by Barbara Mutedzi (Zimbabwe)

We have all heard the term that culture eats strategy for business. I feel like this statement is misinterpreted a lot, and I will share how we actually take advantage of the strategy as a starting point to create the culture we need, and from there allow the culture to envelope and take over future strategies. When our strategy is focused, clear and transparent, we are able to curate an ever evolving and inclusive culture that feeds back into that strategy, and with time, totally enfolding into the strategy in a reverse method of containment.

This article speaks to the steps you can take to align culture with strategy and strategy with culture for managerial effectiveness. We will focus on two things. The first is to help you, as the manager, create a focused, clear and transparent strategy for your team and department. The second, is to share coaching tips that helps you leverage your management skills beyond just managing, to cultivating a conscious culture of growth, contribution and success. Let’s begin.

Strategy

Most organisations, let alone departments and teams only focus on 4 elements of a strategy, leaving out the most important one, that which makes sure your strategy document becomes a living document. The most common 4 elements that most organisations focus on, are the purpose, vision, mission and values. What is usually missed, is the implementation plan. The implementation plan, speaks to how we can actually action what we have set out in our business, department and team.

As a manager you need to be clear on all these 5 elements at organisational, departmental and team level. Once clear, share these with all you lead so that you are all on the same page as you all work toward clear and transparent goals. Here are questions you can sit down to answer: (1) What is the purpose of the organisation? It’s vision, mission, implementation plan and values? (2) From there, ask yourself: within this organisational strategy, what is the purpose, vision, mission, implementation plan and values of my department or team?

Once these are clear, we can start to address, these higher level managerial questions and thoughts:

  1. If the Purpose of the organisation is the reason the organisation exists, what is the purpose of my department and my team in contributing to this purpose?
  2. The Vision of the organisation is the long term financial, human resources, sales, marketing, product and so on, of the organisation in the next 2, 5 or 10 years. Do I know and understand what these are? If not, who do I need to ask to gain clarity? And from there, what is the vision of my department and team? In other words, what is the role of my department or team in helping the organisation attain these goals?
  3. The Mission of the organisation, is the vision broken down into yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily goals, that is, the shorter term activities that we need to engage in to achieve the long term goals. For my department and team, what I need to do, is to break down the vision listed above into bite sized (short term) activities over each year, quarter, month, week and day.

Source: iCN Issue 34  (Leadership Coaching); pages 20-22

About Barbara Mutedzi

Barbara Mutedzi is a Conscious Leadership Coach trained in Neuroscience-based coaching (study of the mind and brain for higher performance; a course accredited by the International Coach Federation – ICF). With a background in Health and Community Psychology; Socio-cultural and Medical Anthropology, Barbara helps people become better versions of themselves, by helping them tap into their inner wisdom for higher level leadership of the self and others. Specific to Business owners and Leaders, Barbara’s focus is on sharpening their Conscious leadership skills for higher performance, impact and profit on purpose. Barbara is a transformational speaker, author and self-proclaimed Human Catalyst.

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