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How to Make Strategies Stick with Executive Coach, Liz Kislik
On this week’s episode of The Leadership Habit podcast, Jenn Dewall sat down with Liz Kislik to talk about how to make strategies stick. Liz Kislik, a Harvard Business Review and Forbes contributor, has over 30 years of experience speciaLizing in developing high-performing leaders in workforces as a management consultant and executive coach. Liz has helped family-run businesses, national nonprofits, and Fortune 500 companies like American Express, Girl Scouts, Staples, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and Highlights for Children solve their thorniest problems! In her TEDx talk about why there’s so much conflict at work and what you can do to fix it, Liz shows how diagnosing root structural issues can resolve current problems and help organizations thrive in the long term. Enjoy our conversation as Liz and Jenn talk about how to make strategies.
Meet Liz Kislik, Management Consultant, Executive Coach and More!
Jenn DeWall:
Hi everyone. It’s Jenn DeWall, and you’re here with Liz Kislik! Liz, It’s so great to have you on the show. I’m so excited for our conversation to talk about how to make strategies stick. Something that I’m sure a lot of people are like, ‘Can you please give me the answer, Liz?’ I’m so happy that you’re on The Leadership Habit podcast. And I know we read your bio, but I would love to just hear it for our listeners to them, for them to get to know a little bit about you. Could you tell us maybe how you came to be, how you became really interested in the subject matter, and you really developed your expertise in this way, or what’s your story said simply?
Liz Kislik:
I’m very happy to be with you. I think you are really uncovering some of the issues that people need answers to. And in my story, when I graduated college, I wanted to go to work as opposed to going to grad school, which is what most of my friends did because I thought work was where the action was. And I still believe that even after going to grad school, I really saw that if you were willing to work hard and you also had to be lucky, you could get access to people and to opportunities. And I say that as a privileged person, I’m white. I am the child of educated people. So you have to know where you’re starting from, but in general, if you are willing to look for the things that are going undone and take care of them for other people’s benefit, they’re usually glad to have you. And so, I had a promotion every six months in the company I worked for after college. And when I was 23, I was running a 300 employee call center. And that was really too— it was too big a job. The hardest job I’ve ever had and one in which I was only partially successful, I was not successful for myself because I actually thought part of my job was to make sure everybody was happy at work.
Jenn DeWall:
And yes, I feel like a lot of people can relate to that right now. They’re like, that’s what keeps me up at night is trying to keep everyone happy.
Liz Kislik:
Right? And what I’ve come to learn is people need to keep themselves happy. What leadership needs to do is create the conditions in which work can be really satisfying. And the workplace conditions are good to work in. So they’re fair. They recognize people’s efforts. They know who you are—all that kind of stuff. And you have the opportunity to be curious about your job and what else is going on there. And to look for ways to make things better. And that can create satisfaction and meaning in an employee’s life. But no workplace leader can actually make everybody happy. And it’s a false, false premise.
Jenn DeWall:
Where do you think that we pick that up? Because I, I know that in your work, you see it in my work, what teaching for Crestcom. I hear it all the time, this expectation that as a leader, I’m supposed to know all of the answers, and I’m supposed to somehow make everyone happy. Where do you think you picked that up? Or where do you think some people, just from your perspective, where do you think people pick that up?
Liz Kislik:
I’m having a bunch of thoughts. For myself, I picked it up from my grandfather who had his own business and loved his staff and his staff loved him. And I learned about many of the things that he did to take care of his staff. And I just made the assumption that that included their being happy. But I think we learned it, you know, from the movies and TV and the way we learned about romance and stuff like that. You know, I think that’s all in there even though workplace and movie, sorry, TV and movie workplaces are often terrible, but that’s how we know that it’s supposed to be fabulous because they’re showing us that it’s terrible on purpose, you know? So we think, oh, the reverse must be this wonderful idyllic thing.
Jenn DeWall:
No, and it’s not. And it’s OK that it’s not because we are all so vastly different in a lot of different regards, different periods of our life, different periods of our career. So on and so forth that it’s going to be virtually impossible for any leader to get it right for every single being. I love that, cuz that’s gonna make, you know, I know we’re going to be talking about strategy and that’s likely an obstacle that many people have to overcome with strategy is knowing that it may not be accepted by all. But I wanna ask you one more question about your business as a workplace expert, knowing that you do go into organizations and help them. What are some of your favorite challenges to help them solve?
