Clarity Where It Counts - What the Best Leaders Do When Strategy Starts to Drift
- Peter McLean
- Jul 30
- 4 min read
By Peter McLean Keynote Speaker | Strategic Advisor | Creator of Lead With CLARITY™
“You were World-Class Wow!” — James Watson, Managing Director, President PMIWA
Strategy rarely fails suddenly with fireworks and explosions. It fades. It drifts. It becomes the oh-so eloquent term, “meh.” And by the time you feel it, it’s already affecting performance, energy, and trust. It's not lining up. Not delivering. And nobody is enthused. The plane launched towards a great destination, but is slowly drifting towards nowhere before crashing and burning.
You start off with excitement. Everyone makes plans. You set up the messaging. The people are capable. Perhaps for a while, things start to happen. Yet despite that, the outcomes don't begin to translate. Engagement becomes inconsistent. The culture and the strategy, for all its promise, has started to feel brittle.
This is the moment when many leaders tell themselves it’s just temporary. They double down on execution, call another meeting, or wait for the quarter to end.
But great leaders - the kind that recalibrate systems, teams, and themselves - stop and ask a different question:
“Where, exactly, have we drifted, and how am I contributing to it?”
That's clarity where it counts.
You Don’t Need More Complexity, You Need a Clearer Lens
Over the past year, I've seen leaders across government departments, healthcare systems, logistics, manufacturing - you name it - executives who weren’t lacking capability, authority, or intent, but who are deeply concerned about their results and direction. What they are lacking is a clear read on why the traction they expected has gone missing.
One Director-General said:
“I think the strategy’s solid. But what’s being said in rooms I’m not in? I feel like I’m solving problems I shouldn’t need to solve anymore.”
That kind of invisible stall doesn’t start with incompetence. It starts when leadership clarity is no longer active in the day-to-day.
And you may not notice it at first. But then, gradually:
The middle tier stops challenging assumptions
Frontline leaders begin editing what they say to you
Priorities shift in subtle ways that never quite get named
And you're left holding a well-written strategy with declining cultural grip.
The Character of Clarity
One of the principles I teach in the Lead With CLARITY™ model is this:
“Courage to Challenge”
And I don’t just mean challenging others. I mean challenging yourself.
You need to challenge your own assumptions, your own language, your own level of clarity. And that includes in how the strategy itself has been constructed.
You see, good strategy is not a plan. It's an approach as you fly on your path.
Strategy should determine:
your Attitude (think aeronautics),
Power (your resources),
Altitude (where you are working and playing), and
Destination (your ultimate purpose).
Strategy therefore directs your decisions and work - and those of leaders across the organisation - every day.
Unfortunately, many senior leaders:
Mistake a Strategic Plan (which is an oxymoron) for Strategy
Don't maintain appropriate altitude, direction and power
Grow incrementally tolerant of inconsistency
Mistake activity for traction
Let their calendar speak louder than their intent
When that happens, you’re making strategic decisions from inside the fog. It's like trying to fly through that fog without the instrumentation and capability. And people can feel it, even if they don’t name it.
If That’s You, You’re Not Alone
You might be running a hospital system, leading a cross-jurisdictional reform, or transforming a logistics network.
You’re under pressure - political, operational, relational - and likely shouldering more ambiguity than most people realise.
So let me speak to you, not your role:
If the system isn’t performing at the level you know it could — don’t start with redesign. Start with clarity.
Not a rebrand. Not another engagement survey. Not another re-workshopped Vision, Mission, Values statement. I mean the kind of clarity that calibrates decision, behaviour, and culture.
I mean the kind of clarity that lives in:
What you model under pressure
What you interrupt when misalignment creeps in
What your people believe is safe to say and safe to do
So, What Now?
So, here is something practical you can do, right now. Try this:
Take just 30 minutes to stop everything and map where your strategic clarity has slipped. Write it out. On paper. Make it black and white. You can't argue with that. And don't note it in vague ambiguities. Use concrete examples - things you can see, hear and touch.
Ask one trusted team member what people are NOT saying around you. What are they really saying? And don't then argue with what they say. Have the "Courage to Challenge" what you THINK is or should be happening and what they SHOULD be saying, with what they are ACTUALLY feeling, doing and sharing.
Reconnect with your real purpose within the system you’re navigating, not just administrating. Don’t wait for the next quarterly review. Start connecting with the people, processes and production that is actually occurring. Not what the paper is telling you. See it. Touch it. Hear it. Smell it. Know for sure where you are heading vs where you want to be heading.
Let’s Talk - No Pressure, Just Clarity
If any part of this resonates, even if you’re unsure what next step to take, reach out.
I work quietly and confidentially with senior leaders and teams under pressure: to restore clarity, recalibrate behaviour and ensure strategy delivers in the real-world.
Whether you’re exploring a keynote, executive coaching, trusted advisory, or embedded strategic support, my purpose is to meet your needs to ensure you arrive at your best destination.
Contact me now for a 20-minute no-obligation Discovery Call where we'll help you gain clarity.
Let’s make sure your leadership clarity is exactly where it counts most.
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