Welcome to the Liberating Teams podcast. I'm Holly Breeding team psychology practitioner and org effectiveness consultant. Every week around here, we dismantle the outdated hierarchical leadership systems that keeps leaders like you stuck in the weeds and break down how to build a self-managed team that thrives without you at the center.
Because when your team has the clarity systems and ownership, they need to lead themselves. You finally get to lead strategically. It's time to liberate the way you lead.
Okay, so today we are diving into strategy and you're like, Holly, you talk about strategy all the freaking time and yes I do. Because strategy is the foundation for a self-managed team. If your team does not have a roadmap, if they don't understand where are we trying to go and what is the route we're going to take to get there, then heck to the no.
Are they gonna be able to own it? We have to equip them with a strategy, with a direction,
So before we dive in, the first thing we need to talk about is the purpose of strategy. And I find that it's so important to start here because I feel that strategy is a word and a process that has become really watered down in corporate culture.
In fact, a lot of us it's become a buzzword. We love to throw strategy. In front of everything. In fact, I remember in my career as a consultant, I had to be very careful where I used the word strategy. Because if I said, there was a strategy team or one team handled the strategy and the other team didn't, then that was going to take people off because we all want to be seen as strategic.
So it's become this buzzword. It's also become. This process within companies, we've diluted strategy to this, something you do once a year through annual planning. And that might look like, a strategic offsite that could look like, goal setting, OKRs, smart goals whatever it may be.
But it's a process, a template, a tool you fill out. And that's strategy. But for me, strategy isn't about any of those things. Strategy is a skillset. It's a capability. It's something that you don't just get to apply once and be done. It's something that's ongoing.
Strategy for me is about understanding what is the impact you are here to make the tangible difference. What will be different because your team existed this year, your, what will be different because of the work your team did this year and your ability to. Focus your team's limited resources on achieving that impact.
And so diving a little bit deeper into that's about understanding. We all have limited resources, budget, capacity. When you talk about your team's time, they have in a day times the number of team members on your team. That's your capacity. Tools. All of it. We have limited resources that we can tap into to achieve this impact.
So strategy is the process of figuring out, okay, if this is where we're trying to go, how will we get there? By prioritizing some things and saying no to others now that's the part about strategy that most people don't get. We've overlooked. We've made strategy, essentially a wishlist. In fact, most of us don't even take this time to stop and think, where are we trying to go?
What is the impact we're trying to have here? Instead, we jump straight into here's the projects, the initiative, the task list we're going to achieve this year, because these are the things that are, important to so and so higher up. Because these are the buzzwordy topics that people are talking about because this is what will pass the smart goal format or whatever that HR sent that we need to have five goals formatted in this way and it needs to be said this, whatever.
We're doing it out of a place of compliance versus what strategy is truly about. And that's directing our team. The whole purpose of strategy is to tell your team where we are going and guide their actions and decisions to get them there. I like to equate strategy to your team's internal GPS system.
So whenever we go through the process of outlining our strategy, and this is something that we're doing continuously, not once a year this is us saying, inputting, here's the destination into the GPS and deciding. What we're going to do to get there, what route we're going to take, what we will prioritize and what we'll trade off.
We're gonna prioritize taking the scenic route versus the fast route. Trying to really bring home that analogy. But it's like there are certain, things we can do, initiatives behaviors, actions we can take that will drive us closer to that. But we actually have to choose which ones are going to get our limited time, energy, and resources.
When you do not tell your team, here are the things we're going to focus on. Here are the initiatives that will get our attention, and here's the ones that we're gonna say, not right now. If we don't do that for them, then what is going to happen is, one, they're constantly pulling at each other. They're constantly fighting over resources.
They're constantly fighting over whose work gets prioritized. They're constantly confused over where they need to be focusing on, and so that means they're constantly coming to you. What do I need to do? Is this important? Is that important? Is now this important? Wait, this happened. Should I focus on this?
You become their compass because we've never set up the GPS for them. So as you're going through the process of setting up your strategy, think less about, you know, is this the perfect 27 slide PowerPoint deck that my executive leader is gonna drool over and more about is this giving my team the clarity?
And the direction that they need to where every single day as they're going through their work, they can look at this for guidance as their GPS to direct their actions and decisions. And let me tell you, if it's a list of 15 projects, that doesn't tell them crap. It has to tell them, here's where we're going, here's what we're going to focus on to get there, and here's what we're trading off.
So let's dive in deeper to those elements. So when we're talking about a good, solid strategy, a GPS strategy, that's going to empower that self-managed team. There's three things we need to focus on. One, you cannot do this in a box. You cannot go through the typical corporate process of leader goes to strategic, offsite leader develops, um, the PowerPoint deck with all the buzzwordy fancy statements, and then we push it on our team, or we like to use the fancy word that sounds nicer.
