimately, people execute strategies. It’s the actions on the front lines that make the difference, not the elaborate details of internal planning. Problems arise when those on the front lines can’t see the impact of their work. They propel their organization toward its strategic goals, but they don’t know it.
This creates a gap between the actual impact of people’s work and their perception of it. They may glimpse their impact at the team level, but it’s limited. As a result, they don’t understand how their work fits into the bigger picture or why they do what they do.
In other words, they lack context.
This gap has a twofold effect.
Effort and decisions are scattered. There is no clear destination to unite people and direct their efforts toward it. The lack of context forces them to make decisions based on temporary circumstances.
This deprives them of the satisfaction of participating in a greater cause. Conversely, when people understand how their work contributes to the company’s vision, they take pride in it and feel fulfilled.
Fulfillment is not an emotion that arises from celebrating victories.
A person can feel fulfilled at the end of their workday despite making a mistake or not reaching a goal. This is because fulfillment comes from a sense of belonging and working toward a vision that transcends any individual victory. That is why it is so important to share the context of the company’s strategy. It highlights the big picture.
And when people understand the big picture, they become more engaged.
- Because they work smarter instead of harder.
Engaged employees don’t work on autopilot.
They are more mindful of the tasks they perform. They dedicate more time to identifying the most important tasks and prioritizing them. They focus on the work. The most important work.
This is due to the greater alignment provided by the strategic context. An alignment that arises from an intense focus on strategy execution and goes beyond simply defining goals and objectives. It integrates the strategy with the day-to-day operations of the business. This means that people’s daily activities are aligned with the team’s goals and projects, which, in turn, are aligned with the strategic objectives.
Meanwhile, the plan’s objectives, timelines, and goals are updated based on user feedback. Any unrealistic, overly ambitious, or excessively optimistic aspects are adjusted to reflect the company’s reality.
This creates a virtuous cycle.
When people align their actions with the plan’s objectives, their participation in the strategy grounds it in reality.
The problem arises if there is too much friction in certain processes. Specifically, if the strategic context (not the content) is unclear or the consolidation process takes too long, the cycle becomes excessively long and ineffective.
This is why it’s so important to migrate from static tools like spreadsheets and slides to dynamic platforms like Cascade.
Its impact is visible to everyone.
This is an added benefit of having more transparent strategic processes that encourage more people (not just executives) to participate in strategic discussions and expose the plan to all stakeholders.
The Contribution of Each Team Member
The need for greater transparency compels managers to adopt tools and implement processes that highlight each team member’s contribution to project progress and individual responsibilities.
As a result, no work goes unnoticed by superiors, who recognize the value each person brings to the team.
- Because They Perform Fewer Administrative Tasks and More Real Work
One of the most appreciated benefits that strategic execution software like Cascade offers executives and managers is a clear overview of the plan’s structure and current progress toward strategic objectives.
This has a direct impact on daily work.
It reduces the need for unexpected progress updates. For example, managers don’t need to send emails asking, «Where are we on track with X?» because they can access the platform and, with a few clicks, get the answer themselves.
This also reduces the difficulties in preparing reports.
No more spreadsheets with countless versions and the time wasted searching for the right one. Instead, all information is centralized on a single platform with integrated features for tracking and reporting progress. As a result, managers gain a clear and concise view of the current trajectory, and individuals spend less time writing lengthy reports and emails and more time on tasks that generate concrete results.
- Because they gain greater clarity on their performance expectations.
A focus on strategic execution drives an alignment process that brings structure to performance management.
How does it work?
By introducing transparency from management, two objectives are achieved simultaneously on a platform like Cascade, where all aspects of the plan are available on demand to every team member.
First, the workload of each team member becomes apparent, and managers have a clearer view of the number of projects each person is responsible for. This fosters dialogue about prioritization. The impact of each project is determined, and then they are ranked according to their importance.
In this way, individuals have a better understanding of where to focus their efforts and resources. It also facilitates the detection of duplicate work across different teams and saves resources that would otherwise be wasted (such as hiring new staff to fill needs the company doesn’t have).
