You Don’t Need a New Strategy — You Need Follow-Through
Part 2 in the “Strategy Without Illusion” series
The moment targets are missed, someone suggests a new strategy.
It’s a familiar pattern. Q1 slips. Q2 disappoints. Performance wobbles, and suddenly the conversation turns to reinvention. New models. New messaging. A new direction of travel.
But in most cases, what’s needed isn’t a new strategy. It’s execution. It’s clarity. It’s focus.
What’s missing is follow-through.
When Reinvention Becomes a Reflex
Changing strategy can feel like decisive leadership. It creates activity. It signals ambition. And it gives everyone something to believe in again.
But often, it’s just a distraction. A way of avoiding the hard conversations about what hasn’t been delivered, or where accountability has drifted. Shiny new direction. Same lack of follow-through.
There’s a difference between a bad strategy and a neglected one. Most businesses don’t fail because their strategy was fundamentally wrong, they fail because they couldn’t execute on it. And rather than facing that, they pivot.
That’s not to say a strategy can’t or shouldn’t be re-energised. In many cases, it was never truly launched. The team never saw it as their own. That’s why part of the work is turning the existing strategy into a ‘see-through vision’, something every person in the business can understand and connect with. If people can’t see themselves in the plan, they won’t move in sync with it.
Why It Keeps Happening
One reason is psychological. Abandoning the old plan feels easier than confronting where it’s gone off course. It feels like progress, even if it’s really just avoidance.
Another reason is cultural. Teams are praised for fresh thinking, not disciplined delivery. Boards reward vision, not routine. And strategy becomes a theatre, not a tool.
The third reason is leadership avoidance. When objectives drift and results disappoint, a reset is safer than reckoning.
The Role of the Touchline Leader
From the touchline, it’s easy to be seduced by the appeal of the new. But the real value lies in holding the line, not changing it.
The best non-execs and portfolio leaders know when to ask:
- Did the last strategy really fail?
- Or did we simply not follow through?
- Have we created the conditions for consistent delivery?
- Is this pivot really about progress — or comfort?
This isn’t about stifling change. It’s about calling time on the illusion that momentum equals impact. That new ideas fix what unfinished ones couldn’t.
Touchline leadership means holding space for the team to finish what they started, and only changing course when the road itself has genuinely changed.
“Every battle is won before it’s ever fought.” — Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Great outcomes don’t depend on reinvention. They depend on doing the hard, often invisible, work of delivering what you said you would.
Follow-Through Is a Culture
Good execution isn’t about micromanagement. It’s about rhythm, discipline, and visibility. It’s knowing what we said we’d do, and being reminded of it often enough to stay honest.
Strategy needs rituals. Weekly check-ins. Clear owners. Focused updates. Quiet accountability. Not more meetings, just better ones.
One of the advantages of the one-page mission sheet I use is that it becomes a living, breathing part of how the business runs. It’s embedded in weekly and monthly rhythms, not stored away. When used properly, it acts as a leadership aide-mémoire. A simple, visible guide to what matters now, what’s progressing, and where course correction might be needed. (I first introduced this tool in “Why Most Board-Approved Plans Never Deliver.”)
As an interim, much of my work is about galvanising teams behind the plan. Most of the businesses I step into have good people, the issue isn’t capability. It’s that they haven’t been unified into a coherent, effective unit. Too often, people across the business aren’t even sure what the senior team expects of them. That’s why my leadership style has always been: Mission Focused, People Oriented.
That’s the culture the best leaders set. And it’s often the missing link between a good plan and real progress.
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