Skip to main content

3 Questions to Ask Before Your Next Strategy Session

 

Most strategy sessions fail before they even begin. 

We walk into the room with spreadsheets, revenue targets, and a list of things we want to change, but we often overlook the very thing that drives the results—our thinking.

If you are preparing to map out your next quarter or year, stop focusing on the "what" for a moment and ask these three questions to ensure your plan actually moves the needle.

1. Is this strategy built on “Shoulds” or “Wants”?

It is easy to build a plan based on what the industry expects or what you think a successful company should look like. But if the strategy isn't aligned with your actual internal drivers, you will eventually find yourself resisting your own plan.

When a goal is a "should," it feels like pushing a string up a hill. When it’s a "want," you find the natural flow. Before you commit to a direction, ask if it truly aligns with your purpose and your "Sweet Spot," or if you are simply performing a role.

2. Which “Controllable Lead” will we obsess over?

Strategy often dies under the weight of too many priorities. We focus on the Lag—the revenue, the profit, the growth—but the Lag is just the harvest. You can’t control the harvest once you’re in the field; you can only control the planting.

Identify the one or two Lead Actions that, if performed with total discipline, make the result inevitable. If you can’t name the specific, daily activity that drives your goal, you don’t have a strategy—you have a wish.

3. What is the “Hidden Brake” we haven’t named yet?

You can have the best plan in the world, but if the person executing it has their foot on the brake, the car isn’t going anywhere. These brakes are usually "below the waterline"—internal resistances like a fear of rejection, a need for perfection, or the "Impostor" that whispers you aren't ready for the next level.

When we talk about strategy, we usually think of external projects: launching a new website, hiring a partner, or upgrading a CRM. But some of the most profitable projects you can undertake are "internal." We call these Lift Projects in your thinking.

While a Lead Action is about maintaining momentum, a Lift Project is a mental shift that permanently upgrades your capacity. It might be finally dismantling the "hidden brake" of perfectionism or redefining your role from "doer" of tasks to "builder" of people. Once these cognitive shifts are completed, they provide a permanent lift to everything you touch—allowing you to achieve more without simply working more hours.

If you don’t name the internal obstacle, you’ll spend your whole strategy session trying to fix a tactical problem that is actually a psychological one.

Moving Beyond the Surface

Most leaders can see their goals, but very few can see their own blind spots. If you want to stop guessing and start measuring the thinking patterns that are holding you back, we invite you to take the next step.

What drives your behaviors? What will it take to achieve the success you desire?

Discover the hidden "Lift" opportunities in your own thinking and learn how to align your internal energy with your external goals with the ProAdvisorCoach MindScan™ Assessment.

Take the MindScan™ Assessment for Free and receive a complimentary coaching session to review the results (a $500 value)! Take the MindScan™ Free >>

Take the MindScan™ Assessment for free! >>

ProAdvisorCoach brings together the best of coaching and consulting to maximize people, innovation, and systems to achieve lasting transformation with sustained accelerated results.

#Leadership #BusinessStrategy #ExecutiveCoaching #Mindset #HighPerformance #StrategicThinking #GrowthMindset #SelfAwareness #LeadershipDevelopment #BusinessGrowth


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Get Rid of that "Where Did My Time Go?" Feeling with this Simple Tool for Peak Efficiency

Ever wonder why time seems to slip through your fingers like sand? You're not alone. Millions struggle with a hidden productivity saboteur, draining their energy and leaving them feeling perpetually behind.  Have you ever felt the pain of saying this: “Where did my time go?  I was so busy and yet I feel like I didn’t get nearly as much done as I could have?” How many times have you made the same mistake repeatedly, wondering how to break the cycle and get it right? How often do we let poor habits creep into our lives without noticing them? The answers to these questions and, our “salvation” in terms of increased productivity and efficiency and released stress, is hiding in plain sight at this very moment.  And it’s right in front of every one of us.  It’s in the actions that we take every single day.   The problem is that we’re so close to the subject at hand that we don’t see it as clearly as we could.  We don’t make as much progress as we could becau...
1 comment
Read more

ProAdvisorCoach Profile: Coach Clay Kirkland

Leveraging Strengths to Achieve More in Less Time Clay Kirkland has been consulting and coaching for fifteen years. He is certified both as a Gallup StrengthsFinder Coach and an Emotional Intelligence Coach. In the past decade, he has worked with over three thousand individuals and hundreds of corporations and businesses including, Salesforce, BMW, Sherwin Williams, Valspar, Novarits, Merial, and Elanco Pharmaceuticals, Chick Fila, University of Georgia, and Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta. He resides near Athens, Georgia, with his wife and six children. Who do you find most rewarding to coach, in terms of their personality or goals? I like working with high performers who want to maintain their excellence and push themselves beyond where they are. I’m also especially suited to working with executives in need of a “rescue”— maybe they’ve lost the trust of team, or had some moral missteps, or they’re feeling the strain from board members pressuring them out. I also enjoy working with an...
Post a Comment
Read more

Design Your Dream Life with a Vision Board

  Do you ever feel hesitant to go after big goals or dreams? Or unsure of your goals or how to achieve them? Wish there was a way to turn your wildest dreams into a tangible roadmap for success? What if I told you there's a simple, yet powerful, tool that can help you gain clarity of your dreams and bridge the gap between desire and achievement?  Design Your Dream Life with a Vision Board You've probably heard about Vision Boards, but maybe you've never used one... or even considered using one. Maybe you've heard a friend or co-working raving about theirs, or maybe you've come across somebody's Pinterest board. Maybe you've even scoffed at that friend about their Vision Board, doubting the power of something so basic and simple, writing it off as nothing more than some sort of "dream life collage."  But a Vision Board is more than that. It's so much more.  It's about turning your dreams into a roadmap for success—something to act as a const...
Post a Comment
Read more