Secondly, discussions about impact and importance allow team members to voice their concerns, address potential obstacles, and receive clearer guidance. As a result, employees gain a better understanding of expectations and what constitutes success. Not only is their work structured, but they also receive more specific, personalized, and clear instructions.
This also influences review meetings, as open conversations help balance the subjective aspects of execution with the objective metrics. This means that meetings aren’t limited to KPI progress but also address decisions and professional judgment.
- Because they gain greater authority (and less micromanagement)
Inviting people to participate in strategic processes lays the foundation for effective strategy execution. Because it creates a strong sense of ownership and accountability.
Human beings feel responsible for everything they’ve invested time and energy in. This fosters a sense of commitment, so they strive to complete it.
The same is true for strategy. When people feel they’ve contributed to and co-created the strategic plan, they’re intrinsically motivated to implement it and integrate it into their daily activities.
This creates an environment conducive to employee empowerment, as managers know that everyone shares the same strategic vision and that decisions are aligned with the company’s goals and aspirations.
Thus, managers trust their employees to make the right decisions and give them the authority to do so.
It’s a win-win situation, as managers delegate more decisions, reduce micromanagement, and reclaim valuable time that they can dedicate to more important tasks.
At the same time, employees gain the freedom to make the right decisions, since they have the strategic context to support them and the flexibility to apply their customer knowledge.
Employees feel empowered, and customers receive better service.
However, there is a fundamental requirement.
The culture needs a particular characteristic for these benefits to materialize: trust.
Specifically, top-down trust and, ideally, trust in all directions (vertically and laterally). In a culture with a strict distinction between the private and public spheres, initiatives that seek to increase transparency from the bottom up without similar or more radical top-down measures have the opposite effect.
They are perceived as more control and micromanagement.
That’s why it’s so important to have a balance of metrics to measure trust and performance. For example, in addition to the usual performance metrics, include peer reviews that assess people’s interpersonal skills, such as cooperation, trust, communication, and so on.
Then, make decisions based on that as well.
Strategy alone doesn’t drive growth: people do.
The following contribution comes from the COMPASS POINT Family Business Strategies portal, which defines itself as follows: Without a business strategy, a company drifts aimlessly.
Without progress, the company stagnates and growth stops. A business strategy is the compass that guides toward sustainable growth, increased valuation, and year-over-year success.
It was written by Kaitlin Wolfert, a member of the team.
Many entrepreneurs believe that a solid strategic plan is the key to business growth. And while it’s important, let’s be honest: a plan is nothing more than words on paper unless something—or someone—brings it to life. That something is leadership.
Strategy alone doesn’t drive growth. People do.
This is what I’ve seen time and time again: no matter how brilliant the strategy, if the leadership team isn’t strong, aligned, and has the necessary resources, the plan stagnates. The good news? That can be changed.
Throughout my professional career in leadership development, and now as a consultant for family businesses, I’ve seen that leadership isn’t just a part of strategy, but its foundation. When it’s lacking or misaligned, even the most promising growth plans lose momentum.
Why do so many companies invest time and effort in creating ambitious and well-thought-out strategies, only to feel like they’re not making any progress? In most cases, it’s due to a lack of leadership.
Leadership is what turns vision into action.
A strategic plan without leadership is like a ship without a captain. It’s leadership that transforms vision into reality, keeps people focused and connected, and creates a culture of accountability and drive. Without it, even the best-intentioned strategies are forgotten.
At Compass Point, we often say that the intersection of family, ownership, and business is where both the magic and the challenges arise. And right at the heart of that intersection? Leadership.
Why leadership is the catalyst for strategic execution.
Here’s what happens when leadership across the organization steps up:
Clarity and Communication: Strategy only matters if everyone understands it. Great leaders don’t just share the plan; they inspire people to get involved and understand their role in it.
Accountability and Commitment: When leaders model accountability and empower others to lead, execution becomes a shared effort, not just a top-down mandate.
