Unusually Excellent: The Necessary Nine Skills Required for the Practice of Great Leadership

Chapter 5. LEADING STRATEGY: Ideas to Plans

What's the use in running if you are on the wrong road?

—German proverb

All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.

—Sun Tzu

Strategy is a word that we hear used often—mostly in a casual and imprecise manner, as shorthand for explaining that we have a thoughtful, measured attack plan to solve day-to-day problems. We have strategies for everything—from finding the best price on orange juice or airline tickets to getting home at a reasonable hour in the rush hour commute. And our use of this concept, as a part of the modern social discourse, is generally correct—for our proposed method to get something done—something we care about ...