Why strategy implementation should never be the boss’s responsibility

Why strategy implementation should never be the boss’s responsibility

Clear roles and responsibilities in strategy implementation matter—a no-brainer, right? But what does reality look like? Strategy is normally the boss’s job. For example, a Vice President Operations or production manager is simultaneously appointed project leader for establishing a new site in Eastern Europe.

My experience is that carrying operational line responsibility—running the business—while developing the business at the same time usually does not work. My proven alternative: bring talented people and high performers from beyond the hierarchy onto the strategy implementation stage, fully released from other tasks and daily operations.

In my experience, these people feel truly honoured by the appointment and newly motivated. Especially when their boss, following the Peter Principle, has blocked the supposed promotion path for years. You give them a wonderful chance to prove themselves away from hierarchies and the invisibility of the line organisation. Above all, they automatically bring greater ownership and engagement to strategy implementation than an overloaded boss who, remotely controlled by an Outlook calendar and working at 140 per cent capacity, pants from one meeting to the next.

And the relevant high performers are not just waiting within your own line organisation. Coming from other business areas and departments, they bring the necessary fresh outlook and energy. How do you find them beyond your own area of responsibility? These superheroes are generally in the upper-right quadrant of the latest talent and performance rating, buried in HR databases.