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The Big Questions #2 - Raven Strategic

The Big Questions #2

How will biases, and egos undermine your business strategy?

By Daryl Raven

When you sit down with your leadership team and run strategy meetings, or sessions discussing the future of your business; ego’s, competing agendas, biases and power games will be common. They are strategy-killers the world over… so, it’s important to know how to identify them, and how to get around them.

Even the very best business leaders are prone to unconscious biases – and these unintentional speed-bumps can severely distort the outcomes of a strategic discussion.

Two of the most common biases are legitimate derailing forces in the boardroom:

  • Leadership Overconfidence:
    Overconfidence is self-perpetuating… It causes leaders to ignore information if it contradicts their own views, and therefore your business is likely to miss out on making an truly informed decision.
    Overconfident exec’s convince themselves that they have a winning strategy going forward even if they’re simply turning a blind eye and essentially just continuing to do what they’ve always done. That is not strategy!

“Even the very best business leaders are prone to unconscious biases”

  • Positive Confirmation:
    When a leadership team tasked with setting strategy meet, they generally have shared experiences and goals, they then normally wind up telling themselves stories, generally positive ones – and convincing themselves that all is well on track. Unless you and your leaders continue to highlight the bad times, and the failures – how are you going to develop a good strategy for the new world which is developing outside your boardroom?

It ultimately doesn’t matter what the motivation behind the behaviours are; Executives will generally use every bit of their percieved skills, and/or power to improve the chances of their business, and therefore themselves, succeeding. So how do you overcome these boardroom dynamics?

Step 1: You need a clear and robust strategic process – Do you have one? If not let us help.

Follow this link to see our strategic review processes, or contact us today to discuss more about your specific circumstances.

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