Facing YOUR Demons

Growing up I had my fair share of fears as I suspect most kids do.  In particular, I somehow learned to fear the dark and more particularly all the evil creatures that might be lurking under the bed, in my closet or just outside the window.  Every noise and small movement of shadow seem to be amplified, the precursor to my impending doom.  Several decades removed from those childish fears I still find myself somewhat anxious at the thought of a night out with my telescope observing the heavens.

The reality is, however, that in my youth those monsters were quite real.  And in truth it was only over time and not through any particular parental logic that there were overcome.  I profess to still having some fear of the dark but more often it is borne out of knowledge of what is really out there - farm dogs who might perceive me as a threat; skunks, coyotes or other wild animals; and other humans who might have less astronomical things on their minds.  My fears are more grounded in reality these days but yet they don't hold me back from pursuing one of my personal passions.  So what gets me out there in the middle of the night regardless of perceived or real ghosts?  In this case, it is the opportunity to gaze upon celestial wonders of far flung galaxies, nebulae and the rings of Saturn. In some bizarre and metaphorical sense I am driven to face my fears by a higher purpose.  Pun intended.

As an executive coach - and a leader/entrepreneur in my own right - I experience and realize that I can be subject to a number of different fears.  Most of these come down to self-doubt and the courage to take on new and different challenges in my career and business.  And I see similar behavior in many of the clients that I work with.  The mythical monsters that have lived in the closets or just outside our windows in our youth now stalk the halls and alleys of our hearts, souls and minds.  These monsters and ghosts are some of the most insidious we will ever face.  They know us well and play upon and magnify our weaknesses, insecurities, and doubts.  Left unchallenged, they grow in strength and hold us paralyzed with fear striving to ensure that we never take that next step forward.

These ghosts just don't operate purely or even mostly on horror and shock value.  Rather, they are more cunning and possessed of a powerful voice, constantly talk us out of taking that next bold step into the future.  They are the voice that suggests that we really aren't qualified to apply for a new position.  They help us procrastinate and rationalize to the point where even if we were to apply to take on the next big challenge we would show up with the belief we didn't belong.  We display our anxiety to the point that those who are in the position of deciding our fate (e.g., the hiring decision) or supporting our next big step recognize our lack of confidence and make the non-supportive decision we have been expecting all along.  We become our own self-fulfilling prophecy.

But like conquering our own childhood fears success in facing our more mature fears is possible.  My success and that of my coaching clients is proof of that.  In my first year away from an executive role and into my new venture I probably had more sleepless nights - and self-talk - than I'd had in the previous ten years.  What made this the right move?  Was my business plan just wishful thinking?  What made me think that my marketing efforts were the right ones? And so on and so forth.  I could say that it was a powerful vision of my ultimate success that kept me going but that would be too easy a way to rewrite history.  Truth be told, I was probably just too proud and stubborn to give in.  But I did ultimately face and conquer (most of) my fears.  I often did so with the encouragement, support, inspiration and examples of others.

In similar fashion I have been inspired by the courage that many of my coaching clients have ultimately demonstrated as they struggled with realizing their potential, seeking out new opportunities, and taking on new challenges.  We have helped them face their fears, challenge their self-limiting beliefs and powerfully own their strengths.  A quote from one of my coaching colleagues comes to mind in this regard - "Your mind is a dangerous neighborhood to go into alone."  So together, we have walked the dark halls and alleys of their mind, challenging assumptions, taking small steps, all in service of a grander vision of what is possible for them.  To realize their potential and open up new vistas that they had not even imagined.

The fears and doubt never truly go away.  I still fear the dark, I still fear swimming in open water, and I still fear that business success enjoyed today is fleeting.  Even as my clients enjoy their current success (e.g., new job, award, raise, promotion) they still wonder how they will maintain or build upon that success.  Our fears and doubts won't go quietly into the night.  But perhaps rather than paralyzing us they can serve a more useful function of keeping us sharp and helping us prepare for potential (and reality-based) setbacks.

Keeping a higher purpose in front of us - the celestial heavens, the triathlon finish line, a successful and fulfilling career - is a foundation by which we can keep moving one step ahead developing our own level of reassurance that our fears are often overblown.  We can choose to live in fear or live in purpose.  We can look back on our past successes as harbingers of bigger things to come.  We can believe in our strengths and in our capacity to become stronger.  We can ultimately build the confidence and courage to overcome what is holding us back from our yet to be imagined potential.

