Volkmar Völzke's BLOG

Do you always fully implement your business strategies? My experience shows: hardly anyone manages to do that.

And I'm not talking about deliberately interrupting the implementation because important parameters have shifted.

No, I'm talking about the fact that you and the leadership team really want to implement the strategy, but it's still not progressing properly.

This does not only waste valuable resources. No, you also lose time and, most importantly, it frustrates people.

There are various companies where the lack of strategy implementation has already become a habit. "This too shall pass" is a typical statement from the people who are supposed to be driving the implementation.

Why is this so difficult? Why do important strategic decisions too often fall by the wayside and opportunities go unused?

Here are the three most important levers you need to operate, from my experience, if you want to implement your strategies and reap full benefits:

1. Involve people. The mistake is made...

There are so many myths and methods surrounding the topic of "strategy" that it is a real challenge for any CEO or division head to keep track of the essentials.

If I ask three CEOs what they want to achieve with a strategy - in other words, why they need one - I get at least four different answers. In other words, it's often not clear what makes a good strategy in the first place.

The result: countless folders and file servers full of presentations and documents that all contain some kind of detail, but often do not add up to a consistent whole.

If you then try to roll out such a "strategy", it usually gets stuck at the first contact with the team - i.e. those who have to drive the implementation for the most part.

From my experience, there are three important characteristics that distinguish a strong strategy from a mediocre or useless one:

1. Ambition. I always say, "If you want to improve just a little, you don't need a strategy, you need a plan." One doesn't have much to do with...

There are insights in leadership and success science that are not devalued by the fact that they are sometimes overused. On the contrary, these levers of success remain true and effective, no matter how often they are applied.

"Empowerment" is one of them, as is "vision." Today, we're talking about the latter. Vision is your clear picture of the ideal future you want to create.

The longer I coach top leaders and support teams on their path to top performance, the more I see the importance of a clear vision. Often, however, it is completely missing or designed in a way that defeats its purpose. 

Here are the top three reasons why you always need a strong vision:

1. Focus of Energy. A large part of outstanding success comes from using your energy - and that of your team - in the most focused way possible. But that focus can only be established if you know exactly where you want to go. Without a clear vision, energy is directed at too many different issues and gets wasted.
2. Clarity...

Every week I send out an issue of the Friday Noon Memo to ambitious people - and I've been doing it for 600 weeks!

That's an impressive number. And it confirms one of my principles for success: Consistency and follow-through are an essential foundation for success.

Here are three of the memos from the past years. Enjoy reading, watching and applying!

Is your company exciting or perfect?

One of the thought models I use with leadership teams is the typical business development curve between the two dimensions “Enthusiasm” and “Perfection”. The typical life cycle of any business starts out with high enthusiasm and high imperfection of anything they do. Read more

Among friends

Do you feel like being among friends at work? Otherwise success potentials will be neglected!  Read more

The amazing differences

Most people never look beyond their own beliefs and experiences. Here are three ideas about what you can do for you and your team to...

Do you also get upset about drivers who do not accelerate on the acceleration lane of the highway? It happens from time to time and it is irritating and even dangerous.

Well, the same behavior is exhibited by many leaders when it comes to acceleration in business. By this I mean, of course, picking up full speed at the beginning of the year, but also accelerating strongly when implementing any strategies, launching initiatives, personal development and so on.

From my experience, generating high momentum quickly is one of the most important success factors in life as well as in business.

As success guru Tony Robbins so beautifully puts it, "Make a clear decision, establish the powerful why, and then take MASSIVE action immediately!"

Here are three key barriers that often keep us from accelerating:

1. Contentment. After all, I keep emphasizing that high satisfaction is not a good condition for outstanding success. Contentment makes you sluggish. Everyone knows this about themselves....

The beginning of a new year is an artificially defined milestone we love to take as a trigger for a new start. Energy flows where the focus goes, and in this sense, it is good to have a focus on making this New Year a successful one. 

However, much of the energy and many of our hopes and plans of the early days of the year quickly vanish.

The root cause is that success comes from repetition, perseverance and courage, not from a fierce, yet short fire. 

So the question is: what can we do to kickstart the New Year in a way that makes it a lasting success, in your business and for yourself? Here are 3 answers: 

1. Define the ONE big goal you MUST achieve within 12 months, both for business and your private life. Be ambitious and specific. Maybe you want to triple your revenue. Or sell your company. Or get married (again). Or relocate to the country of your dreams. Write these goals down.
2. Define three areas you need to change substantially to achieve this big goal. If you...

Have you arrived well in the new year? I hope so!

And what do you do at the beginning of a new year? That's right: you take on a lot of things, of which you only implement a little later. That's not what we want to do here - namely, by focusing on foundations instead of actions.

Here's my suggestion to help you make 2021 an incredibly successful year for your family, your team, your customers and you:

1. Establish guiding stars. By this I don't mean simply "goals," but your emotional anchor point in the future. I recommend that everyone define a guiding star for the next 12-36 months. What do you long for, in your personal life and in business? What would make you absolutely happy? The guiding star can consist of several different themes. The important thing is that it is emotionally charged. And that it is ambitious. So, go ahead: write and draw!
2. Determine new ways of thinking. How do you need to think differently to get closer to the guiding star? Yes, that's right: You have to...

Now, there are only a few days left until the turn of the year. As you get older, you're almost inclined to think "again?" Wasn't the last one just recently?

And what do you do before the turn of the year? That's right: you reflect on the past 12 months. I'd like to do that briefly here, too, by pointing out three of my blog posts that, from my perspective (and from the perspective of my readers), got to the heart of things particularly well.

So here are my three favorites to reread and ponder:

The amazing differences

Most people never look beyond their own beliefs and experiences. Here are three ideas about what you can do for you and your team to counter the danger of mental inbreeding. Read more

Emotion Eats Logic for Breakfast

We make all decisions one hundred percent emotionally. You can use the underlying mechanisms in a positive way for your business and leadership at any time if you want to get people to act. Read more

How courageous are you?...

When does the decline of a company begin? When the focus shifts from opportunities to problems. From attack to defense. From growth to maintaining the status quo.

That's why my latest publication in the Swiss magazine Organizer revolves around the necessary leap in growth. You can request the PDF of the article here (only in German).

It has always been true that those with more success and more influence have a distinct growth mindset and act accordingly. It is a well-known law of nature that what does not grow dies.

However, a good business with loyal customers does not simply disappear from the market. It can even work very profitably for a long time. But my point is this: this strategy is highly risky and is becoming even more so in today's world. If you play the hold game, you are exposed to greater pressure in every respect, from the sales market to the labor market.

And even more important: with low growth, you miss out on huge opportunities.

The good news is that almost...

I am currently working on a global leadership and cultural change project with a major client. One of the goals: massive increase in sales with rising profitability - and all this in highly competitive markets.

The key to this lies not only in innovation and processes, but also - above all - in people's minds. In other words, people tend to stand in their own way with their current beliefs. (Doesn't this somehow seem familiar in your own life?)

From my point of view, the remarkable insight is the following: Many people in worldwide organizations love change. As soon as they are credibly encouraged to do so, the suggestions and ideas for sometimes substantial changes (especially in their own sphere of influence) bubble out of them.

It sometimes seems to me as if we have lifted the cap of the famous genie’s bottle: Once it is outside, it does not want to go back in.

Now, of course, such a change does not happen "just like that," but you have to move important levers. Here are...