Adaptability: Strategy doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Strong leaders stay true to the vision while remaining flexible in the face of real-world challenges.
Commitment and Alignment: When people connect with a greater purpose, they bring more energy and commitment. Leadership brings that purpose to life.
Want to grow? Invest in strengthening your leadership team.
When companies want to grow, they often invest in new markets, product lines, or operational improvements. And while all of that is important, nothing works without also investing in the leadership team to drive it forward. Leadership is the multiplier: the force that makes everything else work better.
A strong team drives expansion: You need more than a visionary at the top. Your middle managers and future leaders must be prepared to drive growth at every level.
Leadership shapes culture: Growth happens when people thrive. Leaders are the guardians of culture: they model values, inspire commitment, and build trust.
Better decisions, faster: Growth requires clarity and courage. Strong leaders make tough decisions, gain people’s support, and sustain progress.
Increased retention and engagement: People don’t quit their jobs; they quit poor leadership. Invest in your leaders, and your team will stay, grow, and give back.
In family businesses, leadership is even more critical.
Family businesses have a unique dynamic. When leadership isn’t clearly defined or developed, the consequences extend beyond the organization to the family. A lack of leadership alignment becomes evident both in the office and at the family dinner table.
At Compass Point, we specialize in helping family businesses manage these complexities with clarity, compassion, and purpose.
Here’s how we do it:
Role clarification: Leadership should be based on qualifications and ability, not just family ties. We help ensure the right people are in the right roles.
Preparing the Next Generation: Succession isn’t just about passing on ownership. It’s about preparing people to lead with confidence and clarity.
Aligning Decisions with Heart and Business: We help families balance emotional and financial priorities so the business thrives without damaging relationships.
Outside Perspective: Sometimes, what’s needed most is an outside view. We offer a thoughtful and honest perspective to help families see what’s hindering growth.
Leadership Development Isn’t Optional—It’s Essential
If you want your business to grow, invest in your leaders. Not just with training sessions, but with intentional development: giving them the mindset, tools, and support they need to lead successfully.
I’m passionate about developing leaders at all levels. Whether through our Leadership Lab for Self-Awareness, the Management Masterclass, personalized team sessions, or executive coaching, Compass Point’s Leadership Pillar programs help individuals become the leaders their company—and their teams—need.
Let’s start the conversation. In what ways is leadership driving your company’s progress? And in what ways might it be holding it back? I’d love to talk about how we can strengthen your greatest asset: your people.
Kaitlin Wolfert
Leadership has been a recurring theme in Kaitlin’s life and career. Her fascination with leadership principles and their impact led her to become a Certified ITC Mapping Facilitator and to develop leadership frameworks to enhance mental resilience, inspire creativity, drive change, and manage conflict across entire organizations.
Strategy: Not Just What… But When
The following contribution comes from Forbes and is authored by Dev Patnaik, a contributor. Dev is the CEO of Jump, the strategy firm for forward-thinking leaders.
I recently met with a CEO who had been in the role for about 18 months. With a weary expression, he confessed that he was having a tough time. “There’s so much turbulence, so much volatility. And right now, I can’t do much about the situation I’m facing.”
He wasn’t just struggling to cope with economic changes or political uncertainty. He was paying the price for short-term decisions made by his predecessor. The legacy of commitments, initiatives, and investments—or the lack thereof—was limiting his ability to implement the right strategy for future growth.
“What we really need is to build a time machine,” he smiled resignedly. “That way I could travel back seven years and create a robust e-commerce platform…”
Assuming he didn’t have a time machine in his product roadmap, we shifted the subject and discussed the actions he could take in the present. That old Chinese proverb was right: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.”
Timing is everything. Our conversation highlighted something crucial about business. Strategy isn’t just about what you do, but when you do it. In business as in life, the decisions you make today will determine the limitations and opportunities you’ll face in the future. If you don’t plan far enough ahead, you could be trapped by past decisions with no easy way out. And if you plan too far ahead, you could fail before reaching your goal.