Choose to face your ghosts, get off your (metaphorical bed), and shine a flashlight into the dark spaces.  What you don't find there might amaze you and lighten your load.

Exorcise your ghosts - own the night.

______________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
Executive Coach/Senior Consultant
hadubiak@wmc.ca
780-401-2812

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.

Leadership Failures??

As I write this post the second in the US Presidential debates between Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump is has just been completed.  We are a month away from the US deciding the respective fates of these two candidates and perhaps of a whole system of international relationships at this critical point in history.  While I've not watched any of the debates, I nevertheless find myself distracted by the frantic activity hitting my twitter account as updates come fast and furious.  In many ways, the experience is like passing by a car accident - while I'm not directly involved in any way I can't help slowing down to watch the scene. 

I've also been struggling to figure out and make sense of the Trump experience.  I consider myself a rational and logical human being and find myself astounded at how long and how successful this political run has been.  Similarly, as I've been lecturing at Concordia University of Edmonton to my leadership class I've struggled to explain the reason for Trump's success thus far - or the failure of the US political system to exorcise this challenge long before now.  There probably was no more telling commentary on the quality of this particular political race than the main subject and focus of the most recent Presidential debate being about who carried more sexual baggage.  Substantive and focused discussions on the significant issues facing the US and the world played second fiddle. 

So how to explain this from a leadership perspective?  At the same time I couldn't help but believe that there were complementary lessons to be gleaned from other world events where the electorate of other countries seemingly made uninformed, under-informed or nonsensical decisions - at least from my perspective.  How to explain Brexit?  How to explain Columbia voting against a peace deal in its decades long civil war? 

As I struggled to dissect these scenarios and possibly put pen to paper to expound my thoughts I fortuitously came across the article below which comes from Psychology Today and was published about a month ago.  I found its insights intriguing and I hope it helps you consider and put into perspective the leadership challenges noted above.  More importantly, and perhaps a subject of further thought in another blog, what might this mean for your particular leadership challenges?

Bobby Azarian, Ph.D.

The Psychology Behind Donald Trump's Unwavering Support

Research explains why Donald Trump maintains support despite shocking behavior.

Posted Sep 13, 2016 

There’s no doubt that Donald Trump has said many things that would have been political suicide for any other Republican candidate. And almost every time he made one of these shocking statements, political analysts on both the left and the right predicted that he’d lose supporters because of it. But as we have clearly seen over the past year, they were dead wrong every time. Trump appears to be almost totally bulletproof.  

The only thing that might be more perplexing than the psychology of Donald Trump is the psychology of his supporters. In their eyes, The Donald can do no wrong. Even Trump himself seems to be astonished by this phenomenon. "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK? It's, like, incredible."

Senator John McCain, who has been a regular target for Trump during his campaign, has a simple explanation for his unwavering support. “What he did was he fired up the crazies.”

While the former Republican presidential nominee may be on to something, he doesn’t exactly provide a very satisfying scientific explanation.  So how exactly are Trump loyalists psychologically or neurologically different from everyone else? What is going on in their brains that makes them so blindly devoted?

1. The Dunning-Kruger Effect

Some believe that many of those who support Donald Trump do so because of ignorance — basically they are under-informed or misinformed about the issues at hand. When Trump tells them that crime is skyrocketing in the United States, or that the economy is the worst it’s ever been, they simply take his word for it.

The seemingly obvious solution would be to try to reach those people through political ads, expert opinions, and logical arguments that educate with facts. Except none of those things seem to be swaying any Trump supporters from his side, despite great efforts to deliver this information to them directly.

The Dunning-Kruger effect explains that the problem isn’t just that they are misinformed; it’s that they are completely unaware that they are misinformed. This creates a double burden.  Studies have shown that people who lack expertise in some area of knowledge often have a cognitive bias that prevents them from realizing that they lack expertise. As psychologist David Dunning puts it in an op-ed for Politico, “The knowledge and intelligence that are required to be good at a task are often the same qualities needed to recognize that one is not good at that task — and if one lacks such knowledge and intelligence, one remains ignorant that one is not good at the task. This includes political judgment.” Essentially, they’re not smart enough to realize they’re dumb.

And if one is under the illusion that they have sufficient or even superior knowledge, then they have no reason to defer to anyone else’s judgment. This helps explain why even nonpartisan experts — like military generals and Independent former Mayor of New York/billionaire CEO Michael Bloomberg — as well as some respected Republican politicians, don’t seem to be able to say anything that can change the minds of loyal Trump followers.

