So says the prophet Mike Tyson. It’s a funny quote, but isn’t there so much wisdom in it? Many of you know that I love Modified racing. While I don’t work full time in the industry anymore, we still promote events under my JDV Productions flag. We spend months planning our events, complete with extraordinary fan experiences, exciting pre-race ceremonies, and engaging race formats. Then it rains and all of our best laid plans are no longer valid.
I recently received an invitation to be the Institute for Organization Management’s (IOM) sponsored speaker at the Annual Convention of the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE). Thank you to the IOM team for asking me! When I communicated with the individual responsible for programs at ACCE, she asked if I would be willing to speak on strategic planning in uncertain times. I was excited to be asked to address this specific topic because I believe that one of the leader’s core responsibilities is to serve as a non-anxious presence, to provide clear vision and regular communication, and to maintain laser focus on the key initiatives and priorities of the organization regardless of, or perhaps especially, when the future is uncertain.
Let’s face it: change is happening faster than it ever has. The advent of AI has caused tremendous opportunity for organizations, and anxiety for many employees who are wondering if they will be replaced by it. Tariffs are on one week and off the next, creating challenges for sales and operations teams, as well as threatening net profit. The great debate of remote, in-person, or hybrid work rages on. I could continue, but these examples are sufficient to highlight the myriad of challenges faced by business owners and leaders today. It would be easy to become overwhelmed by them, to begin to feel paralyzed, and become responsive to whatever is going on outside of our organizations. The results we would end up with, however, would be based upon what was going on out there too, as opposed to what we really wanted and knew we were capable of.
I recently met with someone who is going to be joining the Bethesda Sales Academy – a group coaching program I am starting in September. During our introductory call, I asked him one of my favorite questions: “What does success look like for you?” He went on to explain how he wanted to be “seen as successful.” I let him finish and then I reflected back to him that everything he just explained to me was about how others saw him. There was nothing in his response about what he truly wanted. He agreed and is going to go back and determine what that truly looks like for him. His story is not unique and it reflects what happens when we are acting based upon current events as opposed to a clear, strategic future.
It’s important to draw a distinction between strategy and tactics. We often confuse action items with strategy. They are not the same. Strategy is higher level thinking, including clear vision, longer range (10+ year) goals, and unique value proposition. Tactics are what we do to make that strategy a reality. Tactics are what needs to be flexible and adaptable to what is going on. We, obviously, don’t change our goals every time we face obstacles. We change tactics so we can achieve those goals. In my work with organizations, I observe two extremes: (1) a plan with no execution or (2) a bunch of one off actions labeled as strategy. The organizations that thrive are those that have a clear, focused view of the future with flexible and adaptable tactics to create that future.
“They should know” is a phrase I hear regularly from leaders. We assume because we have said something once that is all it takes. That’s not how human beings work. We get distracted and we forget. In this respect, it’s similar to parenting. We are reminding our children to make their bed, brush their teeth, clean up their messes, and the list goes on and on. We don’t say it once and it automatically happens. We assume because we get older that we don’t need reminders anymore, but that simply doesn’t make sense of the human experience. One of my coaching colleagues, Mark Green, argues that we haven’t repeated ourselves enough until our teams are rolling their eyes and can complete the sentence. Or perhaps Pat Lencioni is a bit more succinct here. He rightly argues that leaders must serve as the Chief Reminding Officer, and this is particularly true in uncertain times. The more external chatter and noise there is, the more often we need to be reminded of what the plan is, what is actually true in a situation, and what the next actionable step is that will take us toward our longer term goals.
As I’ve been writing this blog, leading through COVID has repeatedly come back to my mind. I remember the furloughs, the changing governmental regulations, the people who were coming to work every day anxious they were going to get sick, those who refused to come to work for the same reason. There was virtually no inventory to speak of because of part’s shortages and we were selling vehicles that wouldn’t be arriving for months. It would have been easy to allow all of these factors to overwhelm us, but every day the team showed up, we would huddle together and talk about how we needed to adapt to the ongoing evolution and what would move us forward that day. The results were record-setting. As we were going through it all, my boss called me one day. He said to me, “Josh, you’re really adaptable. That is going to serve you incredibly well in this life.” It was such a high compliment from him that I still hold onto, and a great reminder for us all that we can adjust our tactics without sacrificing our strategy.