For many of the over 4,000 readers of this blog who are former participants of one or more of my 
Business Acumen or Business Leadership learning journeys, you know that I typically ask a new group of participants on the first day of session how well they think they know their own company’s business strategy. As you may recall, the answer is typically the same no matter what company or industry; a small group of participants raise their hands (that they know their strategy) and then some brave soul inevitably says; “Well, I know what they say the strategy is, but in reality, I’m not really sure what they say is really what we are trying to execute…”
To get a little more scientific about it, over the past few weeks the Advantexe Market Research team conducted a survey of past participants asking them a few specific questions about how they perceive their company’s business strategy and its’ clarity them in terms of their ability to lead strategic execution. The results probably won’t surprise anyone; more than 75% of our respondents shared that they felt their own company’s strategy was ambiguous and therefore they couldn’t be as effective as leaders.
This data raises an interesting question: if you are a solid middle-level manager working in a large organization, how can you be a strategic leader while your company is being ambiguous?
Based on research and my own personal observations of working with large companies struggling with this issue over the past 25+ years, I’ve put together three important tips to help solve this conundrum:
Understand the strategy
The first step of the process is to truly understand your own company’s business strategy. You need to use or gain strong Business Acumen skills to recognize the business ecosystem in which your company competes, understand the financial goals, objectives, metrics, and drivers of performance that will accomplish the strategy, and comprehend that things that you can do as a leader to drive performance through your people to support the strategy.
Acknowledge the reality
The secret to working in an ambiguous business environment isn’t to hide from it but rather acknowledge it. Your people will appreciate the truth more than trying to cover it up with jargon and nonsensical jabberwocky. The reality is that your business strategy is evolving and that even though your executives say they want to be the most innovative in the market they are still looking for ways to cut costs and not invest in the tools needed to achieve instant market dominance. But that’s all ok as long as you are sharing the truth and providing a path forward for people to understand, follow, and believe in.
Listen down, but push up
This third bullet is most interesting to me. What I’ve discovered is this; most executive leaders want - and more importantly - need their middle-level leaders to listen to their direct reports and then push up to the executives the things that need to be changed and evolved. Unfortunately, most middle-level leaders aren’t provided with the Business Acumen and Business Leadership skills to be able to do this successfully and that is such a shame. To listen down and push up, you need to be able to:
- Have a deep understanding of the strategy and an acknowledgement of the reality of how it’s being executed (see above)
- Great communications skills
- The ability to understand and adapt to different personality styles
- The ability to show real concern of your direct report’s needs
- The ability to persuade executives with facts and plans
- A discipline to lead change and pull direct reports and executives across the “valley of despair” when things start to go bad
