Have you ever been in a board meeting where all eyes are on you, and you can sense you’re about to be ripped to shreds?
This is a common experience for executives. It also happens when you're trying to influence leaders to make decisions.
Board members are there to help guide the business in making decisions and ensure the organization stays aligned with its governing principles. Their role is to minimize risk so that investments yield the highest possible returns.
Often, the focus in these meetings is on finding what’s wrong with the plan, the data, or the thinking. Did the team do their due diligence? Are their conclusions sound?
Executive leadership teams frequently focus on strategic-level metrics to keep the company aligned with its goals. While this is crucial, it’s incomplete.
Culture eats strategy for breakfast, every single day
There’s a famous quote by Peter Drucker that says, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." And I would add, "every single day." You can invest a lot of energy into building a strategy and tracking it with metrics, but that only goes so far. If you don’t understand how culture impacts strategy, your plans won’t succeed.
For example, I worked with the leader of a $100M revenue business with operating margins of around 60%. Before we partnered, they had developed an ambitious plan to scale the business to $1B in revenue. The plan detailed investments, structure, and a roadmap, and on paper, it seemed solid, especially to those with a financial or technical mindset.
However, they repeatedly hit obstacles, not realizing they had missed a crucial element.
They had left out who they were as an organization and who they wanted to become. Their plan lacked core values, a clear mission statement, and a framework to ensure they operated according to both their values and financial goals.
Business is built on relationships
Business is built on relationships. While technical expertise informs trust, it's emotional and relational intelligence that holds strategies together.
Once that leader shifted their focus from purely technical aspects to developing their people and leadership, the business began to thrive. They invested time in fostering productive relationships within the company and with external partners. As they made operational adjustments to prioritize relationships, their strategy began to take root in healthier soil.
This experience serves as a powerful reminder: strategy alone won’t take you where you want to go. It's the people, the values, and the relationships that breathe life into any plan.
If you don’t cultivate a culture that supports your strategy, you’ll constantly hit roadblocks. But when you align your culture with your goals—empowering your people, fostering trust, and building strong relationships—you create an environment where your strategy can truly flourish.
In the end, it’s not just about achieving the numbers on a spreadsheet. It’s about the people and the purpose driving those numbers forward, day after day. And that’s how you build a business that lasts.
You are made for this!
You are a Force of Awesome!
Let’s go!
I am an executive/leadership coach and consultant serving high-achieving, growth-focused business owners, leaders, and their teams producing over $1M in revenue that are working on getting to their next level of performance. You might sense that what got you here might not get you to the next achievement. Want to connect? Contact me here.
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