Whenever you start thinking about your strategy, the first question should be: “When?”
The time horizon you plan for will greatly influence the questions you need to ask yourself, the process you need to follow, and even who you need to partner with. And if you can find the common thread that connects your long-term vision to what you’re doing today, you’ll reduce the chances of waking up in a few years wishing for a time machine.
Different Timeframes, Different Strategies
Sometimes, leaders need to focus on the present. They need to develop plans to achieve short-term goals over the next 18 months. Maybe they’re losing money. Maybe they need to complete a difficult merger. Maybe there’s an immediate threat that demands action. During the pandemic, every retailer had to focus on keeping their teams safe and their doors open. Consumer packaged goods companies just needed to keep their shelves stocked. That kind of extreme focus can be incredibly motivating for the most efficient professionals.
When the timeframe is short, you shouldn’t have to look far to find a plan. Usually, the answers are right here within the company itself—in underutilized assets, untapped expertise, or untapped ideas. This is where traditional management consulting firms like McKinsey and Bain often excel: much of their value lies in helping companies extract value from what already exists. That’s why it’s often jokingly said that a consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you the time.
Other times, leaders need to focus on how to compete in the long term, say three to four years. Perhaps they perceive fundamental changes in their core business. Perhaps new competitors are emerging. Perhaps customer behavior is evolving rapidly. Today, the rise of AI is forcing all leaders to rethink how they do business.
When you start planning three or four years ahead, it’s a good idea to think outside the box. The best ideas might not exist within your company, but they could be among your most important customers or even your competitors. That’s when professional conferences and industry experts become invaluable. They can help you benchmark best practices in your sector and develop a plan to become a market leader.
Of course, on a longer timescale—five to seven years—leaders must prepare their companies for sustainable growth or risk becoming irrelevant. Perhaps their core customers are disappearing. Perhaps their business is being disintermediated. Perhaps artificial intelligence is going beyond simply increasing employee productivity. In that timeframe, AI might render their company irrelevant.
The answers to dealing with long-term disruption are rarely found within your company today. And they’re usually not found in your industry. They’re found on the periphery of markets, in new customer behaviors, in technological changes, and in competitors you might not consider as such today. In most cases, the best ideas for long-term growth don’t yet exist. They’re waiting for someone to invent them.
If you’re a health insurance company, you shouldn’t limit yourself to comparing what Humana or Aetna are doing. You should also look at what Google and Amazon are doing. You should explore customer segments and geographic regions you may not have considered. And you need to be aware of macro forces: the momentous cultural, economic, and consumer shifts that may seem small today but could be revolutionary in seven years.
That’s where companies should collaborate with forward-thinking strategic partners who specialize in identifying disruptive forces and turning them into opportunities.
The future shapes the present.
Of course, the biggest mistake leaders can make when thinking about their strategy is treating these different time horizons as if they were independent. Too many leaders focus all their attention on what’s happening now, believing they can think about the future later, in a separate analysis.
This kind of fragmented decision-making has negative consequences that accumulate over time. A strategy that works well to pull your company out of a cash flow crisis may also leave you in a worse position to compete with direct rivals for the next three years and ill-positioned to face macroeconomic trends seven years from now. The key is to design a strategy that addresses short-term concerns while laying the groundwork for long-term success. You have to build a path from the present to the future.
Tesla offers an example of how to unify short-term measures with long-term strategy. Currently, you can lease a 2025 Tesla Model Y for the incredibly low price of $199 a month. However, there’s a crucial condition: unlike standard contracts, you must return the car at the end of the lease.
By offering such attractive rates, Tesla solves a short-term problem: generating revenue from its cars. But its initiative is also designed to serve a long-term strategy. Tesla envisions a world where individual car ownership is a thing of the past. The company has decided that its long-term future lies in operating a fleet of autonomous robotaxis. Every Model Y returned at the end of its lease is one more vehicle for that fleet. In essence, those who lease a car today are helping Tesla acquire a fleet for the future. It’s a brilliant strategy. Ironically, the biggest threat to this plan is the immediate drop in demand caused by the political activity and reprehensible behavior of the company’s founder.
