Early in my career, I was fortunate to work for Procter & Gamble (P&G), a place where debate was encouraged, critical thinking was expected, and strategy was treated as a discipline, not a document.

It wasn’t until I left the mothership that I realized how rare that mindset actually is.

Many organizations say they have a strategy. They hold off-sites, generate PowerPoints, and publish glossy plans. But when it comes time to make the hard choices that real strategy demands, they hedge.

They keep every option open “just in case.” They try to stretch their people and resources across competing priorities. And then they wonder why nothing changes.

Real Strategy Means Choosing

A real strategy is defined not by what you want, but by what you’re willing to give up to get what you want.

When leadership teams try to preserve the status quo while simultaneously pursuing something new, they dilute both and exhaust their organizations in the process.

If everything is important, nothing is.

Too often, what gets labelled “strategy” is just last year’s operating plan with new headings.

Einstein famously warned that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is insanity. Yet many teams live that reality every year, mistaking motion for progress.

In the race for quarterly results, organizations slap band-aids on structural issues. The numbers may look good on paper, but the underlying problems compound.

Planning for What Could Go Wrong

Good strategy doesn’t ignore risk. It plans for it.

One former client of mine had the courage to enter a new product category. But they overlooked one crucial reality: the R&D for the new product depended on their existing product line generating strong margins.

When those margins slipped, instead of adjusting, they hoped. Within a year, the company collapsed. They hadn’t made a strategic choice. They’d made a strategic wish.

Keep It Simple

Strategy is simple to understand and incredibly difficult to practice because it requires discipline, sacrifice, and courage.

Until an organization chooses and funds the path it believes in, it doesn’t have a strategy. It has hope.

And hope is not a strategy!

Having a leadership title doesn’t guarantee influence. I’ve seen many leaders arrive at the executive table only to feel like outsiders. They’re responsible for their own area, but struggle to shape conversations or decisions beyond it.

The truth is, influence doesn’t come from authority alone. It comes from being seen as a strategic partner who understands the business as a whole. Leaders who can connect their function to the organization’s broader goals are the ones whose voices carry weight.

Beyond Your Own Department

It’s natural to focus on your own team’s results, but if you want a real seat at the table, you need to speak the language of the entire organization.

That means knowing more than your budget line. You need to understand finances, operations, stakeholders, and the environment you’re operating in.

Over the years, I’ve found a simple self-check to be useful. If I can answer these questions, I know I’m ready to contribute at the highest level.

• What’s our organization’s vision or mission?

• Where does most of our funding or revenue come from?

• Who are our three biggest competitors, or, if not competitors, what alternatives do our stakeholders or customers have?

• What’s our most successful program, product, or service and why?

• What are three priorities from our current strategic or operating plan?

• What headline or key takeaway came out of our most recent financial or performance report?

• How is our sector or industry performing right now?

• What measure best reflects whether we’re delivering value (e.g., member satisfaction, service levels, community impact)?

• What’s the biggest barrier to achieving our objectives this year?

• How do external trends -- economic, social, or regulatory -- affect us right now?

• Who are the stakeholders we can’t afford to disappoint, and why?

• How does my role and my team’s work directly support organizational goals?

Why It Matters

You may not have all the answers right now, and that’s okay. The point is to start building this knowledge. When you do, you stop being just “the head of X department” and start being recognized as a leader of the whole organization.

Because at the end of the day, leadership isn’t about defending your patch of turf. It’s about seeing the bigger picture, aligning with it, and using your voice to shape the direction of the organization.

That’s how you move from having a seat at the table to having a say in where the table goes.

Strong leaders don’t just manage people; they also ensure that systems run smoothly. Understanding and optimizing your organizational processes is an essential practice of effective leadership.

Here are five key steps to strengthen your workplace processes:

1. Engage with Direct Reports

Ask each direct report to walk you through their workflow. By listening and observing, you gain real insight into daily challenges, spot inefficiencies, and offer more targeted support.

2. Facilitate Collaboration

Bring together employees with similar tasks to analyze their workflows collectively. Combining best practices into a shared process not only improves efficiency but also builds ownership and teamwork.

3. Document with SOPs

Turn the optimized workflow into a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). A clear, step-by-step guide ensures consistency and quality, and saves time onboarding new team members.

4. Build Accountability

Hold staff accountable for following the SOP. Regular check-ins and feedback sessions reinforce consistency while creating space to address challenges early.

5. Review and Refine

Spend time observing the new process in action, gather feedback after 30 days, and make adjustments. Updating SOPs regularly keeps processes aligned with reality and supports continuous improvement.

Healthy leadership means treating process improvement as an ongoing habit, not a one-off exercise.

By engaging your team, fostering collaboration, documenting clearly, ensuring accountability, and reviewing progress, you create a culture of both efficiency and empowerment where people and processes thrive together.

The key difference between a framework and a playbook is the mindset shift from prescribing exact responses to establishing flexible processes that can adapt to the specific crisis at hand.

The Problem with Traditional Playbooks

Traditional crisis playbooks often become static documents that gather dust. As Linda Barnhart, senior director at APCO, aptly noted during a PR Daily Media Relations Conference, "No one's gonna look at a 100-page document if something's on fire."

These comprehensive documents, while well-intentioned:

• become outdated quickly
• remain unused until a crisis occurs
  
• lack the flexibility needed for unique situations
  
• can't adapt to rapidly changing circumstances

Benefits of a Crisis Framework Approach

A framework approach provides structure without being overly prescriptive, allowing teams to respond appropriately to the specific crisis at hand. This approach offers several advantages:

• Adaptability: Frameworks allow you to "rely on your instincts and work with the environment and the information you have to mitigate the threat."

• Efficiency: Using an established crisis management process saves time and effort in developing new response mechanisms.

• Expertise Utilization: Crisis management teams can leverage their existing knowledge and experience to address challenges efficiently.

• Improved Coordination: A unified approach enhances decision-making, allowing organizations to respond swiftly and effectively.

Building an Effective Crisis Framework

Creating a solid framework requires preparation before any crisis occurs. Focus on identifying:

1. Risks: Assess both everyday threats (product recalls, malfeasance) and broader existential risks (geopolitical conflicts).

2. Interested Parties: Determine who needs to receive your communications, both internally and externally.

3. Approach: Develop strategies to address the concerns of interested parties authentically and promptly.

Your framework should outline:

• Crisis management team: Cross-functional representatives who will respond to the crisis

• Protocol: Clear guidelines for team assembly and leadership

• Communication strategy: Balancing proactive and reactive engagement

• Escalation criteria: Thresholds for increased response

• Spokespersons: Designated and trained representatives

• Monitoring systems: Methods to measure situation impact and response effectiveness

Today’s reality is that you will have minutes to react to a crisis. Having a flexible framework helps your organization navigate emergencies effectively while maintaining authenticity and responsiveness in your communications.