Out of immense frustration, some of us may feel the urge to shake a Trump supporter and say, “Hey! Don’t you realize that he’s an idiot?!” No. They don’t. That may be hard to fathom, but that’s the nature of the Dunning-Kruger effect — one’s ignorance is completely invisible to them.

2. Hypersensitivity to Threat

Science has unequivocally shown that the conservative brain has an exaggerated fear response when faced with stimuli that may be perceived as threatening. A 2008 study in the journal Science found that conservatives have a stronger physiological reaction to startling noises and graphic images compared to liberals. A brain-imaging study published in Current Biology revealed that those who lean right politically tend to have a larger amygdala — a structure that is electrically active during states of fear and anxiety. And a 2014 fMRI study found that it is possible to predict whether someone is a liberal or conservative simply by looking at their brain activity while they view threatening or disgusting images, such as mutilated bodies. Specifically, the brains of self-identified conservatives generated more activity overall in response to the disturbing images.

So how does this help explain the unbridled loyalty of Trump supporters? These brain responses are automatic, and not influenced by logic or reason. As long as Trump continues his fear mongering by constantly portraying Muslims and Mexican immigrants as imminent dangers, many conservative brains will involuntarily light up like light bulbs being controlled by a switch. Fear keeps his followers energized and focused on safety. And when you think you’ve found your protector, you become less concerned with remarks that would normally be seen as highly offensive.   

3.  Terror Management Theory

A well-supported theory from social psychology, called Terror Management Theory, explains why Trump’s fear mongering is doubly effective.

The theory is based on the fact that humans have a unique awareness of their own mortality. The inevitably of one’s death creates existential terror and anxiety that is always residing below the surface. In order to manage this terror, humans adopt cultural worldviews — like religions, political ideologies, and national identities — that act as a buffer by instilling life with meaning and value.

Terror Management Theory predicts that when people are reminded of their own mortality, which happens with fear mongering, they will more strongly defend those who share their worldviews and national or ethnic identity, and act out more aggressively towards those who do not. Hundreds of studies have confirmed this hypothesis, and some have specifically shown that triggering thoughts of death tends to shift people towards the right.

Not only do death reminders increase nationalism, they influence actual voting habits in favor of more conservative presidential candidates. And more disturbingly, in a study with American students, scientists found that making mortality salient increased support for extreme military interventions by American forces that could kill thousands of civilians overseas. Interestingly, the effect was present only in conservatives, which can likely be attributed to their heightened fear response.

By constantly emphasizing existential threat, Trump creates a psychological condition that makes the brain respond positively rather than negatively to bigoted statements and divisive rhetoric. Liberals and Independents who have been puzzled over why Trump hasn’t lost supporters after such highly offensive comments need look no further than Terror Management Theory.

4. High Attentional Engagement

According to a recent study that monitored brain activity while participants watched 40 minutes of political ads and debate clips from the presidential candidates, Donald Trump is unique in his ability to keep the brain engaged. While Hillary Clinton could only hold attention for so long, Trump kept both attention and emotional arousal high throughout the viewing session. This pattern of activity was seen even when Trump made remarks that individuals didn’t necessarily agree with. His showmanship and simple messages clearly resonate at a visceral level.  

Essentially, the loyalty of Trump supporters may in part be explained by America’s addiction with entertainment and reality TV. To some, it doesn’t matter what Trump actually says because he’s so amusing to watch. With Donald, you are always left wondering what outrageous thing he is going to say or do next. He keeps us on the edge of our seat, and for that reason, some Trump supporters will forgive anything he says. They are happy as long as they are kept entertained.  

Of course these explanations do not apply to all Trump supporters. In fact, some are likely intelligent people who know better, but are supporting Trump to be rebellious or to introduce chaos into the system. They may have such distaste for the establishment and Hillary Clinton that their vote for Trump is a symbolic middle finger directed at Washington.

So what can we do to potentially change the minds of Trump loyalists before voting day in November? As a cognitive neuroscientist, it grieves me to say that there may be nothing we can do. The overwhelming majority of these people may be beyond reach, at least in the short term. The best we can do is to motivate everyone else to get out to the booths and check the box that doesn’t belong to a narcissistic nationalist who has the potential to damage the nation beyond repair. 