Portfolios, Not Just Workflows
To successfully integrate short- and long-term strategies, companies must shift from a workflow mindset to a portfolio mindset.
A workflow approach views strategy as a linear sequence: first, current problems are solved, and then the future is planned. Conversely, a portfolio approach recognizes that companies need to invest across multiple time horizons simultaneously.
There are likely actions you can take right now to leverage the best internal ideas. There are also actions you can take to benchmark yourself against the competition and ensure you stay current with the industry. However, it all needs to start with a future-oriented strategy that encompasses all of these initiatives.
In the early 2000s, General Electric recognized the enormous opportunity it had in building renewable energy infrastructure. It launched a program called Ecoimagination. The initiative began by internally analyzing the company to find examples of sustainable practices GE was already implementing. Subsequently, the team broadened its perspective to learn from other heavy industry companies. Inspired by a similar program at Danaher Corporation, it created its Imagination Breakthrough program to fund the best internal ideas. These measures fueled short- and medium-term growth, laying the groundwork for success in its long-term goal. By 2020, GE had become the world’s largest installer of wind turbines.
Ensuring Preparedness for Technological Change
The lesson is that you must start acting today to ensure your company is prepared for future technological or market changes, even if they seem distant. The alternative is to focus on the present and leave your successor wishing they had a time machine.
Why is no one aware of the company’s strategy, and what can be done about it?
The following contribution comes from the Lucidity portal, which describes itself as: Making strategy and planning exciting?
Having the right plan, well-communicated and efficiently executed, is the best way to make an impact. However, many teams with important visions lacked the experience, confidence, or tools needed to develop and implement a plan. We recognized all the issues preventing strategies from being launched and succeeding, so we created the tools to help any organization, in any industry, overcome these problems and turn their vision into reality.
Author: The team.
Studies show that most people are unaware of their company’s strategy. Here’s how to prevent this from happening in your business 🤷🏽♀️
Table of Contents
Communication
Impact
Relationship to Daily Work
Tools for the Job
Lucidity exists to solve all these problems!
If you’re reading this article, you’ve probably already accepted that not everyone in your company knows the strategy.
In fact, if your company is like many others, the actual understanding of the strategic plan within the organization can be alarmingly low: one study shows that only 28% of middle managers and executives know their company’s strategy (source: MITSloan).
This means that 72% of the people responsible for executing that strategy are completely unaware of it. This is where many talented teams fail.
Regardless of whether you’re interested in the strategy or not, a simple lack of team alignment will hold you back or, even worse, could lead to failure. Without this alignment and understanding of what you’re trying to achieve, everything becomes more difficult.
So why are so many people unaware of their company’s strategies?
These are talented teams at large companies; it’s unlikely that there’s a general aversion to strategy in that 72%. The problem lies in three common issues:
The strategy is poorly communicated.
People feel it doesn’t affect them.
It’s not relevant to day-to-day work. We know, from our own research across hundreds of companies, that strategy is sometimes only defined once a year. We’ve all seen these off-site meetings where team-building games are played and discussions take place, as if strategy were an annual event, like a birthday.
We understand. The word «strategy» has vague, negative, and boring connotations; it’s associated with that hotel conference room of off-site meetings. But, in reality, it’s not like that when it’s done right. When it’s done right, it’s about empowering the team, aligning and focusing it, and enabling collective talent to achieve its goals. Strategy is simply a general term to define what to do and get everyone to support it…
But none of that can happen if people don’t even know what the strategy is!
Communication
The natural reaction to solving this problem is to communicate the strategy more frequently, and of course, that’s part of the solution. However, communication is two-way, so simply repeating the same thing won’t solve anything if people aren’t listening.
The main problem might lie in how the plans are communicated.
Ask yourself…
Do we have a clear, one-page strategic plan?
Are we clear on who is responsible for the different areas?
Do we have a common thread that connects the vision to daily activities?