We cascade it to our team. So here's the problem with that. People own what they help create. If I didn't help create it, the chances of me owning it are slim to none. Not because I don't want to, but now we have to go through this whole process of socializing it, getting buy-in for it, understanding it, everyone being aligned around it, and that is 10 times harder.
When we're just shoving it on someone versus when we're developing with them. This is why most strategies fail. Well, well, let's say if the strategy's developed correctly, meaning it, it has, you know, an impact, priorities, and trade-offs. This is why it fails after that is because. We did not create it with them.
And so we struggle to get the team aligned, to get them bought in, to get them understanding it. This is why, you know, so many of you talk about like, my team's not owning the strategy. I feel like I'm constantly having to run after them and clarify and re-clarify and restate. It's because they never bought into it half the time.
It's because they don't even understand it. Because it's buried in a bunch of slide decks and they don't really get the point.
By developing it with them, all of that goes away. 'cause they had a hand in it. They were a part of the conversation. They understand how we got to this point. They understand why we chose to prioritize some things and not others. So there's no having to convince them they were a part of it. Now I know a lot of strategies that I see are really just trying to people please for the team.
Well, I don't want anyone to feel left out, so I made sure everyone had a buy item in there. But the problem with that again, is if we don't make strategic trade offs and we try to go after everything, then it puts your team in this position to have to fight with each other over resources and and capacity and, and whose thing gets the focus?
So we have to make trade offs. We have to have seasons where some teams are, are kind of the shining one. They're, they're the, the all star. This se this quarter, this season and other teams, your role is more of a support role or focusing internally on your own teams', foundations. So next quarter, when it's time for you to pick up the baton, you are ready.
But we don't like to do that because we're, we're afraid to hurt feelings. We're afraid that when we roll that out, people will be upset, co-create it with them, because when they're all a part of the conversation together, one, there's alignment. We had the conversation together. We were all a part of it, we're aligned.
And two, they're prioritizing together. There's no, you know, disagreeing. With what's rolled out, because we all voted on it, we all had a conversation around it. We all decided that we were good to move forward. And if you're like, there is no way in heck my team's strategic enough to have that type of conversation.
Oh, they are. I promise you they are. I've worked with teams across 40 different functions from the most strategic, true corporate strategy teams. To frontline operations teams and we included them in the strategy every single time because the people closest to the work know the work best. They have better insights than you do.
Every step up the leadership ladder, you get more removed. It's in our ability as leaders to facilitate them, to stretch that muscle, to to ask this of them. Hey, I want you to have a voice in the direction of this team because you're gonna be the one executing at the end of the day. So let's, I wanna bring you along with me instead of putting it on you.
So I think a lot of us as leaders, use our team as scapegoats, but our team has an opinion, they have a voice, so they're capable of doing this. It's just, are we capable of facilitating them in the process? Ooh, triggering some people with that one. Do you feel confident in your ability to facilitate your team in that process?
A lot of us can't say yes to that. Because for a lot of us, we're still getting comfortable being, you know, the strategist, the one setting the direction. So the thought of stepping in and facilitating our team in that process is terrifying. That sounds terrifying. I don't want them to know that I'm still learning this.
But it doesn't have to be that way. It just comes down to having the right tools and the right format for the conversation. That's why in Liberated Leader, every single thing that you are doing comes with a step-by-step facilitation guide. Here's the email you're gonna send out beforehand. Here's how you're gonna frame the conversation around what we're doing today.
And always the whiff 'em, the what's in it for them, um, why should they care. And then here's exactly how you're going to lead them through the conversation. And of course, the mural board. The myro board, um, that you can use virtually with your team. Or how to set it up in person using flip charts, sticky notes, and all the fun stuff.
Um, so I walk you through that step by step because it's so critical that you are co-creating these things with your teams. But I understand how terrifying it can be. So once you have these tools, these resources, all it is is a matter of booking the time with your team and, and you're good to go. But,
so if you're nervous about facilitating this process with your team and how they'll react, you need to be inside Liberated Leader. But I also want you to think about, it doesn't have to be an all at once. The way that I break it down in Liberated Leader is we go through steps. So the first time you do it.
Maybe it is you, you know, giving the strategy for your team and asking for, um, their response. You know,
does this make sense? What questions do you have? What, um, barriers do you see? Uh, anything like that. Getting them used to having a conversation around it. And then from there, the next time we go through the strategic process, now we're gonna say, I wanna invite you into the process. Now we're gonna go through, you know, a workshop style, yet 45 minute conversation where we're coming up with it together.
Here's the impact we're looking to make our priorities and trade-offs. And then the next time we go through it, we co-facilitate it. Maybe it's you and you know, another member of the team, one of your lower level managers who is doing it, and then the next time they're facilitating it, maybe it's, you know, two or three leaders from different teams are facilitating it.
