Sent: July 18, 10:08 a.m.
From: CEO
To: Sr. Leadership Team
Subject: Assignments for Strategic Initiatives
Team,
Great job coming up with the assignments for the six strategic initiatives from the planning session. It looks like we have all 24 mid-level managers assigned and they are split evenly—four each. Just curious if each of you is taking the lead on any of those or just letting the managers handle it?
Jon
Sent: July 18, 10:20 a.m.
From: Dana, CFO
To: CEO; Sr. Leadership Team
Subject: RE: Assignments for Strategic Initiatives
Jon,
We discussed it and decided that they really need to know how to do this, so they should learn on the job. We’ll let them battle it out among themselves as to who should take the lead. We have too much on our plates as it is. They are the ones responsible for getting it done, and we’ll have monthly meetings with progress updates. And the dashboard is up on the shared drive, so we’ll have total visibility to check up on them.
Dana
Sent: July 18, 10:43 a.m.
From: Bob, COO
To: Dana; CEO; Sr. Leadership Team
Subject: RE: RE: Assignments for Strategic Initiatives
Concur with Dana. They’ve got it handled, let’s move on.
Sent: July 18, 10:58 a.m.
From: CEO
To: Sr. Leadership Team
Subject: RE: RE: RE: Assignments for Strategic Initiatives
Team,
OK, if you’re all on board with this, I guess it will work. I’m just a little concerned as none of them were involved last year, so not sure they’ll know what we’re trying to achieve. What is the plan if it goes off track?
Sent: July 18, 11:13 a.m.
From: Sarah, CMO
To: CEO; Sr. Leadership Team
Subject: RE: RE: RE: RE: Assignments for Strategic Initiatives
Jon,
Have a little faith in your senior leadership team. We know what we’re doing, and this year we’re just delegating a little more. The managers need to show us what they’re made of—do they have the stuff or don’t they? Besides, their bonuses are resting on their completion of this, so what’s the problem? Good incentives, good leadership by us—it’s going to work. What could possibly go wrong?
Sarah
Sent: August 18, 2:45 p.m.
From: CEO
To: Sr. Leadership Team
Subject: Update on Strat. Plan Progress
Team,
After sitting in on the monthly strat. plan meeting today, it seems pretty clear that some of these assignments were not well thought out. Who put James in charge of the marketing initiative? He just started in June, and before now his biggest marketing job was as a copywriter for a defunct newspaper.
Not to mention the person leading the HR initiative—who is she? Did I get the right idea that she’s a temp and whoever you assigned in the first place opted out and a temp is now leading the selection of the new HRM software? Bob, shouldn’t you be sitting in on these meetings?
I have to say, I am really getting concerned that we’re not going to meet our quarterly objectives. I notice that no one has been updating the dashboard unless it is up-to-date, and nothing has been achieved in two months?
Let me know the plan moving forward, and let’s discuss in the upcoming leadership meeting on Friday.
Sent: August 18, 2:45 p.m.
From: Bob, COO
To: Sr. Leadership Team; CEO
Subject: RE: Update on Strat. Plan Progress
Jon,
We met as the Sr. leadership team and need to respectfully remind you that we are in charge of the plan. You delegated this task to us, and we have delegated it to our teams. This is an example of the type of micromanagement that you said you would not engage in anymore— we’re simply trying to do what’s right by the company, and you are consistently getting in the way.
We do not wish to discuss it at our meeting, and if you have any further questions, maybe we should bring the board in as we all know they signed off on the plan. Making any changes now would require them to be involved, and we all know that’s not what you want, is it, Jon?
Bob
Sent: August 19, 10:12 a.m.
From: CEO
To: Sr. Leadership Team; COO
Subject: RE: RE: Update on Strat. Plan Progress
Bob,
You’re right. I didn’t mean to interfere, but there is a lot riding on the success of this plan. As you know, the board has said that they are looking at me as a leader and expecting better results than with our last plan. I’m just worried it’s not starting off well. I’ll go ahead and give it another few months to see if we have made some progress, but if you all could please put your updates on the shared drive, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your help!
Jon
LET’S GET REAL
This plan is sparking into a dumpster fire. Having the right people doing the work, as well as leading the charge, has everything to do with the success of the plan itself. Execution is NOT about delegation of authority and responsibility to make the plan work; it’s about giving the right initiatives, goals, and tasks to those who actually know how to do them BEST.
This leadership team is either completely derelict in their duties or trying to set the CEO up for failure. Neither is good. Good execution of the plan requires the leadership to own the strategic initiatives and to check in—not checkup—to see how it’s going and what is needed. Over-delegation to people who don’t have a clue or are simply not skilled at the particular initiative or task will lead to chaos. Good people will leave; bad people will just quit while still on the job. Who cares anyway? The senior leadership team sure as hell didn’t.
A leader who allows himself to be bullied into an execution strategy he doesn’t understand or has clear doubts about is a wimp. Leadership does not need to be loud, but it does need to be strong. Allowing something you know will be a train wreck is an abdication of leadership and will doom any strategy, no matter how good.
Successful execution is about having the best people in the right roles to maximize the chances of success—not delegating it to the last man standing. Although you might be building the plane while in the air, the need for qualified mechanics is even greater than when the plane was on the ground.
To get your copy of “How (NOT) to Create a Winning Strategy” click here.