Why is it important for leaders to stay focused?
How does someone as busy as a founder, president or CEO stay focused regardless of responsibility?
How does a leader balance the strategic and operational issue?
Leadership must keep eyes on the ball in spite of other distractions
A founder, President or CEO has major responsibilities to administer. The leaders of a for profit public company has to ensure that that they maximize shareholders’ value. Leaders of a non-profit have to clearly identify their purpose and ensure that the established purpose is being met. Every day business leaders holding these crucial positions must remain cognizant of issues occurring in their organizations. This understanding is vital, since it ensures that the organizational objectives are being met. Simultaneously, some leaders are busy attempting to address operational issues that are stalled or have recently bubbled up to the surface. The response in some organizations may be more of scramble while others are more well controlled.
Strategic Focus is necessary
Since not every issue will work as planned, it is understandable that the organization leaders will encounter stalled and emergent issues. The Founder, President and CEO should be able to find trusted individuals to handle the day-to-day operational issues. The top leaders focus can then be directed more to the strategic business aspects. Of course if you are a Solo entrepreneur you may do it all, unless you have the proper funding to get help. In either case it is good to have one or more people to provide advisory support. It should be quite evident from the outside when there is a real focus on achieve the company’s mission by leadership. With appropriate leadership focus, products/services are delivered on time, most employees are excited about working for the company and the end result is improved shareholders value.
Important to Create Effective Processes and Strategies
A well-run company must identify the key processes within the organization and establish strategic directions. To ensure that no steps are missing, the strategy team in the organization should ensure that the relevant processes are established based on the normal course of business. In addition to the normal course of business, much thought must be given to each step within the process. The organization must also evaluate those steps that does not add value and consider eliminating them. It is advantageous to also look at contingency plans for cases where issues don’t work according to the normal course of business. The important message here is that as a leader in the organization you should develop a strategy for your business. You should implement the strategy but be ready to adjust if things don’t work as planned. Capture those lessons learned and adjust your process to obtain improved performance. An organization that implements more well defined strategies and processes will be more effective in retaining profitable and viability.
Throughout my career in the energy generation, nonprofit, and education sectors; being responsible for engineering, project management, financial and strategic planning and project management, I found that it was always better to map out a strategy, prepare to adjust, and identify contingency plans. My advice to Founders, Presidents and CEOs and other leaders in the organization is to map out your processes and strategies and ensure that contingency plans are built in.