And now you are the expert in the room. You are the one pushing, challenging, poking holes, making them, are you stretching their thinking to go further, faster, better. You become the strategic advisor, not their operations function, not the facilitator. So I really want you to think about what is one step I can take to start including my team in the strategy conversation.
So it's done with them and not to them. The next part about having a true self-managed team strategy is there has to be a clear understanding of the destination. Your team cannot own what they do, not know or understand if they don't understand, to what end are we doing this and make sure that I wanna point out that I said understand.
I did not say we handed them the 27 slide PowerPoint deck. So they should know, right? No, of course not. I can't tell you how many times I have read strategy decks and I am just like banging my head against the wall. Y'all. Like I going through slide by slide with a highlighter and I'm connecting dot, and it's not because it's like super complex materials, it's because we try and jam so much in them and we use all this wordsmithing and buzz words and all this stuff that really dilutes the content down to nothing that you really can't tell what it's trying to say.
Yet we expect that our team picks that up and, and they're like, yep, I know exactly where we're going. I get it. Even though like they've spent five minutes trying to read this deck that you spent, you know, six weeks developing, and they were privy to zero of the conversations that you were having with higher ups about priorities and all of that as well.
So of course they're struggling to understand, and because of that, they're all taking away their own things. One team's reading it and they're seeing it from their lens, and another team's reading it and they're seeing it from their lens. And in fact, we even encourage that behavior through the cascading process.
Here's the joint strategy now everyone go take it, interpret it in your own way, and run after it in your own way. It is like, sure they all point to a end destination, but we've dropped every single team off in the middle of nowhere with a different map. And so now they're all bickering with each other.
No, I think we should go this way. No, I think we should go that way. No, clearly we need to go this way. And really it's just 'cause they all have a different map. We have to make sure that every single person on our team, from senior leader to lowest level coordinator, understands where we are going. What is the impact that we are trying to make through our work this year?
What will be different because our team showed up day in and day out. And most of us don't consider that. Most of us just say, we're showing up and doing this work, and here's the 15 priorities. We're going to focus on the 15 projects we're gonna do. To what end? Well, just because it's our job. Show up each day run on the hamster wheel.
That's not motivating to anyone. In fact, it's not even effective. Because then we're just obsessed about checking boxes on, you know, of projects, of solutions to implement because that's what we decided was important in the moment. Or some, you know, higher level leader gave those to us. That's not strategy.
Strategy is about actually understanding and sensing what's going on in our environment. It's about understanding what our customer's needs are. It's about understanding, and when I say customers, it doesn't just mean your external customer. For those of you guys who are service-based teams, your customer may be another department, it may be the employee, and you should have intimate knowledge about what they're struggling with, what their biggest needs are.
It is about understanding about what's going on in our industry, both within your broader industry. Say your, you know, hospitality, but you are the, the marketing team within hospitality. You should know what is coming down the pipeline in both of those industries, what people are talking about, what challenges are coming up.
We should know what's going on in our company. Not the, the formal, you know, stuff that they hand us, but reading between the lines, what keeps coming up in the town halls? What buzzwords are they sharing over and over and over. We should be consistently sensing what is going on in our environment and understanding how we can drive change in it, what those biggest problems are, the biggest themes, and how our function can make a difference.
And then choosing one to go after your vision should, for this year, shouldn't be about, you know, corporate posturing and having the pretty buzzwords in there. It should be about, we've un we understand. The broader picture. We understand where the opportunities are, we understand where potential threats are, and we understand how our team, how our function can make a difference this year.
How every single day the work that we're doing is going to change something for the greater good. We're not just gonna exist. We're actually driving towards something. We have a goal and every single person on my team, from you know, senior leader down to lowest level coordinator can tell you, ask them, I dare you.
They'll all say the same thing. That right there needs to be the level of clarity around your destination you need to have. So that's number two. The last thing that you need to have is priorities and trade-offs. Your team needs to be clear on how we're going to make that impact. Here's the thing, we're gonna pick an easy example.
Let's say your, um, the impact that you are trying to make this year is increase revenue by X percent. Maybe you're a sales team, so that's your goal. There are a million different ways that you can increase revenue, right? A million. You can go after different, you know, customer segments. You can try and bring a new business.
You can try an upsell existing business. There's a million different ways that you can try and reach that revenue goal as a sales team. In fact, I bet every single team on your sales team has a different strategy. Your revenue management team has a strategy as to how to do it. Your account managers have a strategy as to how to do it.
Um, you know, your lead team, your internal leads team, they have their strategy and so they all know our goal is to increase revenue by X percent, and so they all disperse and go after their own version. Worse, we have 15 different priorities about how we're gonna do it, and we're gonna go after all of them this year.
