The 8 Ps of Vision and Strategy By Junaid Tahir The young boy asked the old man, "why a fast running horse is better...
By Junaid Tahir
The young boy
asked the old man, "why a fast running horse is better than the slow
running horse"? The old man said, "it has developed the habit to
produce more power so that it can run up to ten times faster than the
slow horse" The youngster said, "and what if the horse is running in
the wrong direction"? The old man smiled and said, "then definitely it
has the proportionate factor for wasting the efforts ten times quicker
than the slower horse" The young man said, " and what if other horses
are following him too" The older man said, "off course it will mislead
all those horses too!" "Then why all other horses follow the faster
horse" "Because that attracts them but all that glitters is not gold
sometimes"
Vision is one of
the most critical traits of current and emerging leaders because strong
vision results establishing better strategy to ensure success.
In its basic
definition, the vision is to see (visualize) the future at present
moment and then aligning the strategies including but not limited to
policies, procedures and action plans in order to ensure success
without any setbacks.
Below 8 Ps elaborate the concept of Vision and Strategy altogether:
1. Picking the Right Battle:
Effective leaders ponder well enough to chose the right course of
direction (the mission) which can lead them towards success with higher
success probability and greater efficiency. This does not means that
they select easy targets instead sometimes they select more challenging
grounds with their gut feeling of success. However they are careful in
making their choices because of being the captain of the boat. If the
leader succeeds, the boat sails; if leader drowns the whole boat gets
collapsed.
2. Perspective:
How a leader sees the future is very sensitive matter. No matter how
genius team members he/she possesses; his own vision is highly
important. It is said that an army of dears lead by a lion is far
better than any army of lions lead by a dear. The leader's vision
depends on the level of mental comprehension of industry, current
statistics, near future and long term forecasts/trends, overall
knowledge and experience of associated domains, a lot of study and
observation about market and expectation of stake holders. More articles
on leadership can be read at www. DailyTenMinutes dot com
3. Present Position:
The leader must define the baseline because this will be the reference
to be compared when measuring performance and progress at later stage.
The visionary leader must clearly define the Key Performance Indicators
(KPIs); the current values of KPIs, bench marking in line with
industry standards, the measurement criteria and measurement frequency.
4. Policies and Procedures:
The review of current and finalization of policies for concrete
results should be done prior to kick off the execution phase. Yet a
leader should be smart enough to closely monitor and tweak the policies
and procedures in case something is putting the projects/programs in
jeopardy. The market dynamics demands consistent focus and a lot of
iterations in companies' strategies.
5. Plans:
Failing to plan is planning to fail. The leader would define high
level goals; the goals which are SMART (Specific, Measureable,
Achievable, Realistic, Time bound) Once defined, the leader assigns
these to the team of managers which in turn use the RACI model for
further low level implementation. (RACI tool is used for defining
Responsibility Matrix; RACI stands for Responsible, Accountable,
Consulted, Informed respectively)
6. Pattern:
Although Low level micro tasks is not a specific leaders'
responsibility but it becomes very effective if leaders take active part
few times during the life cycle of the project; especially when WBS
(work breakdown structures) are prepared by the associated Project
Managers. Sometimes his/her vision and experience can make big
difference when reviewing WBS with the PM.
7. Progress & Performance:
Consistent progress and performance measurement against the baseline
must be ensured by the leaders. This also requires risk identification,
risk analysis and risk mitigation. The project becomes orphans if the
leader does not review its performance periodically.
8. Power Plug:
Last but not the least, he becomes the consistent source of
inspiration, fuel and energy for his team members. By this act he ensure
that the 'batteries' (employee's working potential) are charged
throughout the life cycle of the project.
Do you have another P constituting this article?
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