Some tips to improve your strategy communication:
– Explain the context of your decisions.
– Use a clear structure to illustrate your plan.
– Make it visual: it will be easier to remember.
– Communicate the strategy at different levels, involving every level of the company (leadership, managers, team leaders, etc.) before the next meeting.
Regular and engaging communication is key to ensuring people listen and remember.
Impact
Although it may sound straightforward, you must answer the question of why someone should care about the strategy of the company they work for. It may seem unrelated to their daily work. They receive a salary, do a job, and eventually, they’ll leave… How important is it, really?
One of the most important ways to ensure your team listens to and remembers the strategy is to emphasize the impact it will have on them personally. You must show them the positive impact that achieving the company’s vision and business objectives will have on their lives.
This isn’t as difficult as it seems. In fact, it’s quite simple to illustrate the relationship between the company’s strategy and…
Their self-esteem and sense of importance
Their job satisfaction and daily well-being at work
Their financial situation
Regarding the first point, every good business strategy should begin with a clear Vision Statement: a bold and motivating statement about the difference your company wants to make in the world; The positive impact you seek to generate in your customers’ lives. If you do it well and create an effective vision, you will communicate it clearly, connecting with your employees’ values and self-esteem.
If you firmly link the success of your strategy to a broader positive impact on the world, those who contribute to that success will see their sense of self-worth and importance reinforced. Being able to proudly say why your work matters and the difference you make is fantastic and will be a great incentive for many of your employees. It’s an excellent way to capture their attention!
The second point mentioned is also related to this appeal to self-esteem and the importance of people.
Having a clear and integrated strategic plan that is implemented consistently throughout the company is an excellent way to help your employees increase their job satisfaction.
To achieve this, simply presenting the main strategic objectives isn’t enough. A comprehensive plan is required, encompassing everything from the vision and key strategic goals to individual tasks and checklists. This way, your employees will have a clear understanding of their contribution. They’ll have no doubt about what the strategy means for their work and tasks, and how they contribute to success.
If you then regularly demonstrate strategic progress and celebrate achievements and advancements, you’ll see your team revitalized and their job satisfaction increase, making them happier. By setting goals and objectives, you provide them with clear indicators to demonstrate their performance and earn rewards and recognition. Outline this vision to everyone when presenting the plan, and you’ll help them understand the benefits they can gain.
Finally, and perhaps most appealing to many on your team, the success of the strategy could have a financial impact. If your strategy focuses on growth, you could explain that successful company growth will generate more career opportunities for everyone and, potentially, better salaries and benefits.
If your strategy focuses on recovery, perhaps through diversification, the financial impact will be about ensuring employee livelihoods and achieving some stability. This isn’t meant to be alarmist, of course, but it’s important to be realistic about the significance of success to ensure everyone understands its meaning and, therefore, strives to do their best.
Relationship to daily work: We mentioned this earlier, but it’s a key point, so it’s worth exploring further! Your team will be working hard on various tasks daily, so how often do they understand why and how these tasks relate to the overall plan?
Strategic Tree:
There’s an excellent framework for defining a strategic plan, similar to MBOs or OKRs, called the Strategic Tree. This framework encompasses everything from high-level objectives down to the daily tasks of each team member. As you can see in the diagram below, this model supports MBOs and OKRs, although it’s not a prerequisite.
Strategy Tree Structure Used in Lucidity Strategy Software
Simply showing a team member how they fit into the overall plan will increase their understanding, motivation, and job satisfaction. It’s crucial! Therefore, consider the framework you use to visually illustrate the strategy from start to finish. You can learn more about the Strategy Tree structure in our guide, «How to Use a Strategy Tree.»
Tools for the Job
The issues we’ve discussed in this article focus on team alignment, communication, and focus. These are the fundamental pillars of strategy, and this is precisely the reason Lucidity exists. You don’t need to use strategy software to solve these problems, but it will certainly help!
