Direction vs. Strategy Part 2

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the distinction between direction and strategy.

I mentioned a few mistakes that entrepreneurial CEOs make, the first two of which are relevant here:

1. Getting the order wrong by working on strategy first. Direction needs to come first.

2. Constraining your thinking about direction from a view of strategy. Rather than considering “the infinity of the possible,” we prematurely narrow our possibilities to a finite set based on preexisting assumptions about what we think is possible. As CEO, take a step back and consider the full infinity of the possible. Of course you need to consider where you are now, but that can come later — as part of strategy.

During a recent private intensive with a client, these two issues came to the forefront.

We’d been discussing various strategic options for her company for most of the morning. There were many opportunities for growth and we were sifting through them.

And then, during a lull in the conversation over lunch, she casually mentioned a different possibility — not within her existing opportunity set at all — but an entirely new direction for her company.

Then she went back to eating her salad.

But I picked up on it and would not let it go.

Wait a second, what did you just say?

She repeated it.

And I asked her to expand on it. She actually whispered, like she was telling me a secret idea she’d been carrying around for a few years.

But of course, as she talked about it, an amazing thing happened.

She came fully alive.

If you are not energized by the direction you are taking, then most certainly it is the wrong one. And the strategy is, well, irrelevant.

P.S. Next week I’ll tell you what happened next in the conversation. It is completely predictable, and if you are not aware of it, it can sabotage you.

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