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"Our experience in the GCC with both private and public sector clients reiterates that unless changes such as new information technology systems or a new organizational structure are explicitly aligned with the purpose and strategy of an organization, they can delay and even undermine strategic direction," said Abouchakra. "Likewise, we have seen enthusiastic organizations that have taken on too many initiatives at once, resulting in failed programs and change fatigue."
Balanced top teams
In general, CEOs do not assemble people who are diverse enough in their personalities and backgrounds to play the complementary roles necessary in a business context. Additionally, they don't invest much in explicitly building the trust and accountability that team members need to work closely together.
There are many personality and leadership models and assessments to help identify individual strengths when forming teams; however, what is important is to be intentional in establishing leadership teams to ensure diversity. Once the team has complementary members, in-depth practice is required to ensure the leaders are planning and acting together as a team. Effective leadership teams are often good at strategic exercises, where they role-play or conduct war-games involving typical business problems, experimenting with various strategies in a fictional environment before trying them in the real world. Meanwhile, the CEO should be planning his or her succession, using the senior team as a crucible for developing others who will be capable of filling the top position in the future.
Organizational capabilities
Through their actions, leaders have a great deal of influence over an organization's culture, but very little of that influence is direct. They can't make a team more skilled or committed through directives alone; requirements mean very little if they cannot be translated into specific behavior changes. "We've learned this at Booz Allen through our own work on building organizational capabilities for change, and in particular through the body of practice known as organizational DNA. By changing the reporting relationships and structures, the networks through which people exchange information, the motivators and incentives, and the decision rights in an organization, organizations can shift their capabilities and motivate people to act in sync with the organization's purpose," added Abouchakra.
The right questions
Purpose, the top management team, organizational capabilities, and strategic initiatives are common topics for business writers, but research in the strategic leadership field is so fragmented, unreliable, and obscure that many designers of strategic leadership initiatives base their approach on only a small fraction of the knowledge that exists.
"Every organization is different, so diagnosing the situation and culture is critical," stated Abouchakra. "The process will involve the most talented and committed senior executives, and may take several months until everyone is comfortable with the company's purpose and the right set of initiatives to pursue. Extra time and care in bringing people to a common understanding at the beginning, means far less time lost in false starts and cutbacks later."
A design for strategic leadership is not a new approach, but is simply the practiced, considered strategy for change that the best and most long-lived companies have always used. It takes the kind of commitment, dedication, and respect that truly makes a company a great place to work. And in the GCC, where there are unprecedented market and social forces requiring change, there is no better time to consider integrating these four starting points to strategic leadership.
Medilyn Manibo, Assistant News Editor