The chances of us actually making a significant meaningful difference on any of those are slim to none. I cannot tell you how many times I've started working with teams and they give me their strategy, which is that list of 15 priorities, and I ask, can you give me a percent completion on each one of these 5%, 10%, 15%?
And they stay there. Oh, but look, we've made, you know, we went from 5% to 10% on priority 12. Great. Makes no difference. Everything just simply sitting at half finished is not driving you closer to achieving your revenue goal. You know, what would focusing in on three to five and pushing those across the finish line and then saying and, and seeing the impact they make, seeing the increase, and then saying, okay, now what's next?
Because not only are you going to make an impact way quicker because we're actually seeing them through to fruition, and therefore we're gonna be able to see the change in revenue, but we're also learning from it. We're learning, Hey, you know that one worked and that one didn't, so let's do more like that.
And all of our ideas were that were like the one that didn't work. Let's maybe push those down. The backlog. Let's prioritize the ones that did work. You are learning and you're able to adjust and make strategic decisions faster, you're able to make an impact faster because you're not just sitting there at the beginning of the year and saying, let's run after these 15 things based off of my best guess.
You're saying, here's the three that I think are the most likely to make a difference. Let's go do these, see them through to fruition. And see what happens. See what impact they make on their our goal or lack thereof, and then let's adjust based off of that, we have to have priorities and we have to have trade-offs.
We have to say, in order to focus on these three to five things, what are we going to say no to? And it doesn't just mean, um, you know, you coming up with a list of 15 different ways you can drive an impact and say, we're gonna pick these three and the rest we're gonna say no to. That's step one. Step two then is looking internally toward your team and saying, what work do we need to stop?
What things are we currently doing that aren't really driving us closer to making this impact that we've outlined? Where do we have boundaries that we need to reinforce or maybe change? You can't be blowing our team up 24 7 with last minute requests that are all quote unquote urgent, because that's taking a significant amount of time away from our team achieving these priorities that we have very carefully outlined and are focused on.
Not because we're busy, but because we have a strategy. And I'm gonna do a whole other podcast on getting respect for your no and why your no is likely not respected at this moment. So look out for that soon. Wait, that needs a whole nother 30 minutes. But we have to make trade-offs even including boundaries.
And that also means sometimes deprioritizing things that are important. So I always love to use the example of, um, asking things like this quarter, what are we prioritizing customer experience or revenue? Almost every single person is gonna say both. Well, both. We got, both are always important and yeah, that is true.
But if your team had to pick one, what's the focus this quarter? Because here's the thing, there are going to be scenarios where your team will have to pick one. There are, and by you not making the choice, you're putting it on your team. And that's not leadership. I love the example, um, coming from the airline industry of you've probably, if you've heard any of my stuff, you've probably heard me say this, but it's that good.
Um, if you have a gate agent standing at that gate of the airplane. It is the first airplane about to leave, and the first airplane that ever leaves is the most critical because that sets the tone for the rest of the day. If that airplane's late, then every ti like flight after it, that depends on that airplane is late as well.
So that can potentially affect revenue because you potentially might have to start canceling flights. So let's say you're that gate agent and you're standing at that door. And this flight needs to take off. You need to close that door because this flight has to go out on time. But you see a, a mom running down the terminal, two kids in her arms, lugging bags, and she's booking it like she's, she is flying, but you gotta close that door.
She still gots a long way to go. Customers are looking, they're sitting there, they're watching, they see this mom coming. What do you do? What does that gay agent do? If we told them customer experience and revenue are both equally important, we have just forced them in that deci that moment to make the decision.
'cause we did not provide them clarity. We did not do our job as leaders and tell them in those types of situations where you have to make a choice. Here's the choice we need to choose. I get really fired up about this 'cause I think it is so important that we cannot scapegoat as leaders. It is our job to make this decision.
So what do they choose? They close the door, the flight goes, revenue's good. We're on time. But then you have a mom who just had an awful experience who's now trapped in an airport with two young kids and you have all these other customers who just witnessed it. They're tweeting about it. What do you do?
You have to make the choice, what will we stand for? And that might change in different seasons. There might be seasons where revenue is prioritized of over customer experience because we gotta pay the bills. And if we don't pay the bills, then we can provide a customer experience. So I'm not trying to demonize one thing over another.
There are times where one has to be prioritized over the other, but you just have to be clear on what it is. You've got to make the trade-offs. So those are the three things when it comes to having a self-managed team strategy. For them to have the GPS, the clarity, the buy-in, the alignment, the priorities, and the trade-offs, they need to own it.
Your team cannot own what they do, not know or understand. You have to outline it for them. Go pick out at least one thing from this episode and go put it into your action with your team. This week let's go do some work.