This article was originally published at Raw Story.

Lessons in Leadership - Through Triathlon!

Many posts ago I wrote about the leadership lessons I gleaned from Ironman triathlon competitions (http://itsaboutleadership.blogspot.ca/2012/08/ironman-as-metaphor-for-leadership.html).  The lack of references to triathlon since is testament to the fact that I have largely been absent from this personal athletic endeavor for five years now.

I have any number of reasons as to why the hiatus between major events - most notably adding in two more children to my parenting responsibilities - but after a failed attempt to reengage in a significant tri event last year my wife and I were back out on a course on July 3, 2016!  And as before, lessons were learned and reinforced.

First, there has to be some motivation or goal in mind to undertake a triathlon event.  For my wife and I, given how our lives have changed since 2011 we were realistic enough to know that personal bests were not in the cards.  Finishing was going to be the goal.  More important to us at this stage was in fact reengaging and recommitting to a healthy lifestyle.  Having a race to compete in (The Great White North Triathlon) functioned as a milestone and deadline to which we could aspire.   As "they" say, without a goal any direction will do! This was not an Ironman distance but still daunting as we got back into things - 2 km swim, followed by 90 km on the bike, followed by a 21 km run.

Second, luck or success (in leadership and triathlon) favors the prepared.  Speaking for myself, there is no doubt that greater effort had gone into getting physically prepared for 2016 than in previous years.  I had lost some weight and in fact was less than what I had competed at in 2011 and 2012.  Unfortunately, I did not get in workouts on a consistent basis (e.g., daily) from January to June.  Further to that point, I had not donned my wetsuit since my last Ironman, had not had an open water swim since 2011, and did not have a bike ride of more than 45 km at any time leading up to the Great White North.  Not a recipe for high performance.  The clear lesson here for athletics and leadership is you can't ride on past success or performance in the belief that it will carry you to success on an ongoing basis.  Your mind might remember past glories but your body will give you great and almost immediate feedback to the contrary!  There must be recognition that success comes from daily investment.

Third, success is rarely based on a single skill.  Triathlon is a multi-discipline sport.  So is leadership.  However, if we think of triathlon as swimming, cycling and running we would miss out on other equally important components.  In my recent race this was again made clear in terms of needing to put all of the elements together - including nutrition and hydration - to succeed.  You really can't just excel at one discipline and expect to have success.  In leadership if you expect to rely on only one skill and/or never change or develop those skills you'll be quickly outpaced by your competition.  Our business environments are changing too rapidly - maybe even daily or hourly - to stand pat.  Our workforce and customers are becoming increasingly diverse along with their expectations and demands.  Leaders have to continuously evaluate, learn and evolve.

I can't do justice to the comparison between triathlon and Leadership if I don't discuss mental toughness and resilience.  You can have everything in place - training in several disciplines, fueling plan nailed, equipment ready - but if you are not mentally prepared for race day all of the prep work might be for naught.  In this particular event what hit us on the course - literally - was a torrential downpour accompanied by hail!  We were fortunate enough to be able to take shelter just off the course but what we lost many minutes waiting for the deluge to pass.  We also discovered that many of our other competitors were spared this particular challenge.  Fair doesn't have to be part of the race equation, nor does it play into the business world.  Regardless, you have to have experienced adversity (through trying and taking risks) if you are to develop the mental toughness and resilience to overcome and continue.  Quitters don't get far in life.   The best leaders have faced their share of adversity on their way up to their current roles; they've experienced conflict, they've had to make tough choices, they've had to balance multiple priorities and tasks, and they have sometimes failed.  However, that's what has (hopefully) molded them into better leaders.

Triathlon is often a lonely venture.  So too leadership.  But they don't have to be.  In this particular case there is no doubt in my mind that it would have been relatively easy to call it a day after having been drenched with rain, pelted with hail and lost time waiting by the roadside.  Wet, cold and frustrated.  Time to go home and have a hot shower.  What certainly helped me continue was the mutual commitment I had made with my wife to complete the race.  Throughout our periods of adversity and frustration with the day we could draw upon each other - and dark humor - to get us to the finish line.  In the same way, leaders do not have to walk their path alone.  There are many opportunities and options to build and sustain networks and partnerships that will inevitably support your leadership success.  Too often what gets in the way of developing those partnerships are things like ego and fear.  Put aside pride and build the relationships that you will need to succeed in the face of the challenges and setbacks that will come.