Liz Kislik:
I deal a lot with conflict. With interdepartmental conflict, with conflict within an executive or leadership team, with the kinds of problems that have been around a while and people don’t know what to do to fix them. And that really floats my boat because I get to be really curious about what’s going on. And so I get to ask everybody all kinds of questions and they tell me their answers. And then in a way I’m working with the same facts that anybody could have worked with. But as an outsider, I can see them differently. I can reframe the issues. And so often that means the log jam starts to adjust people, see what really could be changed and we get to make the work and the workplaces more satisfying for people.
Jenn DeWall:
Yes. Which I love. I am so passionate, and I really do believe that we can create a culture for everyone to thrive to, you know like there are still going to be some people that won’t like it. But I think just even how we treat people, how we resolve our conflict, how we actually support one another, we can create those things. And I have to believe that you all have that same vision that like we can actually create workplaces. People want to work at.
Liz Kislik:
It really is true. I, I think we have to give up the idea, first of all, that it’s natural and will happen automatically. Yeah. Because it doesn’t matter how good the people are. We all want slightly different things. We all have different styles. So it’s kind of unfair to assume things would just fall into a place that would be personally thrilling. You know, it all needs work.
Why Don’t Our Strategies Stick?
Jenn DeWall:
Yes. I love that. That’s a perfect segue into our conversation about strategy. Because it has to start with that intention that we just can’t, you know, there, we have to be intentional about putting a plan or actions into place to be able to achieve a different result. It’s not just going to happen by accident. Well, it can, but it may not be the outcome that you always want. So let’s dive into our topic today. How to make strategies stick. Liz, from your perspective, what goes wrong in planning strategy?
Liz Kislik:
There are so many ways to answer this question again. OK. So the first thing that I’ll say is, people actually disagree about what strategy is, but don’t necessarily know that they disagree. Oh, tell me more. So I can’t tell you how many people I’ve worked with who think that strategy means ideas, that if they have thoughts about something we should do or how things could work, they assume that that strategy as if strategy occurs by thinking. And since it’s not, that means a lot goes wrong. Because strategy needs to focus on particular kinds of goals, their outcomes that need to be stated. It takes into account the actual real-world conditions, not just made-up stuff, not just the way you want it to be. It has to face what is really true. And, and maybe this is really the most challenging thing– it has to do that when you know, you don’t know everything. That the likelihood of being wrong is actually high because your strategy is pointing toward the future. I had a wonderful conversation with Rita McGrath, who’s a professor at Columbia law school and wrote this book called Seeing Around Corners about strategy. And this premise strategy is about taking us into the future. But when we plan, we’re mostly planning based on what we’ve done in the past. So there’s a big disconnect right at the beginning.
Jenn DeWall:
Yeah. I love that. Well, yeah, so many people, and I know we teach a class at cross com on innovation and our subject matter expert. And this quote always sticks with me. His name is Steven Shapiro, “expertise is the enemy of innovation.” I’m sure someone’s already, like, I heard her say that before, but it’s not my quote, but it is his. And I think that really shows the foundation of where strategy can go around is that we’ve got all of this past historical data that we’re using to make decisions that may or may not be relevant to get you to where you want to be. But yet, we don’t throw out the bad data.
Don’t Forget—Past Performance is Not Indicative of Future Results
Liz Kislik:
Not even that we, we don’t even know. I mean, think about every prospectus you’ve ever seen. If, if you’ve ever considered an investment, it says past performance is not indicative of what’s gonna happen in the future. So when there’s actual liability involved, they know to write that down. Yes. Well, it’s true for the rest of us.
Jenn DeWall:
Yes, I, no. I love that. The other things that come to mind as you were sharing, where does it kind of go awry? People think it’s the idea. This is so exciting. It’s that shiny object, but then there’s no follow-through. And that’s what you’re talking about with the goals, with having small actions. We just think that the idea is fancy and exciting. So everyone else will follow suit. And I like that idea as well.
“Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast”— Peter Drucker
Liz Kislik:
Is it Drucker who said culture eats strategy for breakfast? I can’t remember.
Jenn DeWall:
I’m not sure. I don’t remember, but that might be him.
Liz Kislik:
And I would say that there is a gap in the middle of those things. So if strategy is the big idea, and let’s say it’s a good, big idea. You need a lot of plans to get you from the big idea to anything real that’s going to happen in the world. The strategy doesn’t make itself happen. And the question is, how does that get translated from, say, the boardroom to the desk level? And what are the various highways and byways in between where the vision, the big intention get communicated clearly, concretely– or as is much too often the case– vaguely or not at all? Sometimes all that happens is anybody’s manager is telling them what to do on a given Tuesday. That is just like what they did the Tuesday before. And there is actually no connection to the future. Look whatsoever. It’s as if we’re only living in an ever-present present.
Jenn DeWall:
My gosh, I can picture that just in the sense of even in earlier roles throughout an organization where you’re kind of just given the task, but your head down do the task, but you don’t understand how the task supporting that larger, larger vision, whether it’s supporting the larger vision because sometimes that’s not even clear. Right. And I think I had a little bit more ego in my twenties. And so, I wanted to connect to that vision. And so if I felt like my work wasn’t, then I’m like, well, this isn’t fun because it’s not visible. Right? I’m not gonna get the recognition! I had, I had an ego.
Liz Kislik:
But no, no, no! That’s even without wanting to be recognized. And there’s nothing wrong with that! First of all, it’s a huge motivator. Yeah. For people who don’t care about being recognized, it’s actually harder to know what will work for them. This goes back to the thing we talked about at the beginning, trying to make everybody happy. What people need is to know they are connected to something that is important, that has value. And if they don’t have the connection to the strategy, then all they have is task after task. And then it feels like anybody could do that. You don’t need them. You don’t need their level of speciaLization, expertise, dedication, et cetera. It could be a drone. So it’s quite remarkable how often, say, a CEO holds a town hall meeting and announces the strategy, and people get excited because it sounds good. And they think about what this might mean for them, but then they go back to their work and they don’t hear about it from their boss.
So what does that mean? Does that mean it’s another flavor of the month? You know, we change this stuff all the time. People complain about that so often. Does it mean the strategy is happening, but their boss is not on board, so they’re not allowed to connect to it? Does it mean somebody in the middle wanted something different and is actually directing troops in a completely different way from where the CEO wanted to go? I have worked in workplaces where every single one of these things happens.
Jenn DeWall:
Yes. I love that. Well, the permafrost of middle management, right? Like that, or that’s how I guess how I’ve recently heard it described is that, you know, that idea comes down that strategy, the plan, and then people aren’t bought-in at the midlevel and then it doesn’t go anywhere because heck if they, you know, and I think there’s that accountability piece that you were talking about earlier. Its having the plan, but you, yes. I feel like I’ve seen that one. And the other one that keeps coming up is, is burnout by way of competing priorities and initiatives of having too much going on. I don’t know, from, from where that sits, like, I don’t know if there’s a magic number for the amount of strategies or if it’s so much that makes sure that you categorize them as this is a high priority, mid-level priority. So then people know that this is actually still where we want you to focus your efforts on. And these ones down here are nice to have, but not need to have, like, I don’t. How do you, how would you even start, I guess if you were going into an organization and they were like, we want Liz to come help us with strategy and your perspective as a workplace expert, how we, you even start?
How Do We Start Making Strategies Stick?
Liz Kislik:
So every place is different because they do have a history, and you have to take it into account. For what you’re talking about, this idea of too many strategies, it can often help to think that there is a strategy that matches the vision and the huge thing we want to accomplish, which might be being number one in our marketplace for thus and so. Or it might be changing the lives of children in regard to whatever the thing is that we work on, then those things happen because there are a variety of initiatives, and this is the first place that stuff goes haywire because the initiatives belong to different people in the organization.
