Black Bull Performance Group

Strategy

• Strategy is defined as “a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim”. It is also how we add value to our boards, businesses and lives.
• Research shows that only 2% of leaders are confident that they will achieve 80-100% of their strategy objectives (source https://boardview.io/blog/strategy-execution-stats)
• At the board level, how is strategy being crafted, implemented and monitored?
• At the business level are you working too much in the business and not enough on the business? Are you being blind to potential problems or limiting growth?
• At the personal level are you squeezing life or is it squeezing you?
• Where do you see yourself, your business or your organisation in 5 years from now?
• A key benefit of strategy is that it acts as a road map giving you direction.
• Remember Aesop’s fable of the ant and the grasshopper? The ant’s strategy was to work today in order to reap the benefits tomorrow.
• Strategies involve everything we do. All our daily activity is generated and maintained by strategies. So in order to change our results we need to first change our strategies.

Guiding

• A great quote is “be strong enough to stand alone, smart enough to know when you need help and brave enough to ask for it” Mark Amend.
• Research from Harvard Business School and Wharton School found that though many people are afraid to ask for advice and risk looking incompetent, they’ve actually got it backwards. People who seek advice are likely to be thought of as more competent.
• Boards benefit from objective independent performance reviews even though directors may find it an awkward and uncomfortable process.
• At the business level guidance is critical to avoiding the business danger zones.
• At the personal level we rarely have the opportunity for another person to be solely devoted to our needs and issues, coaching can provide that safe space and those special conversations.
• Do you have a dashboard of indicators helping you navigate your business and personal life?
• Are you able to draw upon significant relevant experience to help guide your decisions?
• The opposite of being guided is to be lost. Do you ever feel lost, adrift or directionless in either business or private life?
• Remember the fairytale about Hansel and Gretel? Hansel took a slice of bread and left a trail of bread crumbs for them to follow home. What path are you following? Who is guiding you?