Can You Drive Strategy WITHOUT Formal Power?

You can, but it’s definitely more uphill.

Start here:

• People often confuse “formal power” and “completely understanding what’s best in every situation.”
• 82 percent of managers aren’t great at their jobs.

Take those two things together, right? Here’s where you suss out: everyone loves to let senior leaders be the final voice, even though most aren’t really that great — and most make decisions solely to fend off threats to their competence.

But then the question becomes … let’s say you’re someone with good ideas and execution, but you have no formal power. How can you drive strategy?

Well, first you should probably understand the difference between “strategic planning” and “operational planning.”

If you’ve got that down, read this. It’s from Harvard Business Review and cool/interesting. Here are the five ideas they propose:

• Develop a broad and varied network of relationships
• Identify “strategy gaps”
• Link your work to existing priorities
• Work with an eye towards scale
• Orchestrate milestones to build credibility