Do all the initiatives actually roll up to the major strategy. Do they all contribute to the strategy? Has anybody at the executive level thought deeply about it? Are we making sure that the initiatives aren’t cannibaLizing each other, you know, those kinds of things, this stuff all takes so much effort and energy? It’s not surprising that it doesn’t get carried through end to end. Right. But if the initiatives are clear and say there’s a committee or a board or an executive team, or, you know, the CEO owner, whoever’s at the top, if somebody blesses this, this is a strategy. These are the initiatives. Then theoretically, there should be some kind of check-in process with the next level that happens periodically, not once. And then again, when you’re doing strategic planning for the next year, which is a big flaw in a lot of how strategy is conducted. You never hear about it again until, you know, the fourth quarter when we do the next one.
Jenn DeWall:
Right. So I’m laughing because it’s just, I’ve sat at the town hall. I’ve also watched it go from, ‘this is so exciting’ to ‘Oh, did we even do anything on that?’
The Commander’s Intent: Does Everyone Know Their Mission?
Liz Kislik:
Right! So there are a couple of metaphors that can be helpful. One that I like is Sherwood Forest, where Robin Hood was because Robin Hood would tell his Lieutenant, and they would spread out, and each had a group of villagers that they talked to, who then talked to other people. It’s true. The downside of this is the game of telephone, but if you do it well, this idea of many of us grew up with there was a class parent who would call certain people to communicate the news of the class. When we were in second grade, it actually works if it’s followed well and if the content is clear. So if you think of Sherwood Forest and how you make sure that your network of communication is actually robust and consistent, and you’re checking for breaks in the network, that can be a really helpful thing.
Another helpful metaphor comes from the military, and it’s called commander’s intent. And this goes back to the idea of how do you choose which priorities. So theoretically, whatever the commander’s intent is, it is so well understood by every single soldier, every foot soldier, that if it came to it, and there was only one soldier alive, that soldier would know what their job would be to come the closest to meeting commander’s intent. That’s why you hear of these things where some heroic person in the military tries to take a hill by themselves. It’s because they are following the intent. They may be the last person standing, but they are going to try to carry out the mission as best they understand it.
And when you believe you know what the mission is, then it’s sometimes easier to sort through those priorities. Does it actually serve the mission directly or not? And if it doesn’t serve the mission, who do you bring it to adjudicate? Should we be putting our resources, our time, energy, attention, focus, any of those things into this now? Or do we need to hold back because we need to serve the mission?
Jenn DeWall:
Yeah. I, the commander’s intent. I very much like that because if you’re listening to this, it’s having the high-level objective. What are you trying to accomplish? But I think it does get confusing. When you can tell that the commander’s intent is unclear or maybe it’s too complicated, that I can’t even understand it, which means I’m not gonna see how I’m gonna help you. But it also, I think you’re speaking to me in the sense that I’ve sat in rooms where we’re doing a strategy, but then there’s the next strategy and they’re not connected. And so then it adds this piece of, well a what? One’s more important, but B why are we doing this one? Why are we deviating from what we know to incorporate this? Is it because it supports our, our intent? Or is it because it’s what everyone else is doing? And if that’s the case, we’re probably not gonna follow through on it. Yep. But yet I’ve sat in multiple boardrooms where we have this vision, we’ve got a strategy to get there. And then somehow there’s this straggler that gets added in that has nothing to do with that one. And I, that’s a point of, I guess it’s just a challenge for me because then how do you articulate that? Right? Because when it comes down to strategy, I think I am a pretty direct person. You might probably know how I feel about something, but yet in those moments where you notice that other people in the room aren’t challenging that, it does become easy to be vulnerable to groupthink and being like, I guess this is fine. You know, I guess this is what we’re doing. I don’t wanna challenge it. I want to be mindful of our rank. And so, yeah. Then I’m just going to follow suit. I don’t know what you’re like. I’m sure you see that all the time, people just disengaging or not offering their point of view because they don’t even think, you know, why bother? Or this could be worse for me if I bring it up and everyone else is saying it. So again, why bother.
Create a Safe Space for Different Ideas
Liz Kislik:
Right? Why make myself unsafe? Yes. Yes. OK. You’ve put a whole load in there. Let me think about how I wanna break that out. So there’s a kind of phase zero that comes before the situation you’re talking about. And this goes back to Drucker’s point about culture, no matter how good the strategy is, if by the time it gets to any individual decision-maker or someone who carries out decisions, if they don’t feel that they can ask a question about it safely, you are in a place where you’re actually paying for groupthink.
