Page 82 - HBR Leader's Handbook: Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level

72 HBR Leader’s Handbook

Focus investment
Planning and testing is always easier than finally committing to the public
launch of something new. Once you give the green light, you might be on
the way to becoming a hero, but even a promising strategy might fall flat
and open you up to criticism or worse. But when you’re ready, have the
courage to move forward and accept the consequences, because unless you
enter the game, you will certainly be seen as a failure. Too many leaders un-
dermine their chances of success by flinching at the moment of execution.
Anne Mulcahy, again reflecting on her Xerox turnaround, emphasized
the importance of considering resource allocation as a leader: “Much of the
leadership I had to exercise was fighting to secure the right funding and
people needed for the new initiatives. Leaders often don’t want to expose
themselves to failure by making the hard decisions, so they suboptimize
and put a little money here, a little money there, and nothing has enough
oomph to break through. Those decisions are really difficult, because inev-
itably you’re taking money away from one group to support another.”
As implementation starts to move ahead, you’ll also have to keep en-
forcing discipline on what the unit has to stop doing to maintain the focus
of your strategy. Just because everyone seemed to agree in this or that
workshop about making a major shift, or shutting down this or that older
initiative, doesn’t mean they will follow through on their promises. Insti-
tutions are hard to change, and the anchor of tradition and what’s familiar
can be very heavy. PBS, in order to pay for the new dedicated children’s
channel, had to postpone the launch of new individual shows and under-
take some organizational restructuring. Kerger had to make and enforce
what were ultimately some difficult decisions.

Communicate clearly
Any strategy-development process will have its share of complexity. Your
job as a leader is also to simplify and communicate your choices about
where and how the team will now play—and why. Everyone in the unit and
other stakeholders (colleagues in the organization, board members,
customers, investors, partners, etc.) must understand what the strategy