“We had OKRs until 8 months ago when new ELT members came in and decided to abandon them.”
The VP sighed and shook her head. Her company, a mid-sized, multi-million-dollar business, was maturing. Growth had slowed from its heady startup days and was going through the usual growing pains: the founding CEO had stepped down, external hires joined the leadership team, and new processes were making their way into daily work.
The new rigor of building and rolling out a strategy was welcomed and the organization was learning how to operate in a more “streamlined” (and less “entrepreneurial”) manner.
The company’s evolution was going as well as could be expected, until everything changed.
And she was left holding the bag.
She’s not alone amongst her peers
In research conducted using Cascade’s Strategic Maturity Assessment, VPs scored their companies lowest in four of the five pillars studied
On Focus, the first pillar, two-thirds of both the VPs and the C-Suite gave feel their companies are able to identify and clarify strategic priorities and goals.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is everything else
- Alignment (transparency and involvement across the organization): Only 38% of VPs believe their companies are performing well, half the score the C-suite gives this pillar (66%).
- Visibility (communication of, and access to, data and insights): The gap shrinks, but VPs still rate Visibility lower (59%) than any other cohort (C-Suite rates at 70% “mature”).
- Accountability (sense of ownership and commitment): A 22-percentage point gap exists between VP perception and C-Suite (49% vs. 71%)
- Speed (ability to adapt and evolve): This is the single biggest gap of any pillar (30-percentage points) between VPs (42% rate their companies’ speed as good) and the C-Suite (72%)
She is alone in the organization
What’s shocking is that the Directors and Managers that report up to VPs are genuinely more positive and optimistic. In fact, Directors are more positive about Focus, Visibility, and Accountability, than the C-Suite!
In a world where everything seems to roll downhill, why are things getting caught so close to the top?
Another VP, from a multi-billion-dollar company, offered an answer:
“Priorities tend to shift and are often vague or confusing. Resources, people, systems, and processes are severely lacking.” (VP, $10B+, under 1,000 employees)
VPs know what to do, they gave input on the strategy, and agree with it. But they don’t have the authority to get it resourced.
As if that weren’t tough enough, based on the perceptions reflected in the survey data, they’re putting on a brave face and shielding their teams from the futility of the quest.
She doesn’t have to be
“Do more with less” is hitting everyone. The absurdity of immediate AI-driven time (and cost) savings is obvious to everyone with a chatbot. The mandates to beat earnings and deliver record profit are relentless.
And in the middle of it all are the VPs who agree with strategic priorities but lack the resources to deliver them at the pace and scale demanded.
And that’s before a new ELT arrives or the business has a down quarter.
If your VPs sound tired, don’t assume they don’t believe in the strategy or that they’re trying to sandbag their goals.
Ask what they need to deliver the strategy and goals. The answer will be headcount, budget, or a promise that outlasts the next reorg.
You won’t be able to give them everything they ask for but you can (and must) give them more than a promise. Help them creatively problem-solve, connect them to non-traditional sources of talent (e.g. freelancers, temp hires, interns), critically evaluate your budget to ensure spending aligns with strategy.
Your VPs believe in the strategy as much as you do. The only question is whether you’ve given them what they need to deliver it before the next new executive walks in and abandons it.
If you would like to see how your organization scores, click here to take the Strategy Maturity Assessment. Your results will be sent directly to me, not to Cascade, and you will not be added to a mailing list. Please note that some people have had trouble using Gmail and other free e-mail accounts.
Methodology note: The Strategy Maturity Assessment was designed by Cascade and administered by MileZero as a self-serve survey to a sample of MileZero’s own clients: 18 self-selected respondents from 18 different companies, varying in role, revenue, and size. Findings are directional and should not be interpreted as scientific, random, or representative sample. Scores come from a proprietary scoring of Yes / Somewhat / No answers and show relative patterns, not precise measurements. All findings are the opinions of individual participants as of the date they responded, not statements of fact.