Jenn DeWall:
Ooh, I like that perspective. You’re paying for groupthink. Do you wanna pay for that?
Liz Kislik:
You are paying for people to keep themselves safe because what all try to do that one way or another, right? Some people will speak up because they fear the lack of safety that will come six months down the road if they feel that what they’re doing has diverged from the strategy. So some people will actually speak up, but it’s very frightening if everybody’s going along in a meeting where all that ever happens is rubber stamping. Very frightening to say something that is different from the mainstream. If you are in a situation like that, how do you ask about those things? One of the things that you do, is, first of all, you never give up. You know, as long as you come back to work the next day, you always have another opportunity to figure something out.
So you develop a relationship with your boss, where you can ask confusing but curious questions in a nonthreatening way, if at all possible. And if you can’t develop that with your boss, you look for opportunities based on project assignments, based on the monthly birthday parties, whatever it is, you look for opportunities to have relationships with other leaders, because a marker of somebody who wants to accomplish more in an organization is somebody who is curious, why are we working on this? Explain to me how this thing happens. I’m so interested in why we decided that thing. Can you tell me more about the background. If you’re approaching it from, but I thought we said this other thing last time, that puts people on the defensive. Sure. But I’m so interested that says not only I wanna know, but I’m asking you because I care about your opinion. And people are much more likely to answer it even in tricky situations. So try to think about it with a, almost a kind of beginner’s mind. And as if you are a guest somewhere or you’re taking a tour in a museum and you’re asking how it came to be a certain way, as opposed to why questions that seem to be about what was the motive for this. Or judgment, isn’t this wrong. If we said the other thing, those why questions can be very tricky.
Jenn DeWall:
Yes, I, you know, and I dislike a lot of why questions for that same reason. It puts people on the defense and you want to be, you know, depending on the tone that’s added with that why, it can change the trajectory of any conversation.
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Be Intentional With Strategic Communications
Jenn DeWall:
I like that you talk so much about being intentional with your communication as it relates to strategy. Like it is very important to be curious, but it’s also very important to choose your words wisely, to make sure because if I go back to, you know, my example. I was at this organization for almost a decade and it was a large organization, different silos, different perspectives and different, I guess, microcultures of how they handled those types of questions. And in my last position there, I was in a part where my boss was great, loved him. I could ask him anything, his boss, his boss’s boss, if you ask them anything that sounded like it was threatening their strategy– blackball– you were done. And I wish I could say that wasn’t the truth, but it was. And it’s anyone that kind of asked that, but now I’m thinking I’m like, I wonder how I asked those questions 15, 20 years ago. Like I wonder how I did because what piece of that do I own where maybe, you know, I could have showed up and not asked the why question or I could have been more curious. I was still new. I was, I would still say I was new. I should have embraced the newness and then like help me understand, like I’m just new, I’m a beginner. Could you help me understand this?
Liz Kislik:
I give you a lot of credit for looking at your place in that, Jenn because so often we don’t recognize how we come across. Yeah. On the other hand, looking back at who those people were, something I try to explain to leaders is if the people who are asking the questions were in the position to craft the strategy themselves, they wouldn’t have the questions. So it’s your job to explain how it connects. And one of the ways I would encourage people lower down in the organization to ask about it is to say, it helps me do my job better when I have the context. It juices me up to know where this fits in the big picture, because then I feel like I’m serving our customer segment or I’m accomplishing this thing in the world. And not just that I’m completing certain forms. And that’s so valuable to me. I would love to know.
Jenn DeWall:
I love that expression. Like I would love to, you know, it gets me excited. Well, and, and that is the piece for me because I, if I think of my individual style and I’m sure there are other people like me, my career success is a big part of who I am. Not saying that’s the right way, but that’s who, how I am. I’m very career and success-oriented, but I’m also a fast learner sometimes, but I’m actually a learner that needs to like see everything before I actually can understand what to do. That’s just how I process. And so when I ask questions, it’s not to undermine, but it’s more to help me understand. But yeah. Yes. Going back to it. I guarantee there are many times I did not ask that question in the right way.
Liz Kislik:
Say it in the best way possible for the listener.