Finally,  one of the best lessons to be reinforced through this particular triathlon event was that there were still opportunities for me to give back and support others.  As my wife and I were closing out the race we were encouraged by other competitors with similar goals to ours - achieve a personal best, finish the race, catch the next person in front of you.  Despite the nature of the competition there was still a recognition that we were all in it together.  That same spirit allowed my wife and I to run the final kilometres with a fellow athlete who was completing her first half-Ironman.  And at the end of the race we stepped back to allow her first moment in the sun as a half-Ironman finisher.  In business and leadership I believe the same lesson is available to be applied.  Yes, we are in competition, but we can also have success by not just beating down the other.  In addition, most of us have had experiences that others have not.  Even if we don't feel particularly successful in the moment we need to recognize that we still have something of value to offer.  Leadership doesn't just have to be about our individual or personal success.  If we can keep our eyes up a bit more we might just be able to impart some wisdom and inspiration to others who are trying to follow in a similar path to our own.  

Triathlon and Leadership - more than a few lessons to be learned.  Keep learning and enjoy your leadership race!
______________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
Executive Coach/Senior Consultant
hadubiak@wmc.ca

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.

On being strategic - part deux!

In my last post I talked about some of the qualities or characteristics of what I suggested made a leader a strategic leader - being visionary or anticipatory, being able to critically evaluate options and information, being comfortable with ambiguity, and being able to take action with imperfect information.  The next logical question is, of course, is how does an aspiring leader develop these qualities?  How does one go from being a manager or a good leader to a strategic leader?  Noted below are some the tactics that I believe can help you become more strategic in your leadership outlook.

First, while it may border on the more than slightly obvious, there is no doubt that experience plays into one's ability to become a better strategic thinker.  You have to have had the opportunity - or sought out opportunity - to get a better feel for a variety of circumstances you will likely face in the future.  Experience can be a great teacher.

Raw experience is certainly not enough.  It's somewhat akin to only perfect practice supporting achievement of perfect results.  There must be mindful consideration at play as it relates to experience.  All too often managers or leaders are merely along for the proverbial ride.   They don't truly appreciate or take the time to understand the forces at play inside and outside their organization. They are being given free lessons in leadership but are not at all taking advantage of the opportunity.  Unfortunately, this often directly relates back to the concept of being busy versus being productive and giving into the tyranny of the urgent.  Leaders must have the strength to step back long enough to see the big picture at play and understand how the forces at play are impacting their efforts and objectives.

Directly related to my first point, I believe to be a strategic leader one must take blinders off and be intentional about seeking new knowledge and experiences outside of our business or industry.  New strategic insights are far less likely to come from merely observing your competitors or others in your particular sector or industry.  If we are to challenge ourselves as leaders we have to really own a key requirement or expectation to be scanners of the broad environment in which we find ourselves, we have to stretch and grow our own capacity, and appreciate that breakthrough thinking is more likely to come from seeing challenges and opportunities through a completely different lens.  While it seems that every business sector thinks they are unique, I am constantly reinforcing with my clients the value of broad-based learning and networking to enhance their peripheral leadership vision.

Similar to the point above, while I suggest leaders seek out information beyond their particular business sector I also recommend that they appreciate and leverage the diversity of their team - direct reports, peers, etc.  As individuals we have one set of eyes and ears which we then filter through our own internal filters.  Leaders must first appreciate that they can't be in all places at once to capture all relevant data.  Secondly they must come to realize that they may not even be capable - because of their filters and biases - of really seeing, appreciating and interpreting the data streaming towards them.  This is where they have to develop trust and confidence in others to help in the broad-based environmental scanning that is required to succeed in today's dynamic business environment.

These requirements also require an ability to cultivate personal humility and a commitment to lifelong learning.  A leader should think of their skills, ability and knowledge much like the newest laptop or tablet - almost obsolete the day you buy it.  Leaders must be open to new learning appreciating the speed of change and the need to constantly develop and hone their leadership and business skills.  What you know today is not going to be enough to be successful tomorrow.  Even the act of learning itself will help to continue to develop your personal capacity, ability to be comfortable with change, and even a desire to initiate change.

Being a strategic leader also often implies that you may be the only one with clarity on the vision forward.  This implies a requirement to spend time and invest in one's ability to understand others and to communicate a strategic vision in a way that others can understand and commit to.  This implies time spent with key stakeholders ensuring open lines of communication, development of trust, and an appreciation of different perspectives on risks and benefits for individual stakeholders and stakeholder groups.  A leader has to develop this level of understanding and appreciation of others in order to communicate or tailor a message and the vision in a way that others can understand and commit to.  One size will not fit all.

