How much Obama are you?

The defeat of the Obama administration at the U.S. midterm elections was no surprise to most of us. However, the good news is that Mr. Obama showed us a perfect case of strategy execution – and what can go wrong. Here are three lessons to learn if you are leading a small enterprise, a large corporation, or a country:

1. Great vision and shared values bring you support, even of those who do not entirely agree with you on everything you plan or do. Without a compelling vision you can neither win elections nor can you get support for your ideas in your company.
2. You need a connected strategy to accomplish the vision. A powerful strategy breaks the vision down into measurable objectives and specific initiatives to achieve them. The trick here is staying connected to the vision. For many people it is not clear how Obama's several initiatives support his vision. Ask yourself: How clear is this link to you and your staff?
3. A consistent system from vision to action makes people want to drive changes, even if they require effort. They "pull" the strategy execution, instead of the leader "pushing" it. Clearly, Mr Obama needs to improve in this matter. What about you? What is the "push-pull" ratio for changes in your organisation?

Watch out, the US President might be more similar to you than you think. After the first defeat there is only little time to turn it around and to make your strategy execution a success. Learn how.

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