Jenn DeWall:
Yes. Yes. And that’s OK. Like, I mean, you and I, both, we live in, we live, eat, sleep, breathe leadership. I mean, we are all perfectly imperfect, but we also just have to learn. Mistakes are gonna make, be made. We might communicate something wrong, but what are you gonna do differently? Right. I mean, I, you know, we’re humans and I love tearning, but I don’t think I ever knew what emotional intelligence was when I was 22. Like, I don’t think I knew what that was. Yeah. You know, and that’s a big part part of strategy, but going back to that, like, so I love even the language of how you can, no matter what level you’re at that even if you are or feeling like maybe I don’t wanna ask this in the wrong way. I don’t want to be perceived as blank. To use it as, Hey, I get really excited when I understand how this fits into the big picture. Like, I would love to know a little bit more about this and it is interesting. So then what would be your advice to, let’s say someone asked it the wrong way. Like I did, let’s just, just say my, I probably didn’t ask it the wrong way. What would be your advice to that leader if someone’s asking questions and in that way, and you’re like, mm, what would your advice to the leader and how to respond to that?
Ask Better Questions
Liz Kislik:
So it really depends on not just who the person is as in what’s their role in the organization, although that’s very important, but you know, there are people who play out different kinds of stylistic roles in organizations. So there might be somebody who is constantly the questioner. All right. So the first thing is getting kind of squared away in your role as a leader, that part of your job is to connect more tightly with the people who are carrying out the work. Because if they feel connected to you, they will approach the work with more vigor. You can get them to be involved in new things when you want it. And they will give you a pass from time to time as the leader, even when something goes wrong. So that’s just so valuable, just seems worth the investment to me. Right? So if somebody comes flying at me with a, well, why are you doing this in a way that sounds like, why are you doing this stupid thing? I’m making it worse than what you would’ve said.
Jenn DeWall:
I don’t know. I probably did it that way! I don’t remember.
Liz Kislik:
No, no, but that is the way people might take it. Sure. So a leader might think this person is asking me why I would do a stupid thing. Don’t they trust my judgment? Don’t they think I deserve to be here depending on who the leader is and how they’re constructed? They can get personally defensive. Yes. That’s hard. That’s why I’m suggesting all this careful language, but a good leader will think, oh, something about the communication has challenged this person. What do I want from this person in the long term? What do I want them to understand? How do I want them to feel about me and the organization? So the first thing I would say back is, oh, it sounds like you didn’t like it very much. I would acknowledge the implied slap. Because then the person coming at me actually knows they’ve been heard.
Yeah. OK. So now I’m with you. Oh, you didn’t like that much, huh? No. OK. I wanna hear more about why you don’t like it. And then the leader has to choose in this situation. Is it better to find out why they don’t like it upfront and tailor my remarks to that, or to just talk about our logic, our purpose and then look for ways to tie it back to who the employee is and what they care about? And they are both equally valid, and it helps to know the people.
Jenn DeWall:
Yes. I love the acknowledgment and validation at the beginning of I hear you, or it sounds like from what, where I’m sitting, it, it sounds like this may not be, you know, a strategy that you, you feel comfortable with. Or tell me more about that. You know, and asking! Curiosity, I wonder if curiosity could solve so many leadership challenges. Assuming positive intent and all.
Liz Kislik:
Oh my goodness! So, Jenn, it wouldn’t solve them, but it would get you on the path. It would say we are in this together. Tell me more, one of the best phrases, another one I noticed, or I notice, I noticed that every time we have a meeting about strategy 42, you, you really seem uncomfortable and hang back in a way you don’t on any of the others. Can you tell me a little about what’s going on? I wanna know.
Jenn DeWall:
Yeah. You know, and it’s interesting that you say that because I do feel like leaders typically are aware of how people are responding to it. And that data is right there. But rarely, I shouldn’t say rarely, but I know that there are people that obviously know the discomfort or the discontent is there, but yet still are like, they don’t address it.
Liz Kislik:
There’s an old market research saw about not asking any question you can’t afford to have the answer to. And if leaders feel there’s nothing they can do about it, if they feel like I can’t ever make this person happy, it’s almost the reverse of what you were saying before of the lower-level person. If I can’t actively change the situation, why should I bother opening this can of worms? I’ll just avoid it. That is a common response. I’m sorry to say.