Similarities Between Corporate and Personal Strategy
The following contribution comes from the DeskCussions portal, which defines itself as: Inspiration for Entrepreneurs
We want to inspire all those who dream of starting their own business someday, and help those who are already on the journey. By talking with incredible business visionaries and asking questions from unique perspectives, we hope to understand the psychological essence of what motivates people to become entrepreneurs and what we can learn from the challenges they faced along the way.
Author: The team
Episode 4: Similarities Between Corporate and Personal Strategy
Welcome to episode 4 of the DeskCussions podcast. Today we have a very interesting episode… Get ready to reflect, because we’re going to talk about corporate strategy!
We’re also going to apply this concept to personal strategy and discover that they are more similar than we think.
I only have about five years of experience in the corporate world as a financial analyst, but today I was fortunate enough to have lunch with a close friend who has over 30 years of experience in the sector. He works with large organizations to improve their strategy. He integrates himself into the executive team and helps them align, improve, and define their future strategy.
In our conversation today, he explained the framework he uses, and I’d like to share some of its key principles with you. This offers us a new way of thinking about how to develop strategies, not only for businesses but also for ourselves. So, let’s get started!
My friend told me that when he joins a large organization, one of the first things he does is find out where it stands. To do this, he finds out what everyone thinks about its current situation. For example, it can be problematic if half the team thinks it’s doing wonderfully and the other half thinks it’s failing.
So, he talks to all the divisions and key team members to find out the general consensus. As a starting point, try to align those opinions and ensure everyone understands their true situation, because you can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you are now. If you don’t know the direction you’re sailing, speed doesn’t matter, for example.
So, you’ll help them discover where they are now and where they’re headed. Then, you’ll define where they want to be, asking them, «What does success mean?» And a question I often add is, «What does failure mean?» Because there are various ways to succeed, and you can also think of clear ways to fail, so it’s important to make sure you avoid anything considered a failure and choose the most optimal options for what the team considers success.
Then, you’ll work with the organization to determine where they want to go. Now that they have a clear goal, a gap between their starting point and their final objective, that’s when strategy comes into play. You’ll think very divergently with the team, and they’ll propose a series of options—say, around 20. Everyone will present their ideas and have a variety of choices, so that in the end, no one can say, «Why didn’t you think of this? Why didn’t you do that?»
It’s about considering all those possibilities and then choosing the best one. After using divergent thinking to generate all the options, you narrow them down with convergent thinking until you arrive at, for example, the best option and a plan B.
These are general concepts you could learn in a casual conversation, but they’ll be applied to a personal strategy I’ve used that has worked very well for me. Before applying it to the personal strategy, we’ll explain how an organization would need to focus on that strategy.
They decide on the best option, and once they’ve chosen a strategy, they’ll need to get everyone’s support to ensure that everyone’s goals are aligned with the company’s direction. And then they put all their efforts into what they’ve calculated, with figures to back it up and that sort of thing, and analysis to back it up, to determine what the best strategy is.
So I’m sure that making all those decisions at each step is very difficult, and that’s probably why he’s so successful at what he does, but as a framework, it’s quite simple. And when he mentioned it to me, I realized it’s very similar to some personal development frameworks I’ve seen.
I read some self-help books, for example, and I see that the first chapter says, «You need to know where you are now,» and then the second chapter says, «You need to know where you’re going, what your vision is, and what you want out of life. Write down the 10 things you want to achieve.»
So we’ve taken the first two steps: we’ve defined the starting point, where we are now and where we want to go, what success would be for us, and then we could apply part of this organizational strategy to our own lives.
I would say it’s common in the business world to propose different strategic options, analyze them, and choose the best one… but, in our case (this is just a thought experiment, by the way), we probably don’t do that very often. I can’t remember the last time I wrote down, «What are my 20 options for this month?» and «Which is the most optimal?» and marked the one I should prioritize. But perhaps I should if it were clearly feasible for an organization.
If we agree that this is a solid framework for an organization to define its strategy, it should also be a solid framework for us to define ours. So, as a mental exercise, we could analyze our current situation (there are some tools for this that we can discuss later in this podcast) and define where we want to go.
