Leveling Up: Enterprise & Strategic Thinking
As executive coaches, we help many clients to successfully “level up” and master the challenges of rising to new levels of leadership. The stakes are high. According to research from the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), 50–70% of executives who take on a new role fail within 18 months. The difference between success and failure in a higher-level role often comes down to one or two critical leadership capabilities.
In this new blog series, we’ll explore five capabilities that frequently emerge as “leveling up” challenges—starting with enterprise & strategic thinking.
Enterprise & Strategic Thinking for Leaders
“They need to learn to look outside their silos and start doing what’s best for the enterprise as a whole.”
“She isn’t strategic enough to lead at the highest level.”
“He’s great at leading his own function, but he loses sight of the big picture.”
Have you ever heard this type of complaint about a leader? Or received feedback along these lines about your own leadership?
Executive and Team Coach Jennifer Budd has worked with many C-suite clients to develop and refine their enterprise thinking capacity. She recalls one client team where each leader’s executive thinking skill (or lack of skill) directly influenced their future with the company.
The CEO of a large organization brought me in to work with his leadership team. He had grown increasingly frustrated: He saw how larger market forces were impacting their business as a whole, and he needed his team to think strategically about how to get ahead of upcoming challenges, but they seemed unable to do that.
Three of the team members were P & L leaders who saw every challenge purely through the lens of their own line of business. Whenever the CEO advocated an enterprise-wide change, he’d get pushback based on individual problem cases: “If we make a change in this area, engagement will drop and the employees won’t be happy.” “We couldn’t possibly implement that strategic solution in this area.” Often when a team member made a proposal, others would seem to agree but not follow through, later saying it wasn’t good for their business so they decided not to do it.
I worked with the CEO to introduce the idea of the ‘first team’: the team they have the greatest responsibility to. Their first team needed to be the C-suite, which was responsible for running the organization—not their separate business areas.
Two of the P & L leaders nodded their heads and said they agreed with this concept, but didn’t change anything about their behavior. The other leader, though, took the CEO aside. “I get what you’re talking about,” he said. “Help me understand how to see the big picture.” Over time, this leader started making decisions differently—more in line with the needs of the business as a whole. He also brought me in to work with his own team and explained the ‘first team’ concept to them: “This is what happens when you’re part of an organization. We’re the ‘first team’ for our area; we need to consider what’s in the best interest of our business line as a whole. As part of the executive team, sometimes I need to make decisions that aren’t as favorable to our area, but are best for the business as a whole.” He helped his team to understand the CEO’s thinking on tough issues: “He’s not trying to put us at a disadvantage. He’s trying to position the company so everyone—including the employees—can make a lot of money.”
In the end, this leader was the only member of the executive team who didn’t get fired. And later, when the whole company was acquired, he and the CEO received great payouts.
While this was a particularly striking example, our coaches and consultants have worked with many other leaders whose capacity for enterprise thinking was critical to their job performance, business results, and career trajectory.
How does enterprise thinking play a role in your own team and organization? Can you see any ways in which a more strategic, big-picture perspective would improve your results and open up new opportunities?
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If you’re interested in learning more about what we can offer to help leaders and teams excel in this capacity, contact us today.