Ultimately, all of the above elements lead to a requirement for a leader to make decisions in the face of imperfect information.  Experience and information are only as good as the decisions that are actually taken.  Leaders have to gain some level of comfort in actually making decisions and taking action.  We have to pull the trigger, weighing as best we can the costs and benefits, evaluate results, learn and adjust as necessary.  Appreciate the fact that mistakes will be made but develop the resiliency to bounce back from less than optimal results.  Being a strategic leader requires courage.

Strategic leadership can be developed through planned and thoughtful effort.  Seek out experiences, be mindful to draw the right lessons from those experiences, scan the environment broadly, leverage the diversity of your team and network, commit to your ongoing learning, enhance your ability to communicate and influence, and ultimately take action.  It's About (Strategic) Leadership!
______________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE(R), CEC, PCC
President & Co-Founder
BreakPoint Solutions
gregh@breakpoint.solutions

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.

On being strategic...

One of the hallmarks of an accomplished leader is being strategic.  And that perspective is certainly reinforced with a number of leaders that I have engaged with whether they be a CEO with a long track record or a leader who is aspiring to advance up the corporate ladder.  Regardless of circumstance there is a desire, sometimes even bordering on a sense of urgency, to develop one's strategic outlook, capacity and skills.  There is a perceived risk that one's leadership career will stall for lack of developing strategic skills and outlook. While that may be true - and I believe one could argue that too many leaders are in significant positions without strategic skills - the first question to address is what does it mean to be strategic.

So what does it mean to be strategic?  I believe there a few key components or factors that define what it means to be strategic.  First, there is certainly some element of being visionary or anticipatory.  Strategic leaders are not just focused on what's directly in front of them.  Rather there is a willingness and an ability to look forward many years and consider a number of variables that might impact the business.  Make no mistake, the ability and willingness to look far beyond the horizon does not all equate to clarity of vision.  However, by keeping "eyes up" a leader permits themselves to see challenges and opportunities long before they become evident to everyone else.

Because the future view is cloudy being a strategic thinker requires another essential skill - the ability to critically evaluate all of the information coming at you.  Very often the varied sources of information can also be contradictory.  A strategic leaders has to be able to critically evaluate this disparate data stream to ensure that decisions taken in the short-term are a combination of reasoned and assertive.  Competitive advantage is not gained by being timid but nor is an organization successful if it responds to every twitch in the marketplace.

Both of the above factors also imply an ability of a strategic leader to be comfortable with ambiguity. Rarely - if ever - is the information available to a leader 100% accurate or complete.  I have often tried to get this message across to leaders through a weather analogy.  If there is a 60% chance of rain how do you prepare?  How is that different if there is a 10% chance versus an 80% chance?  When do you have enough information to act?  Waiting until you have 100% certainty is not strategic nor is likely to support development or maintenance of competitive advantage.

Ultimately, a vision is only worthwhile or a leader is only recognized as being visionary if action is attached to that vision.  Action without vision is a nightmare.  Vision without action is a dream.  Those leaders ultimately recognized as being strategic have the courage and the determination to see their vision through to conclusion.  Being strategic implies a necessary degree of courage (in the face of imperfect information noted above) and the fact that most of the people you have to work with as a leader may have a different view of the world than you do and/or are content with the world and their place in it as things currently are.  This latter point is particularly important if a business is in fact enjoying great success in the moment.  Why fix what isn't broken?  Why break something that has been working well? 

I've identified only a few elements of what I believe characterizes a strategic leader.  I could certainly add in more elements such as humility, ability to influence or communicate, and a commitment to continuous learning.  More importantly at this point what needs to be addressed - in my next post - is how does one develop those traits that distinguish a strategic leader from others.  What steps and actions can one undertake and engage in to develop one's strategic acumen?  I don't believe it's luck of the draw or "natural born" leadership.  

Strategic leadership also requires strategic planning and action on a personal level.   Concrete, intentional planning and action can help any leader further hone their skill in service of their career and business.  It's about leadership for self and others.
______________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE(R), CEC, PCC
President & Co-Founder
BreakPoint Solutions
www.breakpoint.solutions
gregh@breakpoint.solutions




Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.