Successful Leaders Execute Stragility

"Stragility is the term for strategic, agile, people-powered change that enables organizations to thrive amidst relentless turbulence and uncertainty," explain Ellen R. Auster and Lisa Hillenbrand, authors of the book, Stragility: Excelling At Strategic Changes.

"Achieving Stragility is the key to competitive advantage that lasts," they add.

The book provides lots of examples, concrete tips, action steps and tools. You'll learn that as a leader you must constantly adjust both strategies and execution to achieve winning goals. That agility is a key part of Stragility. Without ongoing agility, even good strategies will fail.

You can read the entire book, or focus on the sections that address your pain points, bad habits within your organization, and/or on your Stragility goals.

For example, the authors present these common pain points that derail making changes, and show you how to transform this pain into successful change:

• Political infighting, turf wars, resistance, apathy
• Stress, burnout, wasted resources
• Blaming, inaction, resentment

Ellen R. Auster

Lisa Hillenbrand

You'll also learn how to fully engage sponsors and promoters, those individuals most receptive to change within your organization, Sponsors are particularly helpful for underscoring the benefits to the customer or the organization or for offering resources and lending support. Promoters, in contrast, can create optimistic buzz and help build passion for and confidence in change.

You can also ignite passion for the change by explaining the "why" of making the change. "Often people have insufficient understanding of why they need to change," says Hillenbrand. "We all know that it is hard for us to commit to something or take ownership if we don't know why we're supposed to do it. Yet in organizations where we spend much of our lies, we often expect people to dive in with head and heart without understanding the rationale behind the changes they're being asked to make," she adds.

Finally, when driving change be sure to connect with those you are leading with a story. The authors explain that if you talk from the heart authentically and use stories you are much more likely to generate the enthusiasm and passion that moves people toward action.