“I feel mentally and emotionally exhausted.”
That comment came during a recent stretch of go-to-market planning. It had already been a long week of meetings leading up to the strategy sessions, and the planning itself brought even more. The sentiment wasn’t surprising, and while only one person said it out loud, everyone felt it. I did too.
Even though we built an AI-native strategy platform designed to serve as a thought partner in the way organizations build, execute, and report on their strategy, our own internal planning is far from perfect. We do not have it all figured out. But one thing we try to do well is take the direction of the strategy and translate it into execution.
The past few months at Elate have brought a lot of momentum. We launched Strategy Advisor. We revamped the website. We created new product videos. We kicked off a webinar series. All of this came on top of the other high priorities that always exist.
There has been a lot happening across the company. One team member described it as “the rush of pure chaos with excitement.” That description felt accurate for all of us. And while that pace is not sustainable forever, the momentum itself is often essential to helping a company grow.
If it isn’t channeled properly though, what should create forward motion can end up draining energy and creating frustration.
As CEO, I have to walk the line between helping drive momentum and unintentionally derailing it. What I have learned is that there is a balance between understanding the business enough to set the vision, and trusting team members to execute on the priorities that will move the business forward.
This is where great Strategy and Operations leaders make an enormous difference.
Before I stepped into the CEO role, I would describe my job in Operations as being the conduit between the CEO and the organization. My responsibility was to help harness the electricity from the CEO’s vision and translate it in a way the rest of the organization could execute.
Not every CEO has that conduit. When they don’t, employees feel the impact. Fly-by interventions at the wrong time, shifting priorities without explanation, or new ideas introduced without context can all lead teams to feel burned out instead of energized.
So today, I wanted to share three ways we coach Strategy and Operations Leaders to work with their CEOs to help cast a vision that creates electricity, not electrocution.
3 Ways Strategy Leaders Channel the Energy of Their CEO
1) Commit to a Strategic Framework
I cannot count the number of times I’ve heard some version of the following: “My CEO read a new book over the weekend, so we are moving from OKRs to EOS.”
Whether your organization tried introducing OKRs after reading Measure What Matters or EOS from Traction, these frameworks, like many others, can be really useful.
These frameworks can serve as a great starting point to help provide clarity amidst uncertainty, or simply help Leaders ask the right questions during the planning process that are often overlooked.
That said, these frameworks aren’t a silver bullet.
Whether because of a lack of focus, a lack of commitment, or a change in direction that is the result of a new acronym being introduced, there are countless reasons why they fall by the wayside.
But let me be clear: there is nothing wrong with any of the frameworks. They can all work. And while we have opinions on which frameworks work best for certain organizations, the truth is that the framework is rarely the issue. Commitment is the issue. Commitment from the top is what makes the difference.
In fact, for some of the most successful organizations we partner with and best frameworks we’ve seen, it’s never a prescriptive following of just one framework.
It’s a blend of best practices and disciplines from a few different frameworks matched to the stage, culture, and needs of the organization.
But regardless of the structure, what will cause any framework to fail is inconsistency. When the vocabulary changes from week to week or Leaders refer to key elements in different ways, employees lose clarity. Once clarity slips, the framework falls apart.
When a CEO commits to a framework, it creates alignment. It gives employees a shared language and a shared understanding of how decisions are made. Most importantly, it helps the CEO see their vision reflected in how the work actually gets done.
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2) Revisit Themes to Align Priorities
If a plan is not reviewed regularly, it often stops being reviewed at all. And when plans are not reviewed, employees become disconnected from where the company is heading and what should matter most.
Strategic planning cannot be something leaders revisit once a year because it is required to prepare for a Board meeting. If the CEO treats strategy like an annual exercise, the rest of the organization will too.
AI is pushing organizations to do more with less by shifting work away from manual tasks. That shift is valuable and helps teams focus on more strategic work, but only if employees know how to connect their saved time to the priorities that matter.
Themes are what help make that connection.
Themes represent the major bets an organization is making. Quarterly objectives fall underneath them. When leaders revisit Themes regularly, whether monthly or quarterly, employees gain a better understanding of why those bets matter and how their work aligns with them. It also creates space for open dialogue when those Themes need to shift.
In Edition 47 I wrote that it is okay if Themes change. Validating the strategic direction creates alignment. It empowers teams to focus on what will drive results. It also gives them permission to say no.
When Themes are not reviewed consistently, employees do not have a foundation for decision making. And when the CEO wants teams to move faster or focus on different priorities, the change can feel abrupt instead of intentional.
3) Focus on Risk and Opportunity, Not Static Updates
When I stepped into the CEO role, a mentor shared something with me that has stuck. He said to trust the team to manage the day-to-day work and focus on creating space for them to surface areas where the business is stuck. He also encouraged me to help team members lift their heads up from the daily work to remember the bigger picture.
I have tried to follow that advice, but like many CEOs, I often fall into reacting to day-to-day challenges that do not actually require my involvement. It happens most often when all I have is a static status update. When an objective is marked Behind or At Risk, my reaction is to ask what I can do to help or how serious the issue might be.
We see so many organizations rely on simple status indicators like green, yellow, or red updates that lack the context leaders need. Without narrative or data, these updates become subjective and leave too much room for interpretation.
This is when leadership meetings turn into roll-call sessions. Leaders go around the room sharing status updates like “On pace. We had a strong week with good pipeline movement.” These updates are not strategic. They do not require group discussion and they rarely change the way the team works.
A more effective approach is to capture these updates along with additional context in a report that everyone can review before the meeting. When leaders arrive with a shared understanding of what is working and what is not, the meeting can focus on areas where intervention is needed.
With Strategy Advisor, we are making this even easier. AI can help surface risks earlier. It can highlight dependencies and summarize outcomes. It gives leaders a chance to be proactive instead of reactive, which is where Strategy and Operations leaders can have a significant impact.
When Strategy and Operations leaders help CEOs stay focused on addressing the right priorities and creating action, the organization becomes far more effective.
Closing Reflection
Strategy and Operations leaders play a critical role in connecting long-term vision with day-to-day execution. Their ability to channel the CEO’s energy and direct it to the right places is both a skill and a responsibility.
Most CEOs have the best intentions. They want the organization to move quickly and stay aligned. But without the right support and structure, the same energy that inspires the team can also create confusion or unnecessary urgency.
When a CEO’s energy is directed well, it creates momentum. When it is not, it creates noise.
At Elate, we want to support the leaders who are building that bridge between vision and execution. Strategy Advisor is designed to be a thought partner in that process, but even more importantly, we want to help leaders create clarity and alignment across their organizations. If you are working through similar challenges or would like a sounding board, I am always happy to connect.
Have a great rest of your week,
- Brooks
