The Covid-19 pandemic is undoubtedly the biggest challenge many companies have ever had to face. Business leaders will need to redefine their strategy and values in the context of the "new normal" we are entering, and require their organisation fundamentally to transform its management systems and, more importantly, to do so quickly.
For companies to survive this pandemic, leaders must confront the reality of their competitive environment and the hidden barriers that make their strategy ineffective. What exactly are these?
Hidden barrier No. 1: Unclear values and conflicting priorities
The basic problem is often not a certain strategy, but rather the process by which it was created or, paradoxically, the absence of such a process. The mistake is often that the strategy is drawn up by management and involvement of the whole team is lacking. The strategy is not clear to anyone and its deployment is problematic. There is a conflict over resources or values, and everyone fights for their own priorities. People feel overwhelmed because everything is suddenly marked as a priority.
Hidden barrier No. 2: Inefficient senior team
This inefficiency is often reflected in the senior team not speaking in a common voice about strategy and values. The result for the entire organisation is declining trust, low commitment to strategic decisions, and a different and sometimes conflicting understanding of what strategy entails. The senior team then spends most of its time in meetings sharing information and short-term operational updates rather than confronting and solving complex strategic and organisational problems. Real decisions are made outside the room.
Hidden Barrier No. 3: Ineffective Leadership Styles
When it comes to individual leadership, there are two ineffective styles: a top-down approach that does not sufficiently involve team members, and a laissez-faire, non-confrontational style. In both cases, the leader is averse to conflict and has difficulty initiating a constructive debate. As a result, they have no idea what team members really think, tend to get lost in operational details, and are not "visible" to others. They spend relatively little time communicating about overall strategy or direction.
Hidden barrier No. 4: Poor coordination
Coordination of the strategy across functions, business units or geographical regions is crucial for effective implementation. Inefficient senior teams whose members defend their "dominion" cannot agree on how to reorganise and reshape the culture to overcome naturally occurring barriers to coordination and cooperation. If there is friction, the interim structure for integrating value-creating activities either does not exist or is flawed, and the lack of collective and open discussions prevents the organisation from identifying and correcting deficiencies.
It is very difficult for such an organisation to carry out inter-functional, business or geographical initiatives, often despite good personal relationships. The roles, responsibilities and decision-making rights of functions, business units or regions are unclear.
Hidden barrier No. 5: Insufficient vertical communication
If essential information about the strategic direction and values of the organisation does not lead from management to lower levels, and conversely necessary information about obstacles to these ends is not shared from the lower levels up, there is a problem. You should be especially alert if you see your company's management rarely, if ever, asks for lower levels of cooperation in finding problems that hinder the company's efficiency or how to deal with these problems. Or there is a lack of a dedicated space in which managers and other employees can communicate with management openly and without risk .
Inability to face these hidden barriers and promote an open discussion about them between top management and lower levels makes it impossible to transform hidden barriers into strengths that your organisation needs to survive not only this coronavirus crisis. Change it.
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