A leader explains why he spent years focused on strategy before realizing workplace culture actually determines whether people can execute it. Curiosity and strong connections between team members matter more than the plan itself.
See, I had been clueless and unaware of the impact that connections and culture had on the strategy that I was trying to implement. My Achilles heel as a leader, the thing that I was painfully unaware of, is the importance of curiosity and connections in building a team culture. Now, I'm not suggesting that strategy is unimportant. Strategy is what I had always focused on. Strategy was the thing that I had invested most of my early career on. But strategy is what you want to get done. Culture, that is what determines how well your people do it.