Jenn DeWall:
And sometimes it’s the necessary response too. Like it is it’s we, because it goes back to not everyone is going to like every single strategy and it doesn’t make you a bad person. It doesn’t make the leadership team, a bad person. There’s often just more opportunities going back to communication. So as we’re closing out, I’m curious, like what would be any final tips that you would have on how to make strategies stick?
Bring Purpose to the Forefront of Strategy
Liz Kislik:
I think in a way it’s, it’s like caveats or warnings. When you are in a conference room planning strategy, recognize that you have been through ideation, drafting, and revision with whatever group of people you’re doing this with. When you make your communications outward, they’re only hearing your finished product. They don’t know all the thinking that went into it, right? So it’s important to bring some of that thinking forward, not the things you rejected, but the context for why. This is where, why is important. The purpose really needs to be brought forward, not just the fact of what we’re doing. So that’s one major communication piece, making sure your network down to the desk level is sound is absolutely crucial. And being willing to answer questions and take on all comers as a way, not only to bring people closer, to understanding the value of the strategy and therefore getting them to commit to it.
But it’s like research for when you revise the strategy, what are the things about operations that you don’t know because you’re not in operations. What are the things about customer conflicts that you don’t know because they didn’t happen to your customer? We can’t know everything and be in every place. So trusting the network to be able to bring the message out and learning from the network to get the responses in about what this means to people in the company, both of those are really crucial.
Jenn DeWall:
Oh my gosh, I love that. I’m going to throw out a random thing. Why don’t we just always talk about strategy and change management together? Like that is the other piece of like, when I think about pitfalls it’s because we talk about a strategy, not as a change, like why can’t we do that?
Liz Kislik:
Right. Right. And sometimes even saying that it’s change management. That sounds like something we’re going to do to you.
Jenn DeWall:
Right. Oh my gosh, that’s a good perspective.
Liz Kislik:
I don’t actually talk about change management much anymore, except as a conceptual thing, because too many people feel that they’re being done to. What’s our work? What’s our purpose? Let’s talk about that together.
Where to Find Liz Kislik
Jenn DeWall:
Yes. I love that because we know that it let’s call it iteration. If it’s not changed, like evolution is always essential to stay one step ahead of the competition to serve your customers, whatever that might be and how can we continue to iterate and how do we make sure everyone understands the why. The why we need to do this? I think I love that your emphasis on really it’s how are we showing up in the communication? How are we making sure that we’re going all the way down to the desk level, that people truly understand why this is needed and how they are needed. As it relates to our strategy. I love that Liz I’ve really enjoyed our conversation. If our audience ever wanted to get in touch with you, Liz, how would they get in contact with you?
Liz Kislik:
Oh, the best place is to go to my website where also Jenn, if they want it, there’s 10 years of weekly writing on all kinds of leadership and workplace topics. And there’s actually a free e-book there of anybody in your audience who wants it about the interpersonal aspects of conflict at work and newsletters and, oh, there’s just so much stuff there. Or, of course, on LinkedIn, they can find me on Twitter.
Jenn DeWall:
Oh my gosh. Perfect. I love all the resources that you just offered to our audience. Liz, thank you so much for showing up with your passion and your eloquence. I love your metaphors and stories. It was truly great to have you on the podcast. Thank you so much for giving your time to develop the leaders around the world on the leadership habit.
Liz Kislik:
I really enjoyed it, Jenn. Thank you.
Jenn DeWall:
Thank you so much for listening to this week’s episode of a leadership habit podcast with Liz Kislik. I loved the conversations, loved her metaphors and the perspective that she gave on how to approach strategy, as Liz shared at the end of our podcast, if you would like to get a free copy of her e-book , How to Resolve Interpersonal Conflicts in the Workplace, head on over to LizKislik.com. There you can find multiple resources of content, including her newsletter and blog, but don’t forget. You can also connect with Liz on LinkedIn and Twitter. And if you know someone that could benefit from hearing this podcast, share it with them. And of course, if you’ve enjoyed it, don’t forget to leave us a review on your favorite podcast streaming service until next time.
