Kate Sweetman, author of Leadership Code: 5 Rules to Lead By, as quoted on FastCompany.com (November 14, 2008)
“Strategy is often delegated upward to the CEO or senior management team, which have a legitimate responsibility to shape the direction of the entire company. But strategic traction comes when employees at all levels of the company not only understand where the company is going, but they are excited by it, remember it, and know what to do to make it happen in their day-to-day decisions. They will have valid points of view about how the strategy will be operationalized internally, including which difficulties need to be overcome and how.”
I wonder why the typical “strategy from the top down” mentality is so, well, typical.
Is it because employees view themselves as incapable of making strategic decisions because they perceive they lack those skills/that experience ? Or is it because it’s actually impossible to do so and frowned upon by insecure leaders who can’t imagine a subordinate making a strategic decision that helps shape the organization?
I wonder how many work cultures don’t make room for that kind of flat leadership?
I heard Erwin Mcmanus a while back talk about creating a “Visional Culture” in our churches vs. simply a culture of vision In other words, your vision is to release vision in others. Kind of the same idea. So much Kingdom potential is just waiting to be released.