There are many sites for strategic insights. None of these make sense if the mentalscape of leaders is confused, tentative, and cluttered.

Many distractions and wrong routes to getting this right in the minds of leaders, which include:

- muddled up ideas and process on strategy;
- political considerations and dynamics within;
- confusing strategy with program thrusts and value-driven motivations;
- pleasing all stakeholders for the sake of appeasement;
- not budgeting for monitoring, implementation and evaluation of the strategy outcomes;
- delegating the process to 'one or two people' in the organization;
- using a strategy as a a tick-box solution for other ills in the organization;
- short-term thinking;

As a leader, you better know why you're doing this and what outcomes you're seeking. Just because the old one is expiring soon, it doesn't mean that you should automatically create a new one without further introspection. 

Declutter your mentalscape. Protect it from distractions and short-term mindset. When you do, the vision becomes clearer, the process is straightforward, and your budget is maximized on value.
​

Leaders of on-purpose organizations are trying hard to diagnose their own problems. They may get to symptoms but it will be way off from the mark in terms of what's the cause of their miseries or wasting the opportunities they should be claiming. In short, value left on the table.

It's like trying to be a doctor and treating your own illness. Or doing your own surgery for which you're not trained or even qualified to do. They want to get the cheapest doctor or specialist. They think they can do it themselves. They look for commodities as against the right resource for the right kind of value-increasing proposition facing them.

This is not a question of money or the question of time or competency of staff, Board, or executive to undertake. This is about the political will and the right measure for risks. 

This represents the overabundance of caution based on a fear-based leadership.

Are you leading based on fear by being afraid to expose your own truths to yourself? Change readiness is the attitude, motivation, and drive to change. It starts with you, now, and not tomorrow. 

Today's news is tomorrow's archive.

If you're waiting for the right opportunity, it might pass you by without you making sense of it.
Fortunately, the world will not stop to pick you up when you're ready and willing.

I believe that opportunities are disguised as conundrum- these are confusing and difficult problems to solve. I saw with my own eyes, how purpose-driven organization turned their world upside down because they saw massive opportunities during the pandemic for their members, the least of these members. I observed how customer-driven organizations refuse to let their excellent track record be affected by the remote work during the crisis. I know personally that some small businesses are not cutting costs but instead, expanding value to their community even more.

These are opportunities. Another kind of opportunity is what you imagine and create for yourself.  Waiting sucks! I have been mentoring a newcomer professional for a number of months and I can say that she's not waiting in her room. She is busy getting out there, creating opportunities to network and link up, and building her credentials so that she can land the job she dreams of! She is physically, emotionally, socially, and financially buffing up! What a great attitude can do? 

It's not cosmic alignment or a question of luck or maybe a great break, it's the everyday readiness that springs you forward. When the opportunity is at hand, I get ready for the next. 

What are you readying for? 
​

I was speaking to a group this week. We polled them if they have a positive outlook during the pandemic and less than half confirmed that they had. They also reported that their supervisor supported them a lot. This showed that even their supervisors might not be feeling positive as well.

We can only surmise. 

Positivity in the age of post-pandemic emergence is a pre-requisite and it's the basic quotient to have before you can build along changes that come into your life. I know for a fact that this is not easy. But I chose to be positive, persistent, and hopeful, despite several setbacks I experienced last year. 

We can never know what other people are experiencing. If you can count the people in LinkedIn that have critical illnesses, jobless, with family and personal challenges, you will know that your troubles aren't comparable to these situations. 

It's better to go beyond resilience: benefit from shocks, stresses, raise the bar, and go along with changes and welcome ambiguity. Cultivate opportunities even in the midst of trying conditions and know that you're not alone. You can be in a lockdown but isolation is a choice. You can still be connected in the deepest, most humane way if you choose to be.

I can say that the distance between our efforts and what we have as external impacts is our positivity equity. Increase that positive equity now and as you move up, lift others along the path to your recovery.

You must have heard this from somewhere, that in any change initiatives,  there will always be losers and winners. But this is not as clear-cut as we think this to be. With varying degrees of complexity, everyone can be  in the same page on issues but with different positions approaching solutions.

Problem-centric people try to diagnose the problem and beat it until it's blue in the face. 
Solutions-centric people deny the magnitude of the problem and want to jump straight to solutions.
Radical change leaders want to overthrow the whole organization from bottom to top.
While the incrementalists are taking their sweet time to effect changes.

These are stereotypes and the binary of losers and winners, if you still have that perspective in your organization is very 60s. Champion a win-win approach to any substantial changes in the organization. Yes, there will be groups that will be mostly affected and mitigation should be front-and-centre and not an afterthought. 

I just recently observed a massive transformation in a large organization. When asked, middle managers don't know what's actually going on. The top executives will gladly do a rodeo on each unit/department, taking the most expensive, yet direct route to engagement. What about these middle managers who can act as natural bridge between those at the top and those at the bottom? What about these natural spokespersons and representatives of specific groups, are they engaged in a way that ensures change outcomes are retained in the best way? 

People will believe in the change based on what they see, not on what your Townhall proclaims. 
​