Then, we would take the next step: we would write down all the available options, take a blank sheet of paper, dedicate a couple of days to it, and see which 20 options, approximately, we could implement in the coming months. Whether it’s three months, six months, or a year, we analyze each option, evaluate the probability of success and the ultimate reward, and decide which one to pursue, and then narrow down the options.
The next step is convergent thinking: we discard all the options we decide not to implement.
In theory, this could mean, instead of scattering our efforts across several options, focusing on the one we consider the best. Just as my friend managed to get an organization to adopt the strategy they chose, we too should decide on a single strategy and concentrate all our efforts on it.
There are several ways to do this, which we’ll look at now. We take that organizational framework and apply it to ourselves, but, obviously, it’s always easier said than done. Here are some tips for personal development that I’ve learned from various books over the years and that have worked for me.
That’s the first step: it’s very difficult to be honest with ourselves about our current situation. It’s hard to assess our shortcomings; we probably focus too much on our successes, or vice versa. It’s probably difficult to have an unbiased opinion of who we are. That’s why, every few months, when I do my reflections or self-assessments, I like to write in a journal and analyze where I am, what my short- and long-term goals and objectives are. I do something Tony Robbins recommends.
He divides life into six or seven aspects that need to be in balance. These could be health, career, finances, overall appreciation of things, relationships, and you circle the six or seven components of life you want to balance. Then, you rate each one.
So I’ll do the same and rate my health. I’d say my health is an 8 out of 10 because I feel great physically, but I have back pain, for example. So in that category, I get an 8 out of 10. Then we move on to relationships. I see my friends a lot, which is pretty good, but lately I haven’t been on many dates, for example, so I’d give that a 7 out of 10.
And so you continue, but you’re assigning a numerical value to that aspect of your current situation and your starting point, much like an organization would when analyzing its business figures and determining its baseline.
Then we move on to the next step. How can we define where we want to go? In my case, I took a large sheet of paper, the kind you buy at a stationery store, and wrote down everything I like, everything I enjoy, everything I want to do in my life, and all the options available to me that I’d like to explore.
Then I reviewed them and determined which ones were the most important. If I could only choose one from this list, which would it be? If I could only choose two, which would they be? And so, I narrowed the list down to the two or three key things for achieving my goals, which helped me develop a vision of the end result I want, of what success looks like. And, equally usefully, to know what failure looks like, so I can avoid what I don’t want to do and move toward what I truly want to achieve in my life.
This covers the next step: you’ve defined a vision, you’ve worked from a starting point, and now we just need to bridge that gap. This is where many of us improvise and keep trying things to see what works, without developing a strategy like the one you’d expect from an organization.
So, I wonder if we should take a piece of paper and apply that process of divergent and convergent thinking, define what we believe is our most optimal strategy, and then focus on it. Focusing on it means dedicating the majority of our time to that single strategy we’ve decided on.
And we all know the 80/20 rule: 80% of the results come from 20% of our efforts. Once you have that strategy, focus on what you’ve decided will give you the best results with your effort and dedicate all your efforts to that strategy you consider optimal, because it’s the one that will bring you 80% of your results.
When I think about the 80/20 rule, I remember a friend asking me, «What can we do when starting a business to increase the chances of success?» I replied, «For me, it’s the 80/20 rule.» My mistake was wasting time on things that didn’t bring me any closer to my main goal. By applying the 80/20 rule to my daily work, I realized that it’s not just about deciding which are the key activities that bring you 80% of your results with 20% of your effort, but also about sticking to them.
The way to do this is to quantify how often you apply the 80/20 rule. In other words, how many times a day you ask yourself, «Am I focusing on a primary activity that will consume 20% of my effort and yield 80% of my results?» I challenge you to increase how often you reflect on whether what you’re doing represents 80% of your effort or 20% of your results, and the number of times you apply this rule each day is what truly matters. Thank you for joining us for the fourth episode of our debate podcast. Subscribe below so we can bring you more content.